PhD in I/O Psychology necessary after Masters in HR?

[HR to I/O?]

Hello Everybody! 

I have been struggling with the decision to go back to grad school. I have been working in Human Resources for the past two years after completing a Bachelors in Psychology/Music and a Masters degree in HR. When I was considering my first go around with grad school, I was debating between graduate programs in I/O Psychology and Masters programs in HR. I ultimately decided to go to business school and get a Masters in HR since my undergrad was in Psychology and I thought having degrees in the Liberal Arts as well as Business would make me a more "well-rounded" candidate for jobs.

However, now that I have been in the working world for a couple of years now, I am wondering if I should go back for a degree in I/O Psychology. My areas of interest include Talent Assessment/Selection and Talent Management. I have found that my Masters degree in HR, while certainly very closely related to I/O Psychology, did not give me a lot of scientific rigor when it comes to approaching topics such as Talent Assessment. I am currently in a position where I do Best Practice Research and Data Analysis for our Diversity & Inclusion department. My boss has a purely HR background, so she is not very helpful when it comes to developing me from a statistical or research background. 

I also realize that going back to grad school would be a significant time and financial commitment--I would be going back to develop skills that I feel are crucial to be successful in my areas of interest--but could I gain those same skills from 5+ more years of work experience? That way I would not be sacrificing my salary, and continue to gain valuable work experience. Would the value of a PhD outweigh the cut in pay for 5 or more years? Could I gain enough experience in the working world that a PhD wouldn't add any additional value?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts! Thanks so much for your perspective!

[homonculus]

Not my field, but since no one has answered yet, I'll take a crack at it. 

Do you need a PhD for the job you eventually want? I think you are right that 5+ years of work experience is valuable, so the PhD would be a big sacrifice. If you aren't interested in spending a lot of time on research and becoming an expert in a specific area, a PhD might not be a good option. 

Sorry for the vague answer, but I guess everything depends on your end goals.

[BeingThere]

If you can acquire the desired skills OTJ, then stay working.  You asked whether you can acquire them (gain experience equivalent to a doctorate) on your job.  I don't think anyone on here could answer that for you, since we don't know anything about your workplace.  If you can't get them at your current job, possibly you could get them at another company without having to go back to school. 

As for whether the value of a PhD would outweigh the cut in pay for 5 or more years, you can get a rough monetary estimate of this pretty easily.  Go to SIOP.com and look for the members and salary survey.  The most recent one is 2012.  I don't know if the report includes data for outside the US.  Of course this will just give you salary numbers, so you'll have to factor in other things that are important to you.

Best of luck to you!