Cafe Classic: What if We Prepared for our Profession Like Medical School Students?

Editor's Note:  What if we (speaking to my fellow non-doctoral colleagues), as part of our preparation for a career in employee rewards, had the chance for a formal learning opportunity on how to read research and assess the relevance of research findings to our day-to-day responsibilities?  Since this post planted the first seeds of interest in the kind of research/practice learning collaboration that we are attempting to initiate with our new Take Five series, I thought it might be a timely moment to feature it as a Classic.  

Don't worry.  I don't mean dissecting cadavers and such.  Rather, I'm talking about arming ourselves with the skills and know-how to not only keep abreast of research and developments in our field but to also identify where there are lessons that can improve how we practice in our profession.

As part of a formal medical school curriculum this term, a family member of mine is participating in what I find to be a very interesting class.  Through a combination of statistics coursework along with regular reading and small group discussion of medical papers and journal articles, she and her coursemates are learning how to assess and interpret the latest research and developments in their field.  Together, under the guidance of their instructor, they work to understand these studies and to determine the relevance of their findings to the day-to-day practice of medicine in their chosen disciplines.

Wouldn't we in compensation - and in other HR disciplines - benefit from this kind of professional preparation?  Few of us who haven't gone the doctoral route are comfortable and confident in our ability to accurately decipher research papers and academic journal articles, to cull out the wheat from the chaff, and extract the "real world" insights that can help us do our jobs better.

With this kind of preparation, we would also be better educated consumers of information.  We would be less susceptible to the mythologies and miracle cures being sold by consultants, academics and business book authors, who claim a solid grounding in "research" that may or may not be valid.

This may be part of the coursework in some M.B.A. or graduate level HR programs, but I know I never received it as part of pursuing my own Master's degree.  I'm not aware, either, of the existence of this kind of preparation in any of our professional certification programs, such as the SPHR or CCP.

Is this a gap that deserves further thought and attention?

Ann Bares is the Founder and Editor of Compensation Café,  Author of Compensation Force and Managing Partner of Altura Consulting Group LLC, where she provides compensation consulting and survey administration services to a wide range of client organizations.  She earned her M.B.A. at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School and enjoys reading in her spare time. Follow her on Twitter at @annbares.

Comments

[Katherine]

Ha then maybe we wouldn't have had broadbanding...

[Ann Bares]

Katherine,

Well said - ha indeed!