Rob focuses on finding ways of improving the use of evidence of various types to enhance individual and organizational decision-making in the world of work.

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HR theatre and other barriers to evidence-
based practice and HR effectiveness
Rob Briner
Professor of Organizational Psychology Queen Mary University of London
Visiting Professor of Evidence-Based HRM Birkbeck University of London
www.cebma.org
@Rob_Briner
29.04.22 Manchester

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Some questions for you
◆ You arrive in a large European city you don’t know at 1600 on a
Tuesday afternoon
◆ You really really really enjoy food and eating in restaurants and
someone is buying you dinner and they want you to choose the
restaurant
◆ How would decide which restaurant to book? Would you…
1. …look for evidence and information?
2. …use multiple sources of evidence or just one?
3. …consider the trustworthiness of the evidence?
4. …take a structured approach to gathering and collating the evidence?
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Are you more or less likely to get a good meal if you
use…
1. ..some versus no evidence?
2. …multiple sources of evidence versus one source
3. …information with awareness of its level of trustworthiness
versus using it without awareness of its level of
trustworthiness
4. …a structured/systematic approach versus an
unstructured/random approach
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WHAT’S THE POINT OF EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE?
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Some assumptions: Beyond transactional stuff HR (and
all?) professionals should…
◆ …do stuff that addresses important business/organizational
problems/opportunities (not trivial issues)
◆ …do stuff that is more likely to work (not stuff that is unlikely
work or has little effect or does harm)
◆ Do you agree? If so, how are we going to do that?
◆ EBP has been adopted in multiple professional fields to help do
exactly these two things
◆ It’s not possible to be very effective as a profession or a function
if you don’t do evidence-based practice (or something similar)
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WHERE DOES THE IDEA OF EVIDENCE-BASED
PRACTICE COME FROM?
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Why evidence-based practice?
◆ Decisions about what are important problems/opportunities and most
likely solutions should be based on the best available evidence
◆ Evidence = any relevant information and data = scientific findings,
organizational/context data, professional expertise, stakeholder
concerns/perceptions
◆ All practitioners use evidence in their decisions on evidence but
– Limited attention to quality (and relevance) of evidence
– Limited sources and types of evidence
◆ We always use evidence – but that’s not the same as adopting an
evidence-based approach
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Where did the idea of evidence-based practice come
from? Yes, it’s a ‘thing’!
◆ 1990 Medicine
◆ 1998 Education
◆ 1998 Probation service
◆ 1999 Housing policy
◆ 1999 Social care
◆ 1999 Regeneration policy and practice
◆ 2000 Nursing
◆ 2000 Criminal justice
◆ 2005 Management and HR?
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Center for Evidence-Based Management set up 2010
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CIPD 2013 Profession Map
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CIPD 2018 Profession Map
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WHAT IS EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE?
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What is evidence-based practice
◆ The conscientious (effort), explicit (clarity) and judicious
(critical of quality) use of the best available evidence from
multiple sources to increase the likelihood of a favourable
outcome
◆ It’s about the process
◆ It’s not about certainties (this will work)
◆ It’s is about probabilities and likelihoods
◆ It is about reducing uncertainty (given our context, doing this is
more likely to lead to the outcome we want than doing
something else or doing nothing)
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Used first
to identify
problem or
opportunity
and if (and
only if) one
identified…
Then used
to identify
possible
solution or
intervention

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Three likely key differences between EBP and what we
already do…
1. Approach to use of evidence
– Conscientious: Persevere, be diligent, build capacity and capability
– Explicit: Share, discuss, write down, capture
– Judicious: Judge quality, don’t automatically trust, put probability on it, focus on best
evidence
2. Multiple sources
– To triangulate and cross-check
– To contextualize and make sense and better use of evidence from other sources
3. A structured and stepped approach
– Get evidence for possible problems/opportunities first only then consider evidence for
possible solutions
– We are easily distracted and pushed off course
– Many individual and organizational obstacles so structure can help
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HOW DO YOU DO EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE IN HR?
AN EXAMPLE
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An example* of ‘too many’ staff working from home
(WFH)
◆ Suppose the senior management team believe there is a
problem with too many staff WFH and as a consequence
collaboration and performance is suffering
◆ They have asked you/HR to look into it
◆ These are examples of the questions you and your team
might ask if you wanted to approach this potential
problem/opportunity and possible solutions/interventions
from an evidence-based practice perspective
*Exactly same approach can be applied to any HR issue – selection, L&D, reward, EDI, performance,
well-being, OD, design, etc
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Draw on the four sources in no particular order
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Element 1: Practitioners’ professional expertise
Identifying the problem/opportunity
◆ Based on our experiences and expertise, what do we think is the nature of the
problem of too many staff WFH?
◆ From our experience what are the effects of fewer staff physically in offices?
◆ What do we believe, from our experience, might be the underlying causes?
If an important problem found: Identifying possible solution
◆ What does our expertise tell us are likely solutions or interventions?
◆ Have we seen interventions before? What happened?
◆ Does our expertise apply to this context?
How trustworthy and relevant is this information?

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Element 2: Organizational data
Identifying the problem/opportunity
◆ What do organizational data reveal about the number of staff WFH?
◆ Numbers or percentages? Trends or changes over time? Patterns in parts of the
organization or roles or functions?
◆ Do organizational data reveal anything about the effects of WFH? Collaboration?
Performance?
◆ Do organizational data reveal anything about the causes of low return to office?
If an important problem found: Identifying possible solution
◆ What do organizational data tell us about the effectiveness of any current initiatives?
◆ Do organizational data identify costs and benefits of new interventions?
How trustworthy and relevant is this information?

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Element 3: Scientific literature
Identifying the problem/opportunity
◆ What do scientific findings suggest are the problems with WFH?
◆ What do the results of scientific studies tell us about the effects of WFH? In what ways might this be
a problem or lead to problems?
◆ What do the results of scientific studies tell us about the causes of WFH? Are these causes amenable
to intervention and change?
If an important problem found: Identifying possible solution
◆ What do scientific findings suggest are effective interventions to deal with the problem of WFH?
◆ What, if any, unintended negative consequences do they have?
◆ Are such interventions likely to work here?
How trustworthy and relevant is this information?

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Element 4: Stakeholders values and concerns
Identifying the problem/opportunity
◆ What do stakeholders (e.g., employees, employee resource groups, customers and
clients, industry bodies, government, SMT, Trades Unions, shareholders, etc)
believe is the problem in relation to WFH?
◆ Do stakeholders have views about the possible effects of this problem?
◆ What are stakeholders’ perceptions of causes of low representation?
If an important problem found: Identifying possible solution
◆ What do stakeholders believe to be effective interventions?
◆ How do stakeholders feel about proposed solutions? Do they believe they are likely
to work? To have downsides?
How trustworthy and relevant is this information?

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Questions for you…
◆ How long would this take?
◆ Is it do-able?
◆ Is it worth it?
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The fundamental challenge of evidence-based practice
(in any field)
◆ People don’t seem to object to the idea of making better-
informed decisions about possible problems/opportunities and
likely solutions/interventions
◆ The skills needed to do evidence-based practice are not that
difficult to do or learn (and are extensions of what we already
do)
◆ So why isn’t it happening much?
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COMMON BARRIERS TO EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE
IN HR AND HOW THEY CAN BE OVERCOME
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What gets in the way of evidence-based practice in
general?
◆ Misconceptions of EBP
◆ Individual and group cognitive biases
◆ Fads, fashions & (some) consultancies
◆ HR Theatre
◆ Strong and wrong beliefs
◆ Individual and group cognitive biases
◆ Organizational politics/power
◆ Poor logic models/theories of change
◆ Over-claiming about the quality and quantity
of evidence (critical appraisal essential)
◆ Career incentives
◆ Pre-enlightenment views
◆ A lack of focus on a specific and well-
identified problem (or opportunity)
◆ Contexts in which practitioners’ practice is
not evaluated (it doesn’t matter what they
do)
◆ Good intentions (road to hell paved with)
◆ Erroneous belief that we already are
evidence-based (or evidence-based enough)
◆ Access to only some sources/types of
evidence
◆ The perceived need for speed (VUCA
rhetoric not usually supported by data)
◆ Crude benchmarking
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EXAMPLE BARRIER 1: MISCONCEPTIONS
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Some general misconceptions of evidence-based
practice
◆ Practitioners can’t use their experience and expertise - nope
◆ Evidence tells you the truth and can prove things – nope – also
true of scientific evidence
◆ It’s about making perfectly-informed decisions using all the
necessary information - nope
◆ Gathering the evidence will give you The Answer – nope
◆ We’re already doing it 100% – possible but unlikely
◆ You can only do evidence-based practice if you have new and
directly relevant evidence – nope
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[To repeat]: Three likely key differences between EBP
and what we already do…
1. Approach to use of evidence
– Conscientious: Persevere, be diligent, build capacity and capability
– Explicit: Share, discuss, write down, capture
– Judicious: Judge quality, don’t automatically trust, put probability on it, focus on best
evidence
2. Multiple sources
– To triangulate and cross-check
– To contextualize and make sense and better use of evidence from other sources
3. A structured and stepped approach
– Get evidence for possible problems/opportunities first only then consider evidence for
possible solutions
– We are easily distracted and pushed off course
– Many individual and organizational obstacles so structure can help
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A common misconception/myth in HR
◆ Applying widely-used and ‘approved’ tools and techniques or ‘best
practice’ or ‘benchmarking’ is the same as doing evidence-based practice
(e.g., assessment centres, employee engagement surveys, leadership
development, 360 degree feedback, training, team development,
coaching) - absolutely NOT!
◆ Need also to ask: What is the evidence that…
– …there is a real problem the practice can in principle fix?
– …the practice is generally effective?
– …the practice is likely to work here?
– …the practice will fix it better than other techniques?
– …benefits outweigh the cost?
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Another common misconception/myth in HR
◆ That just using organizational data or doing data analytics
is the same as evidence-based practice – definitely not!
◆ Imagine going to see your doctor because you are ill and she
tells you she is going to diagnose and treat you by only
looking at your blood tests, MRI & CAT scans, and other
diagnostics and she was going to completely ignore
– Evidence from medical science
– Her professional expertise as a doctor
– What you as the patient/stakeholder believe and feel
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Why only using organizational data (data analytics) is
not evidence-based practice
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X
X
X

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EXAMPLE BARRIER 2: HR THEATRE
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Security theatre
◆ “…security measures that make people feel more secure
without doing anything to actually improve their security.”
(Schneider, 2009)
◆ A large number of initiatives
◆ Some likely to be effective
◆ Many unlikely to be effective
◆ Some may do more harm than good
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Also happens in HR. What’s the problem with HR
Theatre?
◆ Is unlikely to help employees or the organization (e.g., Unconscious Bias
Training, Mental Health First Aid, Annual Performance Appraisals)
◆ ‘Can’t do any harm’ defence not defensible as even doing ‘harmless’ things
causes secondary harmful effects:
– Wastes resources including people’s time
– Gives the impression something is being done (when it’s not)
– Distracts people from the real causes of problems and solutions (e.g., cleaning surfaces
when Covid-19 is airborne transmission so requires masks, distancing, ventilation)
◆ Causes cynicism amongst employees and management
◆ Gets in the way of the development of HR as a function and profession as the
focus is on impression management (“look at all the stuff we’re doing”) rather
than HR effectiveness
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WHERE HAVE WE GO TO? AND WHERE NEXT?
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MOVE AWAY FROM THIS
MODUS OPERANDI
◆ We need to do something
now
◆ Fads and fashions
◆ Panaceas/silver bullets
◆ Not checking our biases
◆ Best practice/copying
◆ Quick fixes
◆ Satisficing
◆ Not evaluating
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TOWARDS THIS MO
◆ Use evidence from multiple
sources
◆ With an understanding of
its trustworthiness
◆ To make better-
informed/structured
decisions about
– Potential problems/
opportunities and if identified
– Potential solutions/
interventions

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Getting started with evidence-based HR
◆ Try to do it on the next medium/big thing you’re working on
◆ Always, always, always start first with and spend more time getting
evidence about and understanding the problem (or opportunity)
◆ Beware of the tendency to look too quickly for solutions – and
solutioneering
◆ Ask the question ‘why?’ a lot
◆ Be healthily sceptical of ‘cool’ and ‘cutting edge’ fads and fashions
◆ Remember we are full of biases – don’t just believe what you see and
hear but check it out using evidence
◆ Remember it’s about making a better-informed decision not a perfect
decision
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Some final reflections
◆ Does what you and your team/function actually do matter?
◆ Is it important for the business or organization or not?
◆ Do you want to make (more of) a difference?
◆ Are you able to acknowledge when things haven’t worked?
◆ Is your current decision-making near perfect?
◆ Would you like to make better-informed decisions?
◆ Are you prepared to completely change your mind about the way
you make decisions?
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So why bother with adopting an EBP approach?
◆ It’s the only way we can…
– …do stuff that addresses important business/organizational
problems/opportunities (not trivial issues)
– …do stuff that is more likely to work (not stuff that is unlikely work
or has little effect or does harm)
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HR theatre and other barriers to evidence-
based practice and HR effectiveness
Rob Briner
Professor of Organizational Psychology Queen Mary University of London
Visiting Professor of Evidence-Based HRM Birkbeck University of London
www.cebma.org
@Rob_Briner
29.04.22 Manchester