Choosing the right (HR) metrics: digital data for capturing team proactivity and determinants of content validity

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how positive organizational behaviors, specifically team proactivity, can be captured through digital data and what determines content validity of these data. The aim is to enable scientifically rigorous HR analytics projects for measuring and managing organizational behavior.Design/methodology/approachResults are derived from interview data (N = 24) with team members, HR professionals and consultants of HR software.FindingsBased on inductive qualitative content analysis, the authors clustered six data types generated/recorded by 13 different technological applications that were proposed to be informative of team proactivity. Four determinants of content validity were derived.Practical implicationsThe overview of technological applications and resulting data types can stimulate diverse HR analytics projects, which can contribute to organizational performance. The authors suggest ways to control for the threats to content validity in the design of HR analytics or research projects.Originality/valueHR analytics projects in the application field of managing organizational behavior are rare. This paper provides starting points for choosing data to measure team proactivity as one form of organizational behavior and guidelines for ensuring their validity.