EVIDENCE-BASED HR WHAT IS IT AND IS IT REALLY HAPPENING YET? Rob B Briner

Transcription

1 CEBMa center for Evidence-Based Management EVIDENCE-BASED HR WHAT IS IT AND IS IT REALLY HAPPENING YET? Rob B Briner 1

2 Most stff available 2 2

3 Objectives What is evidence-based practice in HR? Why all practitioners need evidence-based practice How evidence-based is HR? Mini case of how evidence-based approaches can lead to more effective decisions 3 3

4 What is evidence-based practice for? To help with this big problem: Practitioners in all fields se evidence (or information) in their decision-making BUT the evidence sed is often limited Not enogh of it Not from/of mltiple and diverse sorces/types Not critically appraised for its qality or relevance Not sed in a systematic way (e.g., not focsing on the best available evidence, not weighting, not smmarized) 4 4

5 The logic of evidence-based practice Using limited qantities, sorces, and types of evidence in an ncritical and nsystematic way will increase the chances of poor decision processes and nintended otcomes Using greater qantities, sorces and types of evidence in a critical and systematic way will increase the chances of better decision processes and intended otcomes 5 5

6 What is it EBMgt? Evidence-based practice is abot making decisions throgh the conscientios, explicit and jdicios se of the best available evidence from mltiple sorces by 1. Asking: translating a practical isse or problem into an answerable qestion 2. Acqiring: systematically searching for and retrieving the evidence 3. Appraising: critically jdging the trstworthiness and relevance of the evidence 4. Aggregating: weighing and plling together the evidence 5. Applying: incorporating the evidence in the decision-making process 6. Assessing: evalating the otcome of the decision taken to increase the likelihood of a favorable otcome. 6 6

7 What is EBMgt? Making decisions throgh the conscientios (yo try hard, yo are systematic) explicit (yo write down, show and share yor evidence) and jdicios (yo jdge the qality of the evidence) se of the best available evidence from mltiple sorces (not jst one or two) 7 7

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9 Example: Evidence-Based Performance Management Sppose a senior manager believes that there is a problem with low employee performance in the organization They believe the employees cold perform better 9 9

10 Example: Evidence-Based Performance Management Element 1: Professional expertise Why do I and my experienced colleages think there is low employee performance? Have I seen this before? What happened? What are my personal beliefs abot the cases of low performance? What s worked to improve performance in the past and why? What are my hnches? What do I think are the cases and possible soltions? Is this sitation occrring elsewhere? How relevant and applicable is my experience? 10 10

11 11 11 Example: Evidence-Based Performance Management Element 2: Organizational data What actally is the performance level? What type of poor performance and where? What are local explanations for poor performance? What performance management is crrently in place and is it working? What do managers think is happening? What are the possible costs and benefits of interventions? Is it worth intervening here? What is happening or what is going to happen that might be affecting performance?

12 12 12 Example: Evidence-Based Performance Management Element 3: Scientific research findings What are the average levels of employee performance in my sector and location is the performance level really low? What does systematically reviewed research evidence sggest to be the major cases of poor performance? How relevant and applicable is that evidence here? What does research evidence from systematic reviews sggest as effective interventions to increase employee performance? How well might the interventions the research describes work here?

13 Example: Evidence-Based Performance Management Element 4: Stakeholders vales and concerns How do employees feel abot their work performance? What do employees feel abot the proposed interventions? Do they see downsides or nintended negative conseqences? How do managers feel abot the performance interventions? How practical do those responsible for implementing the interventions feel they are? What alternative explanations and proposed soltions for poor performance do others have? 13 13

14 Why is it a particlar problem in HR? It may not be bt management and HR has come very late to evidence-based practice The concept is not well-known or nderstood by organizations, managers or management schools It seems that mch HR practice is dominated by fads and fashions not into basing decisions on good qality evidence from mltiple sorces applies soltions withot identifying problems HR is not alone in this 14 14

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24 Why do we need it? Becase or decisions strongly shaped by Strong beliefs which don t seem to be tre General cognitive biases that limit decisionmaking and jdgement Management fads, fashions and qick fixes Power and politics that determine seniority Consltants/advisors/fad vendors 24 24

25 The dangers of holding strong beliefs if they aren t qite right It ain't what yo don't know that gets yo into troble. It's what yo know for sre that jst ain't so. (Mark Twain) The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illsion of knowledge (Stephen Hawking) Ignorance is fine false beliefs not so 25 25

26 Some examples What s happened to average job tenre in the past 10 years? Up? Down? Stayed same? Job satisfaction in past 15 years? Up? Down? Stayed same? World moving faster more VUCA (volatility, ncertainty, complexity and ambigity)? Faster? Slower? Same? Generational differences in work attitdes? Large? Small? None? 26 26

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30 More VUCA? 30 30

31 Economist: Creed of Speed December 2015 The idea that time is speeding p is clearly poplar. It is also plasible. There is jst one problem. It is very hard to prove that it is actally happening. Hard evidence of a great acceleration is hard to come by. The Economist has considered a variety of measres by which the speed of bsiness in America can be qantified. A few do show some acceleration. Bt a lot do not

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33 Generational differences in work attitdes? 33 33

34 Employee engagement: What do we know for sre that jst ain't so? 1. Engagement is clearly defined 2. There are valid and reliable measres of engagement 3. Engagement is different from previos concepts (e.g., satisfaction, commitment) 4. There plenty of good qality evidence that demonstrates vale of engagement Increases in engagement > increases in performance Engagement interventions > increases in engagement > increases in performance 5. Claims made abot the importance and role of engagement are reasonable and accrate 34 34

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37 Cognitive biases A bat and ball cost one pond and ten pence. The bat costs a pond more than the ball. How mch does the ball cost? 37 37

38 Error and biases in problem-solving and decision-making some examples Confirmation bias: Tendency to interpret and search for information consistent with one s prior beliefs Hindsight bias: Tendency to see past events as being more predictable than they were before the event occrred Loss aversion: Tendency to prefer avoiding losses than to acqiring gains Anchoring effect: Tendency to rely too heavily or overemphasize one piece of information (e.g., restarant wine lists, large redctions in price in sales) Framing effect: Drawing different conclsions from exactly the same information presented in different ways (e.g., wold yo prefer a ready meal that s 85% fat free or 15% fat?) Meta-cognitive bias: The belief we are immne from sch biases 38 38

39 Evidence-based practice can help becase it s abot the conscientios, explicit, and jdicios se of different sorces of information 39 39

40 Example fads and fashions Bsiness process re-engineering Total qality management Qality circles Talent management Lean Otsorcing 40 40

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46 Fad and fashion article titles: Miller et al (2004) Stage 1 - Ascendancy: Total Qality: Wave of the Ftre, Reengineering: It s Totally Radical, Welcome to the Revoltion, The Promise of Reengineering, How to Work Wonders, Completely. Stage 2 Matrity: Reengineering: The Hot New Managing Tool, The Reengineering Rage, Warning: This Good Idea May Become a Fad, Reengineering: Beyond the Bzzword. Stage 3 Decline: Ten Reasons Why TQM Doesn't Work, TQM: The Mystiqe, the Mistakes, The Hocs-Pocs of Reengineering, Why TQM Fails and What to Do Abot It

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48 Related concept of the qick fix Focs on style and presentation not content or process Not be evalated Not be as qick as had been hoped Not be effective so followed by another qick fix Become sbject to organizational amnesia* Can be career-enhancing for managers (e.g., isse selling, kick-ass CEOs) *Kitchen eqipment analogy 48 48

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50 So why are fads and fashions and qick fixes followed? Promise to deliver a lot and fast Appear simple New and shiny Will make everything alright Help contain anxieties arond intractable problems Help ser feel effective and ctting edge Seems very hman to want to find qick, easy answers that other people are adopting too Evidence-based management not really mch of a fad, fashion or qick fix sing these criteria 50 50

51 Evidence-based practice can help becase it s abot the conscientios, explicit, and jdicios se of different sorces of information 51 51

52 Power and politics as barriers to evidence-based management How do people really get ahead and into positions of power? Is it by being experts in and advocates of evidence-based management? 52 52

53 Esposed and implicit goals of managers that deter them from EBP ESPOUSED GOALS To do what works (bt few evalations) To help organization flfil its mission To identify and solve important problems To do what matters Treating everyone eqally Speak trth to power(?) IMPLICIT GOALS To get things done To frther career To avoid troble To fix political or presenting problems To meet targets To do what gets measred Favor those who help advance personal goals Say what higher-ps want to hear 53 53

54 Evidence-based practice can (maybe) help becase it s abot the conscientios, explicit, and jdicios se of different sorces of information 54 54

55 What are the incentives for fad-selling consltancies to be evidence-based? Get the work, get more work, and keep getting work (so depends almost entirely on what clients want) Persade (may not take mch) clients they need some new thing, idea, techniqe, approach Sell them the relevant prodct or service or intervention based on that idea, techniqe or approach Satrate the market ntil everyone s boght it Invent or borrow new ideas, techniqes and approaches clients do not yet se Sell them the relevant prodct or service or intervention Repeat 55 55

56 So why do managers and HR need evidence-based management? Becase their decisions are shaped by Strong beliefs which may not be tre General cognitive biases that limit decisionmaking and jdgement Management fads, fashions and qick fixes Power and politics that determine seniority Consltants/advisors/fad vendors 56 56

57 Is there sch a thing as evidence-based is HR? 57 57

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62 How evidence-based is HR? Evidence is always sed bt Too mch reliance on Professional expertise Benchmarking/copying Fads and fashions Analytics alone HR professional training does not spport evidence-based practice Do HR teams have the capability? 62 62

63 Mini-case: Risk cltre in global bank Managers believed serios errors cased by poor risk cltre Reglator reqired banks to do something arond risk cltre What evidence was collected? What other evidence cold have been sed? 63 63

64 64 64 Scientific literatre empirical stdies Practitioners professional expertise problem Ask Acqire Appraise Aggregate Apply Assess soltion Organization internal data Stakeholders vales and concerns

65 What evidence was collected? Some stakeholder evidence (managers and reglators) No scientific evidence Limited professional expertise Little analysis of organizational data (thogh mch available) 65 65

66 What was done? Interviews/working grops arond the world (abot 80) Did not ask whether there was a problem or what that problem might be Asked participants what they thoght a sond risk cltre looked like (assmption) From this developed a srvey and framework not psychometrically sond not properly validated So what wold a more evidence-based approach be? 66 66

67 What organizational data cold have been collected? A thorogh analysis of the types and freqency of errors being made A jdgement of the qality of the available organizational data An analysis of other data that might help explain the cases of errors (e.g., location, managers, shift, employee training, age, etc) 67 67

68 What scientific evidence cold have been collected? What is known, generally, abot why errors are made? What is nmber one case? Concept of risk cltre not really known general view that cltre is not something that can be measred (no validated srveys) and little agreement on meaning However, concept of safety climate well known: Free to se well-validated qestionnaires links to errors across indstries (e.g., aviation, medicine, oil, etc) 68 68

69 Qestions already raised in indstry abot risk cltre concept McKinsey (2008) analyzed the 'risk cltre' at Goldman Sachs: A model for all firms were the firm to stmble it wold not be for the lack of a powerfl risk-informed cltre that combines intelligence, discipline and common sense". 2010, Goldman Sachs > the largest penalty ever for a Wall Street firm at the time (500 mil), in a settlement with the SEC concerning misleading "investors in a sbprime mortgage prodct jst as the U.S. hosing market was starting to collapse" (Secrities Exchange Commission 2010)

70 What stakeholder evidence cold have been collected? A closer examination of what the reglators actally wanted A clearer analysis of what senior managers really felt the problem to be A critical appraisal of the qality of this evidence and what cold be taken from it 70 70

71 How cold an evidence-based approach help More evidence sed to provide a stronger analysis of the problem More evidence from a range of sorces abot a range of possible soltions A critical analysis of that information Greater learning for the organization A soltion that s more likely to work 71 71

72 Disadvantages of EBMgt Challenges beliefs, prejdices and pet projects Reqires more effortfl critical thinking Reqires collecting and sing more data (of different types from different sorces) Makes it hard to follow fads Challenge to athority and power based on hierarchy or becase I say so or JFDI or HiPPO Redces action-orientation of management where doing stff more important than doing stff that works 72 72

73 Advantages of EBMgt All the disadvantages also advantages Challenges beliefs, prejdices and pet projects Reqires more effortfl critical thinking Reqires collecting and sing more data (of different types from different sorces) Makes it hard to follow fads Challenge to athority and power based on hierarchy or becase I say so or JFDI or HiPPO Redces action-orientation of management where doing stff more important than doing stff that works Develops deeper knowledge and nderstanding (of organizational and other data) Develops essential skills More likely to do stff that will lead the otcomes yo want 73 73

74 It s a sort of choice How do yo personally want to practice as a professional? How wold yo like yor skills, knowledge and effectiveness to develop over the corse of career? How wold yo like yor team to develop its capabilities and fnction to help the organization meet its objectives? 74 74

75 How to become a little more evidencebased Check or CEBMa website Accept or ignorance and limits of all forms of knowledge and evidence and experience Allow yorself to think and say the three hardest words in management 75 75

76 I don t know Bt I know how to find ot Evidence-Based Management 76 76

77 Thank yo Thoghts, comments, criticisms, etc? 77 77