H1
Human Resource management = the sum of all strategy, policy, procedures and day-to-day acts
that together ai mto guide employer-employee relations in organizations towards the goals of
organizations, while ensuring alignment with various contextual conditions such as organization
characteristics, industry dynamics, competition, labor markets, legal and institutional settings,
and societal dynamics.
Book focusses on HR practices = are all the policies and
procedures used for managing employment relations.
Experienced by people in workplaces. Used by managers,
teams, project leaders and employees themselves.
When to use which HR practice? It depends on what is
needed? What should change? How much can it cost?
Which PR practices is most effective?
Deciding on HR practices is a decision-making process.
Aim of the book is help practioners make better desicion
about effective HR practices to ensure happy, healthy and productive people in workplaces.
Not all organizations use effective HR practices because:
- each organization has its own characteristics, needs and possebilities.
- different stakeholders (workers, management, costumers, government …) have different
interest in HRM.
- some practices are cheap and easy but ineffective or unethical.
- it involves some understanding of research. → Research-practice gap
Evidence based HRM = A ‘just-in-time’ method. Find the best intervetion for a problem, on the
time when you nee dit, but rigorous, based on research evidence. Not just for HRM experts, also
for managers, employees, consultants.
Use Evidence based HRM decision making when you’re looking for effective HR practice: Steps:
1. Understand the problem
2. Formulate a question: to find an evidence based HR intervention that works for your problem.
3. Find research evidence (use the book)
4. Find evidence in the organizations: collect data (interviews, records, questionnaire)
5. Evaluate the evidence and design an HR practice
6. Implement and evaluate the new HR practice
It’s a circle.
Benefits of evidence-based HRM:
- a better understanding of problems in the organization
- a culture of learning and curiosity
- cumulative availability of data (evidence) to use (HR analytics)
- reduction of organizational politics
EB-HRM is not useful when, arguable: in common, day-to-day management decisions. OR in
crisis situations
→ it will take to long
However: cumulative EB-HRM knowledge will improve desicion-making on a day-to-day basis
and during crises. A culture of evidence and evaluating will improve organizational learning.
,Conclusion: EB-HRM is a procedure to improve desicions about people in workplaces. Doing
EB-HRM leads to more effective HR practices. And contributes to an organizational culture of
learning and knowledge sharing. This will also improve decision-making on a daily basis, and
during crises.
Bounded rationality is why managing people in workplaces is difficult. It means a lack of
complete insight in a problem and its causes. Hinders decision making, because you have to
take decisions without having all the ingredients. Is a fact, but there are strategies to add more
rationality to decision-making.
Unfortunately, decision-makers often neglect these strategies or are just nota ware of them. In
the rush to solve a problem, they often rely on quick-fixes. EB-HRM is a decision-making strategy
to overcome bounded rationality.
Quick fix = solutions to problems that arise in a workplace that are not really well thought
through. They seem nice and quick, but they are not.
Evidence based HRM = a method for practioners who consciously apply their expertise and
judgement. Who use evidence from the local context to which the decison applies. Who
critically evaluate of the best available external research evidence. And who take the
perspectives of people who are affected by the decison into account.
Step 1-3: What is happening? What seems the
underlying problem? What are the affected outcomes?
What would improve in objective measures if the
problem was fixed? Who are involved in the problem?
Which domain of HR practices seems most relevant?
Step 4a: What do people in the organization know about
the problem and about interventions that may help?
Step 4b: What do we kwow about the science of effective
interventions for such problems in general?
Step 5: How to weigh all the collected evidence and
decide what HR practice may be most effective for the
problem?
Step 6-7: All the ingredients are there to go wild and
design an HR practice to deal with the problem.
Methods to collect local evidence:
- design a method to collect data in the organization to better understand the causes of the
problem.
- use your research skills, e.g.: conduct interviews with people who know the situation best
(qualitative), collect data by using a questionnaire (quantitative), use company data, e.g.: a
previous employee satisfaction survey, records about absenteeism, demographics etc.
Decide: which data will give the best quality insight in the causes of the problem?
Remember: research ethics, protect people involved.
Evaluate the quality of evidence:
• Validity: the evidence helps you understand the cause of the problem. Implication: ask the
right questions to the right sources (people, data). Check the quality of measures, research
design and use good theory.
, • Reliability: The findings reported in the evidence would be similar if we replicated the research.
The findings would be the same if we asked someone else (sample size)
• Generalizability: We can use this evidence to say something about the targeted employees for
the problem intervention.
How to design an effective HR practice?
This choice and design will depend on the local and external evidence. Bainstorm with your
project team to:
1. List which interventions will be most effective given your external evidence.
2. List the conditions for effective interventions following your local evidence.
3. Decide which intervention is most effective. (also consider the costs and implementation)
Then: prepare the organization for the intervention: get support from senior management,
communicate to employees, use evidence to explain why the intervention is needed for more
support.
Evaluate of the new HR practice:
A good project also plans evaluations of the implementation. Use data to check if the intented
outcome really improves after implementation. Give someone the responsibility.
Continuous improvement: It may be that the evaluation indicates that adjustments are needed.
This could lead to a new EB-HRM project.
Human Resource management = the sum of all strategy, policy, procedures and day-to-day acts
that together ai mto guide employer-employee relations in organizations towards the goals of
organizations, while ensuring alignment with various contextual conditions such as organization
characteristics, industry dynamics, competition, labor markets, legal and institutional settings,
and societal dynamics.
Book focusses on HR practices = are all the policies and
procedures used for managing employment relations.
Experienced by people in workplaces. Used by managers,
teams, project leaders and employees themselves.
When to use which HR practice? It depends on what is
needed? What should change? How much can it cost?
Which PR practices is most effective?
Deciding on HR practices is a decision-making process.
Aim of the book is help practioners make better desicion
about effective HR practices to ensure happy, healthy and productive people in workplaces.
Not all organizations use effective HR practices because:
- each organization has its own characteristics, needs and possebilities.
- different stakeholders (workers, management, costumers, government …) have different
interest in HRM.
- some practices are cheap and easy but ineffective or unethical.
- it involves some understanding of research. → Research-practice gap
Evidence based HRM = A ‘just-in-time’ method. Find the best intervetion for a problem, on the
time when you nee dit, but rigorous, based on research evidence. Not just for HRM experts, also
for managers, employees, consultants.
Use Evidence based HRM decision making when you’re looking for effective HR practice: Steps:
1. Understand the problem
2. Formulate a question: to find an evidence based HR intervention that works for your problem.
3. Find research evidence (use the book)
4. Find evidence in the organizations: collect data (interviews, records, questionnaire)
5. Evaluate the evidence and design an HR practice
6. Implement and evaluate the new HR practice
It’s a circle.
Benefits of evidence-based HRM:
- a better understanding of problems in the organization
- a culture of learning and curiosity
- cumulative availability of data (evidence) to use (HR analytics)
- reduction of organizational politics
EB-HRM is not useful when, arguable: in common, day-to-day management decisions. OR in
crisis situations
→ it will take to long
However: cumulative EB-HRM knowledge will improve desicion-making on a day-to-day basis
and during crises. A culture of evidence and evaluating will improve organizational learning.
,Conclusion: EB-HRM is a procedure to improve desicions about people in workplaces. Doing
EB-HRM leads to more effective HR practices. And contributes to an organizational culture of
learning and knowledge sharing. This will also improve decision-making on a daily basis, and
during crises.
Bounded rationality is why managing people in workplaces is difficult. It means a lack of
complete insight in a problem and its causes. Hinders decision making, because you have to
take decisions without having all the ingredients. Is a fact, but there are strategies to add more
rationality to decision-making.
Unfortunately, decision-makers often neglect these strategies or are just nota ware of them. In
the rush to solve a problem, they often rely on quick-fixes. EB-HRM is a decision-making strategy
to overcome bounded rationality.
Quick fix = solutions to problems that arise in a workplace that are not really well thought
through. They seem nice and quick, but they are not.
Evidence based HRM = a method for practioners who consciously apply their expertise and
judgement. Who use evidence from the local context to which the decison applies. Who
critically evaluate of the best available external research evidence. And who take the
perspectives of people who are affected by the decison into account.
Step 1-3: What is happening? What seems the
underlying problem? What are the affected outcomes?
What would improve in objective measures if the
problem was fixed? Who are involved in the problem?
Which domain of HR practices seems most relevant?
Step 4a: What do people in the organization know about
the problem and about interventions that may help?
Step 4b: What do we kwow about the science of effective
interventions for such problems in general?
Step 5: How to weigh all the collected evidence and
decide what HR practice may be most effective for the
problem?
Step 6-7: All the ingredients are there to go wild and
design an HR practice to deal with the problem.
Methods to collect local evidence:
- design a method to collect data in the organization to better understand the causes of the
problem.
- use your research skills, e.g.: conduct interviews with people who know the situation best
(qualitative), collect data by using a questionnaire (quantitative), use company data, e.g.: a
previous employee satisfaction survey, records about absenteeism, demographics etc.
Decide: which data will give the best quality insight in the causes of the problem?
Remember: research ethics, protect people involved.
Evaluate the quality of evidence:
• Validity: the evidence helps you understand the cause of the problem. Implication: ask the
right questions to the right sources (people, data). Check the quality of measures, research
design and use good theory.
, • Reliability: The findings reported in the evidence would be similar if we replicated the research.
The findings would be the same if we asked someone else (sample size)
• Generalizability: We can use this evidence to say something about the targeted employees for
the problem intervention.
How to design an effective HR practice?
This choice and design will depend on the local and external evidence. Bainstorm with your
project team to:
1. List which interventions will be most effective given your external evidence.
2. List the conditions for effective interventions following your local evidence.
3. Decide which intervention is most effective. (also consider the costs and implementation)
Then: prepare the organization for the intervention: get support from senior management,
communicate to employees, use evidence to explain why the intervention is needed for more
support.
Evaluate of the new HR practice:
A good project also plans evaluations of the implementation. Use data to check if the intented
outcome really improves after implementation. Give someone the responsibility.
Continuous improvement: It may be that the evaluation indicates that adjustments are needed.
This could lead to a new EB-HRM project.
