Evidence-based HR: Make smarter, fairer decisions with data

How evidence-based HR builds a thriving culture

Today’s workplace is shifting fast—and so are the challenges. With Gen Z entering the workforce and purpose now a top priority, hiring is no longer just about skills. It’s a 30/30/30 equation: technical ability, culture fit, and alignment with company values. And that final 30%? It’s harder to measure—but essential for success.

As organizations and candidates navigate this new value-driven dance, hiring cycles are stretching longer. Add to that the extended onboarding time many Gen Z employees require—often due to limited soft skills training—and the costs of hiring mistakes quickly add up.

That’s where evidence-based HR comes in. At Marlee, we help teams shift from guesswork to data-backed decisions—reducing time-to-hire, increasing retention, and ensuring every new teammate is set up to thrive. Our research offers a clear lens into what motivates people at work, so you can build high-performing teams grounded in cognitive diversity, not just credentials.

And it matters. According to McKinsey, companies with top-quartile cultures outperform others by 60% on shareholder returns. Culture isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a business advantage.

At Marlee, our mission is to help every person understand their unique strengths—and find alignment in the work they do. When people thrive, culture follows.

🧐 Marlee Webcast: What motivates teams across generations? Our global study reveals the surprising shifts.

Why participate in evidence-based HR?

For a long time, hiring relied on intuition, gut feel, resumes, and the elusive “X-factor.” But in today’s fast-paced, high-stakes environment, instinct alone isn’t enough. Without data, we’re more vulnerable to something called cognitive bias.

Also known as unconscious bias, these are the mental shortcuts our brains take to simplify decisions. While helpful in everyday life, they can seriously distort how we evaluate candidates. We might unknowingly favor someone who looks or thinks like us, or overlook great talent because they don’t “fit the mold.”

That’s where evidence-based HR makes the difference. At Marlee, we’re on a mission to create fairer, more inclusive workplaces by replacing bias with insight. When you join the Marlee community, you get early access to global research and immediate access to our motivation assessment—a powerful lens into what truly drives individuals, teams, and organizations at work.

This research fuels Marlee’s growing suite of evidence-based tools—here are just a few you can start using right away:

• The Soft Skills Board helps you visualize your team’s interpersonal strengths.
• Business coaching supports growth in high-impact areas.
• The Over Time Board lets you track engagement and development.
• And the Team Distribution Board gives a bird’s-eye view of team motivators—so you can spot gaps, leverage strengths, and build better dynamics.

Together, these tools empower you to make more informed people decisions—ones that unlock performance, foster belonging, and future-proof your culture.

A Team Distribution Board in Marlee: See your team’s biggest motivator similarities and differences at a glance

What counts as evidence-based HR?

So, what actually qualifies as “evidence” in HR? It’s not just about crunching numbers. Evidence-based HR draws on a range of sources, each offering a different perspective on people, performance, and workplace culture.

Here’s how it breaks down:

• Quantitative evidence includes measurable data like turnover rates, time-to-hire, absenteeism, or engagement survey scores. With the right tools, even more abstract concepts—like productivity or collaboration—can be turned into trackable metrics.
• Qualitative evidence comes from stories, observations, and personal feedback. It includes open-ended survey responses, interviews, and team reflections, offering insight into how people feel and experience the workplace.
• Experiential evidence taps into the insights of those with deep knowledge or lived experience in a particular context, like HR professionals, team leaders, or DEI advocates who bring meaningful perspective to decision-making.
• Organizational evidence looks at internal data tied to business outcomes—things like revenue, customer satisfaction, or project success rates. It helps connect people decisions to bottom-line results.
• Academic research adds depth by grounding practices in peer-reviewed studies and validated theories. Whether it’s motivation science, team dynamics, or learning design, this kind of research helps separate trends from truths.

When these types of evidence are used together, they offer a more complete, fair, and future-facing approach to managing people and shaping culture.

What is the Marlee assessment?

The Marlee motivation assessment is grounded in more than two decades of scientific research. It measures 48 distinct work-related motivations, revealing what individuals pay attention to, how they derive meaning from their work, and where they feel most energized.

Marlee's assessment is evidence-based, designed specifically for the workplace, and delivers a unique, personalized result for each user. It’s used by individuals, teams, and organizations to better understand themselves and each other.

Our research: Expanding what’s possible in HR

Marlee’s contribution to the field of evidence-based HR goes far beyond assessments. Our ongoing research explores how motivation, cognitive patterns, and cultural dynamics shape performance, inclusion, and success at work.

Here are just a few of our current and past studies:

• Can Entrepreneurial Success be Predicted 2016: Benchmarked the motivations of successful founders to explore what attitudes influence venture outcomes.
• MBTI Study: Builds on traditional personality theory by layering in motivational science and cognitive bias for deeper workplace insight. (Report in progress)
• Dyslexia Study: Investigates whether dyslexia can be a strength in the modern workplace. (Data collection ongoing)
• ADHD/ADD Study: Explores the distinct work motivations and patterns of those with ADHD or ADD. (Data collection ongoing)
• Philippines Culture Map: 2002: Provided deep insight into cultural motivations to support national strategy, innovation, and global collaboration.
• Thai Culture Map: 2022: A groundbreaking analysis of the working culture in Thailand, offering insights to better understand, strategically support, and unlock new opportunities for the Thai workforce.
• Startup Genome - Entrepreneurial Mindset 2018: To explore the core mental attributes, Startup Genome and Marlee surveyed founders worldwide about their Founder Mindset. (See report, page 30).
• She Loves Tech 2020 report: Analyzed data from 2,000+ startups across 60+ countries to understand what motivates women in tech ecosystems.
• Enneagram Study: Combines personality theory with motivation science to explore authenticity and self-awareness at work. (In progress)
• Clifton Strengths Finder Study and DISC Study: Ongoing research explores how motivational patterns complement or expand on popular workplace tools.

Together, these studies help shape a more inclusive, data-informed future of work—one where human potential is better understood, measured, and unlocked at scale.

What are the benefits of evidence-based HR?

Shifting to an evidence-based approach in HR is transformative. From hiring to team development, the benefits ripple across every level of the organization.

• Make better hiring decisions: Data-backed insights lead to stronger culture fits and smarter hires. Research shows that evidence-based hiring can improve efficiency by 80% and reduce attrition by up to 50⁴.
• Boost diversity and inclusion: Removing bias starts with better measurement. When hiring panels rely on evidence—not assumptions—organizations can build fairer, more inclusive teams. And the payoff is real: diverse companies are 36% more likely to outperform their peers⁵.
• Screen and develop soft skills: Communication. Empathy. Critical thinking. These “human skills” are now essential—and highly measurable. With the right tools, teams can assess, develop, and amplify the traits that drive performance and culture.
• Understand generational differences: Gen Z will make up 27% of the workforce by 2025⁶—and their motivations look different from earlier generations. Evidence-based HR helps decode these differences, so you can engage each team member on their terms.
  👉 Download our study: Unlocking Gen Z at Work: A Generational Impact Study (2024)
• See strong ROI: Hiring missteps are expensive. From shortening onboarding time to improving collaboration, the return on data-driven decisions adds up quickly—and sustainably.
• Evaluate what’s working: One of the biggest wins? You can finally measure the impact of your HR programs. With valid, reliable tools, evidence-based HR turns guesswork into actionable insight.

Who’s using evidence-based HR?

From startups to global enterprises, organizations across industries are turning to evidence-based HR to make smarter, faster, fairer people decisions.

Here are a few ways organizations are putting it into practice:

• High-growth companies like Canva use Marlee to streamline hiring at scale, cutting through noise and onboarding the right people, fast.
• Universities such as UTS apply evidence-based tools to help students design meaningful career paths based on real-world data.
• Enterprises like SAP rely on motivation data and culture insights to build and maintain high-performing teams across global operations.
• Accelerators and VCs including Cocoon Capital, use motivation benchmarks to evaluate startup founders, helping de-risk investment decisions with evidence, not instinct.

Data gains meaning through perspective

Another powerful aspect of evidence-based HR? Collaboration. Data becomes even more valuable when viewed through multiple lenses.

With Marlee’s team analysis tools, leaders can:

• Invite team members to complete the motivation assessment
• Build a shared team space
• Compare motivators, working styles, and cultural traits with Marlee's Boards
• Identify similarities, differences, and development opportunities at a glance

It’s a smarter way to align teams, rooted in evidence and built on understanding.

How to get started with evidence-based HR

You don’t need a patchwork of expensive analytics platforms to practice evidence-based HR. With Marlee, everything you need to optimize human potential lives in one place—from performance and collaboration tools to hiring insights and culture mapping.

True to our mission of democratizing human development, getting started is simple. You can explore Marlee’s suite of tools for free, with flexible plans available for teams larger than three.

Whether you're building a team from scratch or evolving how your organization works, evidence-based HR is the foundation for success.

What next for Marlee research?

Marlee has already made significant contributions to the fields of coaching, professional development, and evidence-based HR. But we’re only just scratching the surface.

Our research has explored the motivators behind startup success, the cultural and cognitive drivers of workforces across Australia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the US, and the mindsets that shape high-growth teams.

Looking ahead, we’re expanding into bold new territory—studying:

• Strengths and personality frameworks through the lens of motivation
• The impact of workplace innovations like the four-day workweek
• Mental health, well-being, and neurodiversity at work
• The human skills that set elite performers—like athletes and creatives—apart from the crowd

Every study brings us closer to a workplace where potential is understood, not assumed—and where people are seen for what energizes them, not just what they do.

You can be part of it. Join our research community and help shape the future of work for everyone.

AI and our data ethics: You have control of your data:

Wondering how Marlee approaches privacy and data protection?  Rest assured, your participation in any Marlee research study is 100% anonymous, and your identity will never be associated with your research participation. You may choose to participate in any number of studies that you feel called to. We've made it possible for you to opt-in or opt-out in your profile settings at any time – so you're always in control of your data.

Our values

Responsible data principles

• Your data belongs to you, and you always control what you share
• We do not sell your data
• All data is anonymised within the studies
• We believe in conducting research that has positive social impacts
• We research areas that promote cognitive diversity, inclusivity, wellbeing, self-awareness and more
• We fund all of our research or work in research partnerships with other ethical research organizations.

Meet the experts behind our research

The esteemed experts who sit on the Marlee research panel include:

• Michelle Duval

Michelle pioneered new forms of learning and the field of professional coaching in Australia in 1997, becoming a leading voice forging developmental and transformational coaching worldwide.

She has coached entrepreneurs, thought leaders, CEOs, and creative artists such as writers, producers, and actors. She has coached thousands of individuals locally and internationally.

• Daniel Frenda

Daniel is a senior engineer at Marlee, responsible for data modeling and analysis. He is also a full-stack developer with a scientific background, having previously studied Advanced Physics and Computing at UNSW. Daniel's role involves rapidly evolving Marlee data, research, resources, app features, dashboards, modeling tools, and more. He's a strong believer in using unbiased empirical evidence to draw insightful conclusions.

• Dr. Carl Harshman

Carl L. Harshman founded the Institute for Work Attitude & Motivation which is dedicated to education, research, and application of innovative tools for helping organizations, teams, and individuals improve performance through an understanding of motivation and attitude.

Dr. Harshman's undergraduate and doctoral degrees were conferred by The Ohio State University. He earned his Master’s degree at Wright State University. In 1972 he joined Saint Louis University to create the Office of Institutional Research. Carl is an award-winning speaker and has presented at regional, national, and international meetings including the Association for Quality and Participation, Ecology of Work, Work in America Institute, the Industrial Relations Research Association, and the International Association for Business Ethics.

• Patrick Merlevede

Patrick Merlevede founded JobEQ in 2004, which has partners who are active in more than 30 countries. He is the author of several publications including 7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence (2001) and Mastering Mentoring & Coaching with Emotional Intelligence (2004). He graduated with a Masters in artificial intelligence and cognitive science in 1992 and specializes in making models of excellence.

• Dr. Jeri Childers

Dr. Childers was the Director of Education at iAccelerate, at UOW and the Founding Director of the UTS Techcelerator, at the University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Engineering & IT, which enables early-stage tech founders to prototype and validate their commercial deep tech solutions. Dr. Childers also founded the UTS Female Founder Mentoring Program and the Advancing Women in Tech leadership development series.

Today, Dr. Childers is also a Fellow with the UTS, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, School of Leadership and Professional Practice, where she conducts research on innovation and enterprising mindsets for designing careers and venture development. Her focus is on mindset, culture, product/service design, and structures that enable innovation, diversity, and inclusion.

Marlee: Leading the way in evidence-based HR

Marlee is redefining how organizations approach human potential—turning gut instinct into data-informed action. By combining organizational insights with science-backed research, Marlee helps teams make smarter hiring decisions, reduce bias, and boost performance at scale. The result? Happier, more inclusive teams that thrive—not just today, but into the future.

Start for free with Marlee and bring evidence-based HR to life.