Industrial & Organisational Psychology - A discipline to nourish organisational objectives.

What is Industrial & Organisational Psychology?

It's a branch of psychology that applies psychological theories, principles and assessment methods to observe, measure, analyse, interpret and manage employee behaviors and competencies at professional environment to enhance workplace well-being and productivity.

The Industrial & Organisational Psychology (I/O Psychology) focus on assessing employee's and organisation's psycho-physiological dispositions, personal and professional mastery and shortfalls in tandem with organisational goals. It equip I/O psychologists to address various issues and concerns which inhibit the organisation from achieving their business objectives, by positioning their psychological expertise into major HR practices. This includes developing:-

1. Advanced recruitment practices using psychometrics and behavioral interviews.
2. Performance management systems based on motivational theories and performance metrics.
3. Learning and development (L&D) programs based on learning theories and techniques.
4. Employee engagement and well-being programs to improve mental and physical well-being of employee at workplace.
5. Organisational development (OD) interventions to streamline whole organisational processes and workforce.
6. Employee counselling and grievance management policies and procedures to safeguard mental health, morale and safe work environment.

In nutshell, I/O Psychologists works to build and grow an efficient and passionate workforce with a safe and engaging work environment to bring about the business objectives of the organisation.

Areas of specialization in Human Resources.

1. Recruitment and selection.

It’s been a tough job since long, to hire the high potential employees from available applicants in job market. Sometimes companies compromises on candidates quality due to time constrains, cost, poor selection processes and assessment methods. This results unfavorably on the productivity of the team and business success. All of these hiring issues can be mastered by developing and implementing a performance based recruitment system, which assess the candidate's technical and theoretical knowledge, professional skills, personality traits and mental abilities in a scientific manner.

I/O psychologists design recruitment process which comprises of job specific psychometric tests, behavioral and structured interviews to hire the person with right personality trait and required skill sets, who would work best with the job position and company work culture. The technical and core work-related skill assessment will be carried out by concern department specialists or experts.

Psychometric tests assess the cognitive abilities and personality traits, which allow us to foresee thoughts, feelings, behavioral patterns and mental capabilities of the job candidates. Then organisations could hire the candidate with best suitable personality traits and abilities matching their job requirements and work culture. Mostly used personality tests as pre-recruitment tests are MBTI, DISC, 16 – PF, Firo-B and Big 5 personality test etc.

Behavioral and structured interviews assess the practical and professional knowledge, skills and abilities by analyzing candidate’s verbal (knowledge) and non-verbal (body language and micro expressions) cues while asking the candidate to share specific examples from their past relevant experiences of how they have responded to various situations. This reveals a candidate’s actual level of experience, skills and potential to handle similar kind of situations with our organization.

2. Learning and Development (L & D)

How we help our employees to learn and grow plays a crucial role in the success of the organisation. A structured L & D program increases the employee efficiency, engagement and helps to attract and retain high-potential talent. Hence building a positive work culture, where learning is appreciated is an absolute competitive advantage for the organisation to succeed.

I/O psychologists conduct Training Need Analysis (TNA) by identifying the knowledge, skills, physical and mental abilities required for the employees to excel at their work. Then evaluate the present mental and physical dispositions of employees and team using different psychometric and technical tests, job analysis, transactional analysis, interviews and observations to figure out if there exist any gap between actual versus desired competencies.

Later design training programs based on the findings from TNA and by applying various learning theories and techniques to prepare the workforce competent with the advanced job requirements and to keep them engaged and productive at workplace. L & D programs include:-

i) Non-experiential and technical training.

ii) Experiential training such as simulations, role-playing, behavior-modelling, sensitivity training and training with psychological instruments.

iii) Transactional analysis and Neuro-linguistic programs. 

3. Performance Management (PM)

"If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. – Peter Drucker"

How precisely we measure the talent, efforts and productivity of employees and team, matters first in performance management. We can manage employee performance if we can measure it qualitatively and quantitatively. I personally follow Management By Objectives (MBO) approach for PM.

Performance Management processes are:-

1. Scientific goals/objectives formulation for employees and team based on organisation's business plan.

2. Design criteria, tools and metrics to assess employee performance and its psychological and external causes and motives.

3. Periodic performance evaluation and feedback sharing to bring an insight among employees on their strengths and weaknesses.

4. Individual development plans to appreciate achievements and recommend L & D programs for setbacks by applying motivational and learning theories respectively.

3. Employee engagement and workplace well-being.

I/O Psychology not only deals with hiring, developing and managing work force, but also into creating vibrant work environment which allows employees to perform their best. Researches have shown that employees with healthy level of work engagement and workplace well-being are more productive than peers. Hence workforce effectiveness can be fostered by developing a work culture which induce employee’s mental and physical well-being at workplace.

Here I/O Psychologists assess the present employee related policies, processes, practices, work atmosphere and employee’s attitude and perception towards all these by using various psychometric tests and surveys. Such as organisational climate scale, occupational stress index, employee motivation survey, job satisfaction survey, workplace well-being questionnaire, work life balance survey, leadership styles assessment etc.

Based on the assessment results, they develop and implement policies, processes and programs to improve the weak areas in employee engagement and well-being. Here suggestions from employees are also considered along with socio-cultural and economic factors while planning engagement activities. Employee engagement and well-being activities begins from on-boarding and continues throughout employee life cycle till off-boarding. The ultimate aim of these activities is to bring a sense of belongingness and affection among employees towards their work and workplace.

5. Organisational Development (OD)

It is a planned and organisation-wide process aims at bringing meaningful and purposeful changes to organisation to stay competitive despite the dynamic business conditions. I/O psychologists analyse the organisational structure, work process, workforce competencies and work environment by using various techniques (such as data collection and analysis using psychometric tests, surveys, transaction analysis, behavioral and structured interviews, observations etc) to diagnose the pitfalls and drawbacks, which prevents the organisation from achieving their business goals. Then develop specific intervention programs based on the assessment findings, by applying learning theories and techniques, process/project/change management expertise to enrich the organisational processes, communications, talent development, work environment and employee well-being; thus in-turn boost organisational productivity and quality of product and services.

OD interventions includes:-

i. Employee training on technical, managerial, social and interpersonal skills using sensitivity training, behavior modelling, transactional analysis, neuro-linguistic programming etc.

ii. Implementing process improvement and Quality management techniques such as Six-sigma, Kaizen, 5S, Lean and TQM.

iii. Work process, procedures and workplace redesigning by applying ergonomics.

6. Employee Counselling and Grievance Management.

At organisational settings, counselling services are mainly essential in two types of circumstances.

1. When an employee experiences mental health issues or breakdown.

2. While handling employee grievances.

Wouldn't it be nice if the HR representative could offer a counselling service to employees experiencing mental health issues or breakdown? Perhaps employees are prone to mental health issues and breakdowns due to various reasons such as exhausting workload or work pressure, workplace harassment or bullying and personal causes. Hence it will be a privilege for the organisation as well as employees to have someone in their team, who is professionally qualified to address mental health issues and LISTEN to their distresses, as employees spends one third of their time at workplace. I/O psychologists are capable of providing counselling services and could guide colleagues to further proper medical consultation if they are undergoing severe mental health issues.

Grievance handling is a regular task for the HR department to deal with. Employee grievances can arise from any employee self-perception of dissatisfaction or unfairness at workplace. If grievances are not resolved on time, it can affect negatively on employee morale, satisfaction and efficiency. Hence effective grievance management is a key responsibility for HR professionals. I/O psychologists could frame grievance management policies and procedures by applying their counselling knowledge and abilities into practice. It will help them to LISTEN and ANALYSE the grievance and to FIND SOLUTION and CONVINCE concern employee in a healthy and ethical manner.

All these practices will help the organisation to build a dynamic work atmosphere and to increase the morale, well-being of the employees.

I wrote this from my I/O psychology theoretical expertise and limited professional exposure. Much applications and practices are there to be discussed. Do you apply psychological proficiencies while professional interactions with colleagues? Would love to hear from you.