Our world has transformed immensely in the current era. We are observing massive changes in the form of technological advancement, workplace dynamics, and industrial development. Humanity is achieving such progress, which was fiction to previous generations. Due to such radical events, our scope of work has shifted too. Such advancements are challenging our typical workplace practices and norms. We are moving towards better practices, focusing on the quality of life and work in the whole scheme.
However, there is also a dark side to such improvements and progress. The concept of work-life balance has halted, and people are over-worked to match the pace of such development. Similarly, there is a constant pressure of working hard, working on our skillset, and performing to our optimum, as the world is demanding the mantra of “go fast or go home.”
Similarly, corporate experts and professionals have realized that such requirements cannot be fulfilled with typical human resource functions and operations. Therefore, in modern times, human resources are now not only responsible for compensation, benefits, yearly appraisals, and disciplinary actions but also to consider the psychological health of the organization and its employees. They are now the epitome of their people’s mental health and capacity to keep them sane to get the most out of them for achieving organizational objectives. In this regard, multiple professionals get hired to deliver on such goals. One of them is organizational psychologists. They are responsible for improving the quality of the work environment through psychological practices. Improving Employee Morale and boosting employee productivity is the core of their jobs. Such psychologists get their training and professional expertise through specialized degree programs like Organizational Psychology Degree from renowned universities alongside their work experience in HR departments. It is considered to be one of the most sought skillsets in future workplace practices.
Let’s explore some of the utility and career prospects of being an organizational psychologist.
Table of Contents
1. BEHAVIOR ANALYST:
Human behavior has a lot to do with his or her performance in an organization. However, the practice is not an objective study. It requires an assessment of the behavioral problem with an extensive and measurable manner to find the causes and devise strategies to cater to the issues.It involves a lot of research arch elements to gather data and analyze what influences which behavior and how to interpret and quantify such results to improve workplace practices.
2. I-O CONSULTANTS:
Industrial-Organizational Consultants typically work a third-party consultant to organizations that specializes in career planning, change management, training and development, evaluation and assessment, leadership coaching, etc. They either work as employees of Learning and Development firms or only sole proprietors as we call them “Briefcase Consultants.”The reason f their hiring is to solve specific human resources related problems and provide their service through dipstick analysis, research findings, and best practices around.
3. TALENT ACQUISITION & MANAGEMENT EXPERTS:
These days, the progress and performance of any business rely heavily on the people they have on board. Therefore, the matter of attracting, retaining, and growing the best available talent holds strategic importance in HR Development Programs. In this capacity, talent management specialists are hired to evaluate talent needs, develop key competency frameworks, design interview and assessment centers, succession blueprint, training needs, and performance evaluation systems. They also get to work closely with HR business partners and the Training department to chalk out relevant programs to engage key talent in the business thoroughly.
4. COUNSELOR:
Organization Psychology Graduates can also work as Freelance or Vocational Counselors. They can provide their service to professionals or individuals to handle firing or lay-offs, stress related to jobs, mindset development regarding the transition to new roles, or merely on-going coaching of high-rank executives for their development. These services can be provided by typical HR professionals, too, but the study of organizational psychology train these counselors to serve with big picture thinking alongside psychological repercussions and perspectives.
5. RESEARCH CONSULTANTS:
Organizational Psychologists can also work on extensive research projects, as they are trained and skilled in designing, conducting researches, and analyze research projects to provide critical insights and advanced developments for journals and forums through their articles and publications. Their expertise is also utilized by engaging them to organize project phases with pre-work of focus groups and management interviews, manage project teams, and manage overall projects within allotted budgets for not-for-profit organizations.
6. CONCLUSION:
As discussed above, the organizations are gradually taking such initiatives seriously and putting relevant considerations into action. Therefore, it is expected that such professionals will be in high demand in terms of remuneration and strategic importance in organizations. Similarly, as it is comparatively a new or novice discipline, there is a very lesser number of people available in the market, which can also improve their pay scales altogether.
However, as soon as it gets more traction, getting advanced doctorate degrees on the top of organizational psychology will benefit individuals over others as they will have a better skillset, training, and experience to solve the psychological needs of organizations.