Evidence Talks

Welcome to episode 24 of EvidenceTALKS! We've introduced a new structure this month, where we divide the podcast into different sections including: Think Like a Scientist - we discuss different aspects of evidence-based practice as well looking at how data is used and misused! Evidence summaries - with our friends at ScienceForWork we provide trustworthy and useful insights from the science of organisations and people management. In this episode we talk about how data is used to support big claims and the importance of following the evidence trail. We also talk to Lorenzo Galli, found of ScienceForWork who shares what the evidence really says about millennials.  Pilar Orti shares her reflections on two examples from the healthcare sector illustrating how data can be misleading.  Useful resources: Download the evidence summary 'Generational Differences: Myth or reality?' https://scienceforwork.com/blog/generational-differences/ Health Check podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswjk9 - Myth

In this episode we are delighted to interview Rob Briner, Professor of Organisational Psychology at Queen Mary, University of London, Founder and Scientific Director of Centre for Evidence-based Management (CEBMa). We talk about his journey into evidence-based management, explore what evidence-based management is and how to overcome some of the barriers to putting it into practice. Pilar and Claire also talk about a introducing an exciting new format for EvidenceTALKS for 2018! We'd love to hear you feedback, ideas or if you would like to take part in a future episode and you can get in touch on email at info@futureworkcentre.com or @FW_Centre.  

Claudia Nuttgens is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Principal Consultant at the Future Work Centre. In this episode, we interview Claudia about the practitioner case study she presented at the annual Division of Occupational Psychology Conference in January. The case study focused on a recent project with an NHS Trust where we helped the organisation take meaningful action from the results of their employee survey. This involved in-depth analysis, communication of results and close engagement with senior stakeholders. Claudia shares some of the lessons learnt which have broader application for those using employee research, including stakeholder management, problems versus polarities and organisational awareness. Claudia also took part in a panel discussion exploring the challenges of embedding evidence-based practice in an organisation and the value we bring as occupational psychologists.  (Apologies for the rustling noise during the podcast!) Useful resource: http://www.futureworkcentre.

In this episode we're delighted to welcome Tiffany Poeppelman, Head of Sales Productivity at LinkedIn. Tiffany is an Industrial Psychologist, passionate about learning and development and applying research into the workplace.  In this interview, Tiffany shares her views on the importance of being evidence-based and what it can bring to the workplace. She discusses some of the practical challenges she has experienced as a practitioner including staying up-to-date with the latest research, the importance of communication and working closely with the business.  Tiffany sees herself as a bridge between science and practice, which is why we were so excited that she agreed to take part in our podcast.  Useful resource: http://www.ioatwork.com    

It's our 20th episode! Richard and Pilar take a few minutes to look back on their experience of hosting the podcast over the last 20 episodes. The podcast is an important channel for the Future Work Centre to promote and communicate the value of evidence-based practice, making it actionable and accessible.  When we're not recording podcasts, the Future Work Centre works directly with organisations on a commercial basis. This revenue is used to help us fund our wider programme of activity to promote and advocate evidence-practice to organisations, practitioners and the wider public. Our client work keeps us on our toes and helps us learn the best ways to engage and support organisations to be more evidence-based, whilst being sensitive and pragmatic to their specific working environment. Richard shared three anonymised client project examples: Understanding root cause of sickness and absence - we helped one organisation to scratch the surface and better understand what was driving employee absence and wo

In this episode we discuss the gig economy, prompted by a recent event Richard chaired: 'Managing the Gig Economy 2017'. We explore the themes covered in the event, why it's receiving lots of attention in the press and examine the implications for organisations. Richard and Claire also reveal why episode 19 has taken to so long to produce!! Issues with sequencing, technology and a lost voice!

In this episode we explore and ask questions about the use of technology in the workplace, specifically wearables and 'speakables'. We're increasingly used to using devices in our personal lives e.g. fitness trackers and virtual assistants (Alexa, Siri, Cortana), and we anticipate seeing a rise in their use in the workplace. Technology such as this seems to be advancing at an ever increasing pace, but our understanding of the benefits and possible drawbacks is less clear. We think it is important to ask questions before adopting new technology, so before we need to think carefully before introducing new technologies. Recommended resources referenced in the podcast:  http://www.bakadesuyo.com/ Barking up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker  https://digest.bps.org.uk/2017/07/20/oh-dear-even-people-with-neuroscience-training-believe-an-awful-lot-of-brain-myths/ http://www.talenteconomy.io/2017/03/13/firm-uses-virtual-reality-recruit-others-follow/

We are delighted to welcome back Paul Thoresen on this episode of EvidenceTALKS. We first interviewed Paul on episode 9 about employee surveys and the concept of engagement and it proved to be a very popular episode indeed! So, we thought we would invite him back to discuss in more details some of the practical aspects of conducting surveys. Paul and Richard start with the fundamental question 'Do you really need to run a survey?'. Paul argues that any survey should be part of a wider strategy, rather than a tactical exercise. He recognises the challenge of moving away from an existing provider where you are familiar with the content, the process, the supplier and the difficulties of benchmarking old and new data, but if you need to do something differently, then it is worth reviewing the whole process. Another area discussed is being clear what you're going to do with the survey data. If you're asking employees to invest their time, energy and effort into taking part, what happens afterwards is extremely imp

How many times have you heard someone kick off a presentation or a conversation with the phrase 'As we all know...', closely followed by a strong assertion or claim? In this episode Richard and Pilar meet face-to-face to talk (so forgive the background noise!) about how disruptive and dangerous myths and fads can be in the workplace, and whilst there may be a nugget of truth in there somewhere, it's been over-played or over-simplified.  We discuss a four common workplace myths: Millennials  - we've seen an explosion of focus on this population group, highlighting how we need to do things differently because they need and want different things. This is often seen as the rationale to do things differently whether that's your recruitment strategy, succession planning or provision of development. But what does the evidence say? Engagement - As we all know...increasing employment leads to increased productivity. Quite apart from the challenges associated with its definition, this is

As part of the Beyond Measure initiative where we're looking to help organisations and candidates improve their understanding of workplace assessment, with the aim of improving practice and quality of its use. In this episode we look at assessment through the eyes of the person taking the test, why their experience is important and what they need to know.  If you're interested in our Beyond Measure campaign, have a listen to episode 8, where we introduce the initiative, and re-visit in subsequent episodes.  Richard and Pilar put themselves in the shoes of someone applying for a job and walk through a 'typical' process from the assessment invitation through to the test itself, feedback and how organisations use assessments to make decisions.  Given that many assessments are completed online, remotely, we talk about the importance of giving focused attention to completing the questionnaire. As a candidate, be free from distraction and give it your full attention, rather than trying to comple

We are very grateful to Alan Redman, Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Director Criterion Partnership, for taking the time to share his perspective on workplace assessment, as part of our Beyond Measure initiative.  Alan is a highly experienced developer of workplace assessment and over the last 15-20 years, has witnessed the impact that technology has had on the way assessment is designed and implemented. He is also an independent reviewer of assessment on behalf of the British Psychological Society so is extremely well-placed to share his perspective on this topic. Given the explosion in technology, he often finds himself helping organisations make tricky choices about assessments, differentiating those which are underpinned by science and those which look slick, but have little depth or utility. Richard and Alan talk about the advantages of technology in terms of making it easier to standardise an assessment process, easier to administrate for organisations and easier for candidates to take

In this episode we're continuing our Beyond Measure campaign and talking about whether the automation of workplace assessment has resulted in the de-skilling of practitioners. This week Richard and Pilar are joined by Claire Rahmatallah, Managing Director, Future Work Centre. The topic of discussion is how technology has played a huge part in the way assessment is designed, implemented and interpreted. Much of the process is now fully automated which brings lots of advantages including process improvement, reduction in administration time, enhanced candidate experience and innovation. However, it does prompt some challenge and debate about the quality of assessment and how it is being impacted by technology. Richard also shares his reflections after presenting at the CIPD Future of Work Conference in London where he got the opportunity to see different perspectives on the workplace of the future. He shares some research from Edelman showing low levels of trust in organisations, but also that 60% of people fe

In this episode Richard shares his reflections on a recent conference, organised by the Division of Occupational Psychology in Scotland, where they brought psychologists together from a range of disciplines to discuss the core question 'What counts as evidence?'. As we all know... The episode kicks off with a teaser for a future podcast titled 'As we all know...'. Have you ever attended an event or conference where someone says 'As we all know...' followed by a big claim, often with no evidence to back it up? We've come across this a lot and think it's time to ask some more challenging questions! Here are just a few: As we all know... everybody likes to work remotely increasing employee engagement leads to increased productivity learning styles dictate the success of training Whilst there may be some useful ideas, these claims do not invite critical appraisal or a deeper exploration of where the assertion came from. So, we'd love to hear from our listeners about similar claims they've come across, and we'll

In this episode we discuss two things: Explore the use, limitations and challenges associated with the assessment of personality at work. Respond to a question from a listener about how to help managers better understand and take action from employee survey data.  As part of our 'Beyond Measure' initiative we will be sharing information with listeners  about the world of workplace assessment. Workplace assessment touches a lot of people, whether you've been asked to complete a test or questionnaire, or whether you're responsible for using assessments as part of a talent programme. We want to help demystify this subject, busting some myths along the way and hopefully bring some clarity on how it can be used most effectively. Before diving into this topic, Richard and Pilar respond to a question raised by a listener, following our interview with Paul Thoresen (episode 9) about the challenges of using survey data and how to get managers to understand the data and take action.  We then return to

In this episode we interview Eric Barends, MD and founder of the Centre for Evidence-based Management (CEBMa) and explore his journey into evidence-based management and the evolution of the organisation. CEBMa (www.cebma.org) started as a network of like-minded people from all over the world who shared a passion and interest in the evidence-based practice in organisations. Since its inception 6 years ago, the organisation has grown its presence significantly including a fantastic website of tools, resources and guides for practitioners as well as teaching  and supporting individuals and organisations to make better decisions.  Eric shares his personal journey into evidence-based management. Driven by a frustration about the way decisions were being made in his organisation, he looked to evidence-based medicine for guidance on how to apply a more systematic and rigorous approach to making better decisions. As a practitioner he talks about his experiences of using an evidence-based approach to reduce

In this episode we are delighted to share an interview with Paul Thoresen, an industrial organisational psychologist based in the US. Paul works with organisations helping them to design, implement and take action from employee surveys.  Richard and Paul discuss some of the challenges around employee engagement and its measurement, such as the definition of the concept and the importance of being clear about the problem you are trying to address before looking at a solution.  They also explore whether surveys are sometimes seen as the solution, rather than a mechanism to gather the views of employees. As a tool they can be over-used and if no action is taken in between by the organisation, it can be a fruitless exercise. Paul encourages organisations to explore the data they may already have in their organisation, or think about other ways of collecting data such as focus groups and interviews.  More broadly we also look at the impact that social media is having on the speed and ease of sharing

In this episode we do two things: Discuss a recent article about the prevalence of 'neuromyths' in education and the workplace Introduce an initiative we'll be running for the remainder of the year, where we'll be focusing on workplace assessment. Richard highlights recently came across this article in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2016/feb/24/four-neuromyths-still-prevalent-in-schools-debunked?CMP=share_btn_tw and thought it was a good example of how misunderstandings of science persist as beliefs despite a lack of evidence, for example 'we only use 10% of our brains' or 'learning styles'. It's easy to see how this popular shorthand of science becomes common knowledge, but we should be extremely wary about using these 'theories' as the basis for shaping policies, educational practices or learning and development. Pilar and Richard move on to discuss the Future Work Centre's upcoming initiative about workplace assessment. Used by many organisations across the world to h

An interview with David D'Souza Head of London & Head of Engagement (branches) at the CIPD, to explore his perspective on introducing and developing an evidence-based perspective in organisations Building on his recent blog post. We talk about this article which challenges Amy Cuddy's research. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2016/01/amy_cuddy_s_power_pose_research_is_the_latest_example_of_scientific_overreach.html Articles on replicating research: http://www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/09/does-social-science-have-a-replication-crisis/  

Employee engagement: the emperor's new clothes? In this episode, we do two things - introduce the theme for 2017 around assessment in the workplace and what we'll be doing and how to get involved. Then for the majority of the episode, we focus on employee engagement. What does it mean and what does the evidence say? You can access our own whitepaper on engagement here (http://www.futureworkcentre.com/knowledge-centre/employee-engagement-emperors-new-clothes-2/).   

Something a bit different for this episode, as we have an interview with Lorenzo Galli, founder of ScienceForWork. Scientific evidence is one of the core pillars of evidence-based practice, but for organisations and practitioners there are several challenges in this regard. The first is being able to access it in the first place, whether that's because of a paywall or knowing where to locate studies. But even if you do manage to access academic research, do you understand what the data is telling you? ScienceForWork, is a not-for-profit organisation, who address these challenges directly, by aggregating and evaluating research on a range of people-related issues and make their findings available freely, for all. Pilar is beginning to think that "science" and "research" can become a bit of a fad in themselves, specially anything that's brain related. She recalls a blog article which referenced a study conducted in Colorado State University where three groups of students were shown some fake data about brain im