A happy employee is a productive employee, right? While it sounds logical, scientific studies show that while job satisfaction is important for employee well-being and other outcomes, it is only weakly related to performance. This may come as a surprise, but it illustrates why scie ntific research is so valuable in HR decision-making.

In this article, we’ll outline four straightforward steps to help you find and use scientific research in HR decisions, along with some useful, free resources to help you along the way. 

Obviously, science isn’t just lab rats and cool laser experiments. It’s a way of thinking that aims to collect information in a systematic way, so that we can explain and predict things that happen around us.

Looking at science is relevant for your HR job

Scientific research in fields like management, organizations, and psychology sheds light on HR topics such as:

  • Recruitment methods that best predict the performance of a new hire
  • Characteristics of training that make it most likely for people to transfer their new skills to work
  • Factors that make employees leave

If you work in HR, these topics probably spark your curiosity about the scientific findings around it. So, how can you tap into these insights and use scientific research as a source of evidence in evidence-based HR (EBHR)? Let’s break it down.

The first 4 steps in using science in your day-to-day HR decision-making

As discussed in our previous article, you can use science throughout the decision-making process of the 6 A’s: asking, acquiring, appraising, aggregating and finally, applying and assessing. Here’s how you can start applying the first four steps to get the most out of science.

1. Asking: Turning a problem into questions

The first step is to take an assumed problem and turn it into an answerable question. For example, if you're facing high employee turnover, you might ask:

Is employee turnover a significant problem in my organization?
Does low job satisfaction contribute to this turnover?

These kinds of cause-and-effect questions need evidence to answer them. For more guidance on how to frame these questions, you can try CEBMa's Evidence-Based Management GPT. This tool not only provides answers about evidence-based management but also helps you formulate the proper questions for your specific challenges. 

2. Acquiring: Gathering the scientific studies

Once you've nailed down your questions, it’s time to find the scientific research that can answer them. Researchers publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals, where their work is carefully reviewed by experts.

To access these journals, start with ABI/Inform Global and Business Source Elite. These are subscription-based databases, typically available through universities. For free access, Google Scholar is an excellent tool that offers open-access studies.

Another practical, free resource is ScienceForWork, which provides summaries of high-quality HR research in easy-to-understand language.

3. Appraising: Taking a critical look at science

Once you've got hold of a few research studies that seem relevant, it’s time to see if they’re any good.

Appraising a research study requires a bit of science knowledge, but CEBMa has developed a free tool to make it easier: the CAT Manager App. This app guides you through a series of questions about the study, helping you evaluate its trustworthiness.

Another way to spot more reliable research is to check if it’s based on a single study or a systematic review. A single study looks at data from one sample, while a systematic review combines data from multiple studies, making it more likely that the findings will apply to diverse people and contexts. Systematic reviews are usually more trustworthy when conducted rigorously.

4. Aggregating: Telling a story

Now that you’ve appraised the evidence, it’s time to sum up the findings about the problem and the solution. Whether it’s a short paragraph or a detailed report, the goal is to present the evidence in a way that can guide your decision-making.

For instance, if you discover that research indicates job satisfaction is linked to turnover, but other factors like job autonomy or growth opportunities also play a role, you’ll want to include this nuance in your summary. Taking these additional factors into account helps ensure your solution is both comprehensive and effective.

By combining the evidence in a structured way, you can make better-informed decisions and share your insights with stakeholders.

Other sources of evidence and applying them in practice

While scientific research provides objective insights, it’s only one of the four key sources of evidence in evidence-based HR. The other sources—organizational data, professional expertise, and stakeholder input—are also important for well-rounded HR decisions.

In upcoming articles, we’ll explore how to find and use evidence from these other sources. We’ll also walk you through the final steps of the evidence-based HR process: Applying and Assessing.