A reflection and integration of workforce conceptualisations and measurements for competitive advantage

Abstract

Workforce management is important in organisational performance. However,executives lament that their workforce management efforts remain ineffective. This comes asno surprise, as workforce measurement poses a challenge for several reasons: the many differentconceptualisations of the workforce, which developed in parallel, and flawed workforceanalytics, hence inadequate workforce intelligence, are among the most significant. To have theright people available requires timely and accurate information and intelligence to makeevidence-based decisions. In order to achieve this proper measurement is required, which formspart of the information system that ensures the availability of the right people, at the rightplace, at the right time. People measurement/metrics, is a neglected area of research, which isreceiving increased attention. Though little, if any, attention is devoted to the link betweenpeople as dimension of competitive advantage and metrics to ensure the availability of the rightpeople, at the right place at the right time. Our conceptual paper attends to this omission byreflecting on the different conceptualisations of ‘workforce’ by integrating the diverse andfragmented literature, which has not been done before, and linking it with workforcemeasurement. In so doing, we provide a more comprehensive understanding of ‘workforce’ andworkforce measurement, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy to secure acompetitive advantage and, thus, organisational performance. We also propose an integratedframework to measure and manage the workforce. It transpired that of the many tools available,predictive analytics emerged as the most effective means to measure and manage the workforcesuccessfully. Our paper benefits both academics and practitioners as theoretical ambiguitiesand tensions are clarified while ensuring the availability of the requisite workforce.