As businesses are always looking for ways to improve profit margins and the efficiency of the company, industrial organizational psychology (I/O psychology) continues to grow in importance.
By applying the latest research and by analyzing different challenges in the workplace, I/O psychology can improve employee happiness, which in turn can lead to improved productivity.
Below are the five ways industrial organizational psychology can improve employee happiness and how it can help all types of businesses.
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Industrial organizational psychology (or I/O psychology) is the process of understanding human behavior and applying those lessons to the workplace. This specialty inside psychology focuses on deriving principles of individual, group, and organizational behavior and applying them to the solve problems at work.
I/O psychologists who execute, interpret, and apply the findings of research, can help address issues of:
Recruitment
Selection and placement
Training and development
Performance measurement
Workplace motivation
Quality of work life
Organizational development
Consumer behavior
I/O Psychology in the Workplace
While businesses are focused on the bottom line of profits and expenses, they are always searching for ways to increase productivity and efficiency.
5 ways that I/O psychology can help businesses are:
Lowering costs
Decreasing waste
Increasing Efficiency
Improving productivity
Team building
How Does Employee Happiness Impact Productivity?
Recent studies have shown that there’s a link between employee happiness and their productivity at work. In fact, one study by the Harvard Business Review, which included an analysis of hundreds of studies, revealed ‘happy’ employees showed an average of:
As opposed to once-held popular beliefs, happiness goes so much deeper than simple compensation and benefits packages. That’s because, according to Shawn Anchor, author of The Happiness Advantage, the brain works much better when a person is feeling positive.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 2023, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the median annual salary for Industrial Organizational Psychologists was $154,380.
What are 5 Ways I/O Psychology Can Improve the Happiness of Your Employees?
Below are the 5 ways I/O psychology can improve the happiness of employees.
Positive work environment
Reward and respect instead of punishment
Hiring better employees
Resolving conflicts
Use scientific research
As the studies mentioned above show, employee happiness can help companies improve their efficiency, which increases their bottom lines.
In fact, the 2013 State of the American Workplace Report estimated that extensive disinterest and discontent in professional life not only impacted a company’s performance, but also cost the U.S. $450 billion to $550 billion per year.
What is a positive work environment?
A positive work environment helps improve employee happiness which improves empolyee productivity. Some of the ways to make a positive work environment include:
Team outings
Organizational celebrations
Availability of board games and other stress busters
Access to social networking
All of these can lead to increased morale, which encourages employees to remain motivated and take initiative. Studies show that this leads to higher levels of job satisfaction, which can improve an organization’s overall effectiveness.
This makes it important to keep tabs on employee morale and encourage them to take initiatives to improve job satisfaction.
Why use reward and respect instead of punishment?
There’s no doubt that punishment can be used as a great motivator. But over the long-term, treating employees with respect and rewarding good performance creates a more positive work environment.
And, as mentioned above, employees are more likely to take initiative improving productivity in a positive environment. On the other hand, using punishment as a means of motivation creates a more negative environment.
While not the only reason, negative environments are one of the reasons that employees feel stressed, underpaid, unheard, and as though they have insufficient opportunities for advancement.
How does I/O psychology help hire better employees?
By using data-driven methods of the success of hiring, I/O psychology can provide a wealth of knowledge, including the answer to questions such as:
What skills and knowledge are most important to the position?
What type of personality will mesh best with your organization’s culture?
What behaviors would be most destructive?
Improving the entire process of hiring, from recruiting all the way through onboarding, means tracking both qualitative and quantitative research to see what works at your company and what doesn’t.
Too Much Employee Happiness?
Current research shows that stress busters and entertainment only enhance organizational effectiveness up to a point. After that point is reached, employees are likely to become complacent and stop taking initiative.
How does I/O psychology help resolve conflicts?
Inevitably, conflicts arise in the workplace. But that doesn’t mean that they have to drive your teams and employees apart. Instead, with the right tools and research, you can actually use these as ways to bring your team together.
While focusing on the issues of the conflict an I/O psychologist will also take into consideration the psychological concerns, such as respect, dignity, empowerment, and effectiveness, unlike a mediator.
This view of the entire situation, including all of the emotions behind the arguments, helps I/O psychologists resolve conflicts without one or more of your employees feeling betrayed.
Use scientific research
This research can help any department and could include any of the other ways industrial organizational psychology can improve the happiness of your employees.
However, often this is best used by human resources, who can collect and apply research and data to help in developing strategies and making key decisions, such as:
Workplace health
Compensation and benefits
Employee behavior
Employee issues
Performance evaluations
Trained to perform, interpret, and apply research, I/O psychologists can help your company make more informed decisions in every department in order to improve efficiency.
As I/O psychology continues to be a dynamic and growing field that encompasses a variety of workplace issues and efficiency, SIOP provides a wealth of information and resources to members.
Interested in Industrial Organizational Psychology?
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Top States for Employment for Industrial-Organizational Psychologists
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Earn your degree from a university with a “Whole Human Education” approach that focuses on assisting you in all aspects of your education: academic, emotional, career, financial, and family.
Choose from 75+ programs: Whether you’re starting fresh or seeking advancement, our career-focused programs are designed to help you make an impact in your chosen field.
National University is regionally accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC).