Evidence-based practice for effective decision-making

Effective HR decision-making is based on considering the best available evidence combined with critical thinking.

People professionals are faced with complex workplace decisions and need to understand ‘what works’ in order to influence organisational outcomes for the better.

Evidence-based practice helps them make better, more effective decisions by choosing reliable, trustworthy solutions and being less reliant on outdated received wisdom, fads or superficial quick fixes.

At the CIPD, we believe this is an important step for the people profession to take: our Profession Map describes a vision of a profession that is principles-led, evidence-based and outcomes-driven. Taking an evidence-based approach to decision-making can have a huge impact on the working lives of people in all sorts of organisations worldwide.

This factsheet outlines what evidence-based practice is and why it is so important, highlighting the four sources of evidence to draw on and combine to ensure the greatest chance of making effective decisions. It then looks to the steps we can take to move towards an evidence-based people profession.

On this page

• What is evidence-based practice?
• Why is evidence-based practice important?
• What evidence should we use?
• How can we move towards an evidence-based people profession?
• Useful contacts and further reading

At the heart of evidence-based practice is the idea that good decision-making is achieved through critical appraisal of the best available evidence from multiple sources. When we say ‘evidence’, we mean information, facts or data supporting (or contradicting) a claim, assumption or hypothesis. This evidence may come from scientific research, the local organisation, experienced professionals or relevant stakeholders. We use the following definition from CEBMa:

“Evidence-based practice is about making decisions through the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the best available evidence from multiple sources… to increase the likelihood of a favourable outcome.”

In search of best

The reasons why evidence-based practice is so important, the principles that underpin it, how it can be followed and how challenges in doing so can be overcome.

Information overload

In their report Evidence-based management: the basic principles, Eric Barends, Denise Rousseau and Rob Briner of CEBMa outline the challenge of biased and unreliable management decisions.

People professionals face all sorts of contradictory insights and claims about what works and what doesn’t in the workplace. As Daniel Levitin puts it:

"We're assaulted with facts, pseudo facts, jibber-jabber, and rumor, all posing as information. Trying to figure out what you need to know and what you can ignore is exhausting."

While assessing the reliability of evidence becomes more important as the mass of opinion grows, with such a barrage of information, we inevitably use mental shortcuts to make decisions easier and to avoid our brains overloading.

Unfortunately, this means we are prone to biases. Our reports a head for hiring and our minds at work outline the most common of these:

• Authority bias: the tendency to overvalue the opinion of a person or organisation that is seen as an authority
• Conformity bias: the tendency to conform to others in a group, also referred to as 'group think' or 'herd behaviour'
• Confirmation bias: looking to confirm existing beliefs when assessing new information
• Patternicity or the illusion of causality: the tendency to see patterns and assume causal relations by connecting the dots even when there is just random 'noise'.

So-called ‘best practice’

Received wisdom and the notion of ‘best practice’ also creates bias. One organisation may look to another as an example of sound practice and decision-making, without critically evaluating the effectiveness of their actions. And while scientific literature on key issues in the field is vital, there’s a gap between this and the perceptions of practitioners, who are often unaware of the depth of research available.

Cherry-picking evidence

Even when looking at research, we can be naturally biased. We have a tendency to ‘cherry-pick’ research that backs up a perspective or opinion and ignores research that does not, even if it gives stronger evidence on cause-and-effect relationships. This bad habit is hard to avoid – it's even common among academic researchers. So we need approaches that help us determine which research evidence we should trust.

Our ‘insight’ article When the going gets tough, the tough get evidence explains the importance of taking an evidence-based approach to decision making in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It emphasises and discusses how decision makers can and should become savvy consumers of research.

How can evidence-based practice help?

Our thought leadership article outlines the importance of evidence-based practice in more detail but, essentially, it has three main benefits:

1. It ensures that decision-making is based on fact, rather than outdated insights, short-term fads and natural bias.
2. It creates a stronger body of knowledge and as a result, a more trusted profession.
3. It gives more gravitas to professionals, leads to increased influence on other business leaders and has a more positive impact in work.

The four sources of evidence

The issues above demonstrate the limitations of basing decisions on limited, unreliable evidence. Before making an important decision or introducing a new practice, an evidence-based people professional should start by asking: "What is the available evidence?" As a minimum, people professionals should consider four sources of evidence.

• Scientific literature on people management has become more readily available in recent years, particularly on topics such as the recruitment and selection of personnel, the effect of feedback on performance and the characteristics of effective teams. People professionals’ ability to search for and appraise research for its relevance and trustworthiness is essential.
• Organisational data must be examined as it highlights issues needing a manager’s attention. This data can come externally from customers or clients (customer satisfaction, repeated business), or internally from employees (levels of job satisfaction, retention rates). There’s also the comparison between ‘hard’ evidence, such as turnover rate and productivity levels, and ‘soft’ elements, like perceptions of culture and attitudes towards leadership. Gaining access to organisational data is key to determining causes of problems, and finding and implementing solutions.
• Expertise and judgement of practitioners, managers, consultants and business leaders is important to ensure effective decision-making. This professional knowledge differs from opinion as it’s accumulated over time through reflection on outcomes of similar actions taken in similar contexts. It reflects specialised knowledge acquired through repeated experience of specialised activities.
• Stakeholders, both internal (employees, managers, board members) and external (suppliers, investors, shareholders), may be affected by an organisation’s decisions and their consequences. Their values reflect what they deem important, which in turn affects how they respond to the organisation’s decisions. Acquiring knowledge of their concerns provides a frame of reference for analysing evidence.

Combining the evidence

One very important element of evidence-based practice is collating evidence from different sources. There are six ways – depicted in our infographic below – which will encourage this:

1. Asking – translating a practical issue or problem into an answerable question.
2. Acquiring – systematically searching for and retrieving evidence.
3. Appraising – critically judging the trustworthiness and relevance of the evidence.
4. Aggregating – weighing and pulling together the evidence.
5. Applying – incorporating the evidence into a decision-making process.
6. Assessing – evaluating the outcome of the decision taken so as to increase the likelihood.

Through these six steps, practitioners can ensure the quality of evidence is not ignored. Appraisal varies depending on the source of evidence, but generally involves the same questions:

1. Where and how is evidence gathered?
2. Is it the best evidence available?
3. Is it sufficient to reach a conclusion?
4. Might it be biased in a particular direction? If so, why?

Evidence-based practice is about using the best available evidence from multiple sources to optimise decisions. Being evidence-based is not a question of looking for ‘proof’, as this is far too elusive. However, we can – and should – prioritise the most trustworthy evidence available. The gains in making better decisions on the ground, strengthening the body of knowledge and becoming a more influential profession are surely worthwhile.

To realise the vision of a people profession that’s genuinely evidence-based, we need to move forward on two fronts.

First, we need to make sure that the body of professional knowledge is evidence-based – the CIPD’s Evidence review hub is one way in which we are doing this.

Second, people professionals need to develop capacity in engaging with the best available evidence. Doing this as a non-researcher may feel daunting, but taking small steps towards more evidence-based decisions can make a huge difference. Our thought leadership article outlines a maturity model for being more evidence-based in more detail, but to summarise, we’d encourage people professionals to take the following steps:

1. Read research: engage with high-quality research on areas of interest through reading core textbooks and journals that summarise research.
2. Collect and analyse organisational data: in the long-term, developing analytical capability should be an aim for the people profession. More immediately, HR leaders should have some knowledge of data-analytics, enough to ask probing questions and make the case for the resources needed for robust measures.
3. Review published evidence, including conducting or commissioning short evidence reviews of scientific literature to inform decisions.
4. Pilot new practices: evaluate new interventions through applying the same principles used in rigorous cause-and-effect research.
5. Share your knowledge: strengthen the body of knowledge by sharing research insights at events or in publications.
6. Critical thinking: throughout this process, question assumptions and carefully consider where there are gaps in knowledge.

Developing this sort of capability is a long journey but one that people professionals should aspire to. As the professional body for HR and people development, the CIPD takes an evidence-based view on the future of work – and, importantly, what this means for our profession. By doing this, we can help prepare professionals and employers for what’s coming, while also equipping them to succeed and shape a changing world of work.

Our Profession Map has been developed to do this. It defines the knowledge, behaviours and values which should underpin today’s people profession. It has been developed as an international standard against which an organisation can benchmark its values. At its core are the concepts of being principles-led, evidence-based and outcomes driven. This recognises the importance of using the four forms of evidence in a principled manner to develop positive outcomes for stakeholders. As evidence is often of varying degrees of quality, it’s important that people professionals consider if and how they should incorporate the different types of evidence into their work.

Evidence-based practice is a useful concept for understanding whether practices in HR lead to the desired outcomes, and whether these practices are being used to the best effect.

Both our guide and thought leadership article offer a detailed, step-by-step approach to using evidence-based practice in your decision making.

All our evidence reviews are featured on our Evidence Hub. For a learning and development perspective, listen to our Evidence-based L&D podcast. There's also Using evidence in HR decision-making: 10 lessons from the COVID-19 crisis, part of our coronavirus webinar series.