Data based evidence

Data-based evidence for decision-making in HR

Data-based evidence is a method of making decisions that makes use of information, knowledge already available, and critical thinking. In their article “Becoming an Evidence-Based HR Practitioner,” Rousseau and Barends (2011) claim that data-based evidence is a decision-making process that combines critical thinking with the use of the best available scientific evidence as well as business information. It is to any business’s great advantage to have managers who can integrate both parts in order to optimize the decision-making process, even while significant thinking and scientific evidence on their own have adequate capacity to aid human resource personnel in making explicit judgements. This system ensures that there are no incidences of auto-pilot decision making without clear facts and hence increases mindful and success chances of the role of human resource practices in determining the direction of the organization.

Data-based evidence at Google

Prasad initially mentions that every human-related decision made by Google relies on data and analytics (SSPSSR., 2011). By the time the lecture came to an end, Prasad had already established a rendition of the mentioned statement. After working with various people at Google, Prasad and his peers created a framework illustrating the odds and probabilities of being promoted. The results of the system were 90% accurate in the predicted 30% chances of promotion. One thing they noted with this system is the fact that one had to use his ability in deciding the workplace. In turn, this positions the human resource practitioners as not useful when they retain employees who are salvageable. The role of the ’black box’ was to recommend who to keep and who to release. Google aimed to offer the human resource practitioners the capacity make a decision and verify these judgments against a formula that would show the quality of the made decision. Keeping this in mind, the committee developed a strategy for monitoring the managers and determining their efficiency in their roles. They discovered eight essential traits that can be found in a quality manager and then developed a system of reviewing the managers using these characteristics. In the end, this enhances the manager’s performance and efficiency alongside job satisfaction across the organization.

Understanding the experience of senior workers

If I were a human resource practitioner needed to understand what experience of senior workers within the organization, I would first carry an interview followed by a survey of the older workers. I would do this to gather the necessary information concerning their different roles and attitudes towards their various duties (Mabey, 2003). This would help me comprehend the things that make them happy, their experience as well as the things that they would love to alter in the organization. Additionally, I would use triangulation. This is mainly because it would help me gain basic knowledge of the older generation of workers. Though face-to-face interview often proves to be efficient in gathering information people, privacy can sometimes foster honesty, and this is why I would use the anonymous online survey to get more information from these individuals. I would then add what I have sourced to the historical data so that I can accumulate and get a better perspective of the current situation in the organization. It is easy to get real-time information from the selected individuals while offering a chance to evaluate them against current status of the organization as a way of using data-based evidence using these two methods.

Reference

Mabey, C. (2003). Reframing Human Resource Development. Human Resource Development Review, 2(4), 430-452. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534484303258042

Rousseau, D. M., &Barends, E. G. R. (2011).Becoming an evidence-based HR practitioner. Human Resource Management Journal, 21(3), 221–235. Retrieved from http://www.cebma.info/wp-content/uploads/Rousseau-Barends-HRMJ-20111.pdf

SSPSSR. (2011, April 13). Older workers: The ‘unavoidable obligation’ of extending our working lives? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/yq3PkeK8OXY