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Chapter 2

Creating impact through evidence-based practice and innovation

Introduction

Having explored what motivates people and why it matters, we could be tempted to want to run off and change the world before breakfast. This chapter is an opportunity to step back and to reflect on how we might achieve that – in effect, a brief pause before we do in fact run off and change the world together. We will explore two key areas of work that will support us to create greater impact as HR functions. We want to create greater impact so that we shift our organisations toward being genuinely people-focused, but the topics we’ll explore will support you in achieving impact for any purpose. We will be exploring evidence-based practice in the workplace, and innovation as a skill, a value and a mechanism for change.

I will share the benefits of adopting ‘evidence-based practice’ in our work and will show how this need not be an onerous pursuit but has the potential to support better decision-making. I will raise awareness of the limitations of the beloved case study as a potential ‘evidence-base’, that is, ‘but it worked for them…’. And last, we’ll explore the role that innovation can and should play in driving our impact as an HR function. Innovation stretches the realms of what is possible in an organisation or for an individual, and a lack of innovation is what keeps some HR functions lagging behind as ‘personnel departments’ of yesteryear.

Introducing evidence-based practice as a no-brainer for the HR function

Decisions that can affect people and organisational decisions should not be based on guesswork or less than accurate data. We might invest a fortune in certain employee benefits or in employee bonuses, with no research to support these other than a ten-minute TED Talk and a brief Google search. So, we need to base our decisions on accurate data that we understand and need to ensure our decisions are also based on wider evidence. There are rarely silver bullets to solve our organisational problems, and however tempting it may be to rely on a shiny TED Talk or conference session to guide a ‘quick fix’, it will take a little more time and research to get to the right answer. This is where ‘evidence-based practice’ or seeking evidence to support our decisions, activities and interventions in Human Resources is hugely important to achieving any meaningful change.

The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) – we love it in HR, even if we’re not always sure of what we’re measuring, or perhaps why we’re doing so. I’m going to propose in this chapter that we in HR would benefit from stepping away from our scorecard, or management report, and taking some time to reflect on why we’re collecting this information. Or perhaps reflecting on how reliable or valid that data is; is it accurate, is it replicable and is it even measuring what we think it is? Many HR departments are hugely adept at HR analytics and rely on this data, and the data trends it supports, to inform their decision-making. As ever, it’s wonderful when it goes well or when people are doing it well, but I would suggest the majority of busy and potentially under-resourced HR departments continue to manually tot up their staff turnover, and not a great deal else, on an Excel spreadsheet, not quite knowing what any of the data is telling them. I share this because I’ve worked in enough of these departments and I won’t pretend that I swanned in and improved the situation.

Let me share a couple of recent examples to illustrate the importance of conducting evidence-based practice. Following an allegedly racially biased incident at one of their US stores, a large coffee chain promptly invested in a swathe of unconscious bias-training workshops for their staff. Was there time to consider if such workshops actually create behavioural change, and more so the behavioural change they were seeking? Probably not. Even when not faced with a large-scale PR issue, we readily move to ‘doing stuff’. If we’re paying for it, and someone is doing something, it’s got to be good. It reminds me of that old adage for beginner joggers, when they have a squeaky-clean gym kit but no concept of a training plan: ‘All the gear, but no idea.’ I’m not being unkind, I’ve been there. It’s also so easy to pick up the next exciting fad, in an effort to look cutting-edge. Cutting-edge needs to be more closely aligned to impact than idea for me. It’s quick and easy enough to access a range of attractive HR ‘solutions’ via a quick Google of our issue or problem or giving a call to any available external consultant. But there is something vital and also quite refreshing about putting Google aside for a moment and considering how we can support our decision-making minus all the fads, trends and cognitive biases on offer via an internet search. Whilst we bring our HR expertise into play to inform the final decision, regardless of the pull of the Google search results, ensuring we consider and conduct an exploration of the evidence-base for any HR solutions we find.