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The purpose of the paper is to explore the meaning of Human Resources (HR) analytics and introduce the HR analytics cycle as a proactive and systematic process for ethically gathering, analyzing, communicating and using evidence-based HR research and analytical insights to help organizations achieve their strategic objectives.

Conceptual review of the current state and meaning of HR analytics. Using the HR analytics cycle as a framework, the authors describe a seven-step process for building evidence-based and ethical HR analytics capabilities.

HR analytics is a nascent discipline and there are a multitude of monikers and competing definitions. With few exceptions, these definitions lack emphasis on evidence-based practice (i.e. the use of scientific research findings in adopting HR practices), ethical practice (i.e. ethically gathering and using HR data and insights) and the role of broader HR research and experimentation. More importantly, there are no practical models or frameworks available to help guide HR leaders and practitioners in doing HR analytics work.

The HR analytics cycle encompasses a broader range of HR analytics practices and data sources including HR research and experimentation in the context of social, behavioral and organizational science.

This paper introduces the HR analytics cycle as a practical seven-step approach for making HR analytics work in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the adoption of strengths‐focused human resources (HR) can deliver measurable business returns, from hard results such as increased revenues and reduced costs, to “lead” indicators of future success: for example better customer engagement, improved morale, discretionary effort and personal wellbeing. The author, from specialist provider, Strengths Partnership, aims to explain how to identify and extract the “strengths DNA” from each individual and to build a convincing business case for the use of strengths, in all its different contexts, within the workplace.

The central methodology in this paper is extracted from Strengths Partnership's leading Strengthscope assessment tool, designed to help individuals understand their standout strengths; the unintended consequences that may arise when strengths go into overdrive; the extent to which they are able to productively apply their strengths at work; and how visible their strengths are to others. The information is based on seven years of research conducted by Strengths Partnership into identifying, optimizing and developing strengths in organizations, supported by a growing body of published research and literature in positive psychology and strengths‐based approaches to organizational effectiveness.

If they can surmount the challenge of how to embed this approach into their HR life cycle and core HR activities, organizations will see a major paradigm shift from an emphasis on fixing weaknesses to one that encourages a person's natural energies and inclinations in the pursuit of success.

HR and learning and development professionals need a different set of principles and tools to get the most out of the strengths approach and to ensure it becomes part of the organization's DNA. Without these, the approach is unlikely to deliver real value beyond the initial feel‐good factor that invariably arises during an initial strengths training program.

More research and tool development is needed in this area; however the ideas and approaches in this article will help to embed the strengths approach throughout the employee life cycle – from hiring and selection, through team development, development and culture change.

The reliability of 0·5 mm pitch, 208‐pin FQFP solder joints has been studied by experimental temperature cycling and 3‐D nonlinear finite element analysis. Temperature cycling results have been presented as a Weibull distribution. Thermal fatigue life of the solder joints has been estimated based on the calculated plastic strain and isothermal fatigue data on solders. A correlation between the experimental and analytical results has also been made.

Corrosion of steel plates of hulls and superstructures and in the tanks of oil tankers is one of the major problems facing the shipping industry. Epoxy resin‐based coatings are increasingly being used to counter corrosion in shipping, two recent examples being the hull coatings of the S.S. Oriana and the S.S. Canberra. The special requirements of the automobile industry for improved primers can also be met with the new formulations that are now possible. This article reviews some of the results obtained from the new formulations based on Epikote resins.

The purpose of this paper is to critically reflect on the pros and cons of using employee information in big data projects.

The authors reviewed papers in the area of big data that has immediate repercussions for the experiences of employees and employers.

The review of papers to date suggests that big data lessons based on employee data are still a relatively unknown area of employment literature. Particular attention is paid to discussion of employee rights, ethics, expectations and the implications employer conduct has on employment relationships and prospective benefits of big data analytics at work for work.

This viewpoint paper highlights the need for more discussion between employees and employers about the collection, use, storage and ownership of data in the workplace. A number of recommendations are put forward to support future data collection efforts in organisations.

ALTHOUGH the element silicon is second only to oxygen in order of abundance in the earth's crust the chemistry of its compounds and in particular of organo‐silicon compounds had developed but little before the turn of the century. It is true that the German chemist Friedel and his students Crafts and Ladenburg and later Polis prepared a few isolated organo‐silicon compounds during the latter half of the nineteenth century (1863–1886), but the land mark in this field is undoubtedly the classical work of Professor F. S. Kipping and his school at University College, Nottingham. This work extended over nearly forty years from 1899 to 1937 during which time a systematic study was made of this branch of chemistry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences in human resource (HR) practices between large and mid‐sized organizations.

With organization life cycle as the theoretical base, this study collects data on HR practices from a sample of mid‐sized firms in one western state and compares the results to a previously published study of HR practices in much larger firms. Mid‐sized firms are defined as having between 300 and 3,000 employees (mean=1,205); the average number of employees in the large firm sample was 30,700.

While there are some similarities in HR practices, it appears that HR organizations in large firms are more targeted at strategic business issues and have achieved a greater degree of outsourcing and/or information technology application for the routine, file maintenance aspects of HR work. On the other hand, HR informants in mid‐sized firms are more operationally focused, appear to be more satisfied with the skills and knowledge of their significantly smaller HR staffs, and give their HR organizations higher ratings on performance along multiple dimensions.

Limitations to the present study include the use of a single informant and a limited sample of mid‐sized firms (n=32). However, the study suggests numerous possibilities for future research, including expansion of the sample both in size and geographic scope, the collection of measures of performance for comparison with those of HR satisfaction, and fuller development of a set of expectations for HR focus dependent on the size and rate of growth of the organization.

The HR practices of large and small (less than 500 employees) firms have been studied in the past. This paper fills a gap in organization life cycle theory by examining HR practices in mid‐sized firms, suggesting in particular that the drive to refocus HR on strategic issues in large firms may be inappropriate in enterprises with 300 to 3,000 employees.

Competitiveness is a multidimensional construct, related to a number of external and internal company factors. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between the application of small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) compensation incentives as an index/element of human system development and competitiveness.

A unique primary data set drawn from the Global Competitiveness Project on SMEs’ competitiveness was analysed, using cross-sectional data of 784 firms. First, descriptive statistics were used to show the data set peculiarities. Second, a forward logistic regression was applied to show the effects on the application of compensation incentives. A 25.1% of explanatory power was found by targeting the application of compensation systems by 7 firm-level principal factors and 30 control variables.

The findings suggest that there is a higher chance of the application of compensation incentives in cases when the employees possess a more substantial tacit knowledge and formal and informal relationship networks. It is also positively impacted by the higher level of intra-company manifestation of knowledge.

The research was conducted among SMEs from eight countries, based on a unique questionnaire designed for small enterprises. The respective countries are from Europe and Latin America, which serve as a reference category for Hungary. Also, there is a high level of 0 answers for the involved variables. The binary logistic regression methodology is suitable for filtering out some of these; nevertheless, the proportion of uncertain factors remains high as it is indicated by the explanatory power.

The majority of the literature is dealing with large companies in the topic of competitiveness, whereas in this data set, a deeper analysis was carried out among SMEs from eight countries, comparing their results to the Hungarian ones. The findings can be used as reference points for future studies, and the understanding of the HR cycle within SMEs.