HR Strategies

doi: 10.1111/j.1748-8583.2011.00173.x

PROVOCATION SERIES PAPERS: HRM IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Becoming an evidence-based HR practitioner
Denise M. Rousseau, Carnegie Mellon University
Eric G. R. Barends, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 21, no 3, 2011, pages 221–235
Evidence-based HR (EBHR) is a decision-making process combining critical thinking with use of the best available scientific evidence and business information. We describe how to get started as an evidencebased HR practitioner. Actively managing professional decisions is a key aspect of EBHR. Doing so involves making decisions, especially consequential or recurring ones, using practices supported by high-quality research. We present a step-by-step set of approaches to becoming an evidence-based HR practitioner: from getting started, through everyday practices and continuous learning to integrating
EBHR into your organisation. In offering guidance for evidence-based practice, this article underscores the connection between effective practice and organisational research.
Contact: Denise M. Rousseau, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
15213-3890, USA. Email: [e-mail] hrmj_173 221..235

INTRODUCTION

T

he complexity and fast pace of today’s organisations often lead to knee-jerk business decisions, fad chasing and guesswork regarding ‘what works’. Busy HR managers may put on autopilot critical choices affecting the future of their firms, their employees and the public. The HR practitioner does have a way to learn how to make better-quality decisions and use HR practices that actually work – becoming an evidence-based HR (EBHR) practitioner.
This article is a primer on the what, why and how of evidence-based HR practice. It is written with the HR practitioner in mind as well as the HR student and consultant. In celebration of
HRMJ’s 21 years of publishing academic research which pays particular attention to policy and practice, we describe how

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