I wonder - in fact, I despair of wondering - whether human resources as a supposed field of expertise will ever aspire to basing its practices on even half-reliable evidence. It has always seemed to me to be a field prone to embracing fads and being overly impressed with anecdotes masquerading as expert advice.
Will human resources ever aspire to base their practices on evidence, rather than chasing the latest trends?This obsession with looking at what others are doing is seemingly endemic. However, it is far from clear that many of the comparisons make any sense, and nearly always they focus selectively on only a small part of the picture and ignore the context.
Lazy comparisons and assertions masquerading as benchmarking have the potential to impact the lives of employees, and not in ways that will necessarily help them to be more productive