What is an Organizational Psychologist Anyway?

In case you missed this, have a read while you wind down your week:

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I like to say Organizational Psychologists* can put a whole organization on the couch and discover and repair issues that keep it from being its healthiest self. Some of the parts of the organization that fall under the “examination” might be recruiting practices, workforce development and performance improvement, analytics, leadership, change management, and organizational culture. We may even look at the performance rewards system for clues as to why culture is the way it is, and how it may differ between departments and divisions. Let’s just focus in on three major aspects in companies where organizational psychologists can help tremendously.

First, let’s look at the concept of “Employability.” Improving recruiting practices are an excellent way to impact the bottom line, by enticing the most qualified and valuable candidates and helping hiring managers to form a clear prediction for how well they will do in the job.  Organizational Psychologists help with specific tools such as excellence in interviewing practices or to set up valid selection tests. Retention rates, internal promotions, performance reviews, and feedback are great ways to measure the success of such programs.

Workforce development is also a large focus for organizational psychologists, and many companies need significant help here. The key steps to developing human performance improvement strategies involve performing a structured needs assessment, so as to avoid losing money on a major miss on training (see the basics of needs assessment here.) The results drive the strategy with all kinds of amazing changes possible for the business, including customer retention, cost reduction in shipping, less scrap, more equipment uptime and more internal promotions for leaders (see why this saves money here.)

How about help in performing a diagnostic of the level of engagement for leaders and individual contributors?  Organizational psychologists can put companies on a path that heals deep-rooted and complicated problems with employee engagement. The Gallup Organization has monitored engagement for leaders and individuals for some time and their recent report from the end of 2017 shows that eighteen percent of employees are actively disengaged in their work and workplace, while 67% are “not engaged.”

Those actively disengaged are trying to get out of the organization, or worse, staying in it and being covertly destructive, highly negative and even purposely waste time. This impacts productivity, employee relations, employee turnover and competitiveness. With many factors impacting engagement, an organizational psychologist can look with the eyes of an outsider, asking questions of focus groups, doing observations and sitting in on key activities and discussions to measure employee engagement and plan changes with the organization to improve those numbers.  Organizational psychologists can keep employees engaged, attempt to bring back those who are disengaged and figure out the best solution for diagnosing and dealing with the actively disengaged who would rather hide in plain sight then exit voluntarily.

All organizations have some problems: Issues increase and decrease as leadership and priorities shift. The biggest obstacles sometimes gain traction and become overwhelming as organizations focus on the day to day firefighting that is common in the workplace. That is why, taking a step back and allowing an outside eye helps diagnose and plan strategic direction to take organizations and the workforce to a higher level is critical every few years or during or after significant changes, such as expansion or re-organization.

To further build your reputation for solving business problems with training, see more in the book by Katy Caselli, Building Giants, A Proven System to Transform Your Workplace Through Effective Training

Or see more about Organizational Psychology services through Building Giants, LLC here.

*Also known as Industrial/Organizational Psychologists, but my goodness what a mouthful!