Workplace Psych, by Alexa Thompson

he Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment

You know how all us bloggers get approached by people we don’t know, asking via the internet whether they can write guest posts for our blogs, when really they’re just fishing for backlinks to support SEO for their website? I know it happens to me all the time. Usually I turn them all down on principal. But Alexa wasn’t asking for a permanent link in my sidebar, and what she had to say, while not really particularly relevant to my normal blog content, did at least sound interesting, and as you can see, links to actual sources, rather than linking back to some education connection website.

So I’ve loaned Alexa my blog for the day.

Developing highly qualified employees is the goal of all companies, because better employees equals better business. The following article by Alexa Thompson discusses the importance of fulfilling the psychological needs of your employees in order to make them feel that their workplace lets them grow as a person. In addition to her articles about employee psychology, Alexa is a prolific writer who also writes about psychology education, including what type of work you can do with a psychology degree.

Measuring and Investing in Employee Growth Without Earning a Psychology Degree

Managing a successful business is difficult in these days of high employee turnover. Companies are constantly having to try to refill their ranks after talented individuals find a new stepping stone in their career paths. Many human resource managers agree that retaining effective employees is crucial for maintaining business success, but without a background in psychology it’s difficult to understand employee attitudes towards their jobs.

Thankfully, research has recently been made available that highlights the management choices that make employee retention more successful. For some, it’s not just about retaining good employees, but helping them grow personally so that they value their connection with the company. Research shows, however, that the ability to retain and nurture top talent decreases as managers reach senior levels within their organizations.

In January 2011, Forbes writer Drew Hansen wrote a piece about developing talent within an organization. His article argues that there are three main factors that decrease a manager’s ability to help talent grow and stay within a company: time, focus on tangible returns and the lack of a culture of development, which prizes organizational coaching over one-on-one employee feedback sessions.

Cori Hill, director of high-potential leadership development at global leadership solutions company PDI Ninth House, was interviewed for the Forbes piece and gave suggestions for human resource managers looking to improve their companies’ development cultures. Among these is the need to act as a role model, not by accomplishing every job perfectly but by asking for help when needed and admitting to mistakes. This both reinforces employee commitment to operations and also demonstrates a willingness for upper management to learn. In turn, this demonstration encourages employees to seek out learning challenges for themselves.

Even successful businesses have difficulties retaining talented employees. Another Forbes article from July 2012 discusses management techniques among 1,200 American HR managers that result in low talent retention and corporate creativity among employees. A study of these managers found that the gap between what employees need and the actual training that they receive from management was higher among senior managers than lower-level managers. As a result, 95 percent of employees at the companies surveyed held jobs at different companies within 28 months.

The lesson here is to take time to communicate with your employees. Instead of finding fault with business mistakes, treat them as learning experiences through which employees can grow. Looking at the workplace as a work in progress will help you find new solutions to problems instead of holding fast to processes that have worked in the past but may not serve your future.

Another way to encourage personal and professional growth among your employees is to support a culturally diverse workplace. Diversity in the workplace brings many of the same benefits. For instance, the Wisconsin State Journal reported on Madison’s second annual Workplace Diversity Summit in July 2012. At this conference, Mark Richardson, a vice president of workforce development for the Urban League of Greater Madison, said that diversity “is about recognizing that the contribution of individuals from differing backgrounds actually makes your workplace more dynamic, open to different opportunities, more able to adapt.”

Every employee is a unique individual with career goals that not only differ significantly from a manager’s goals, but even from most of their fellow employees. Some are just there to pay the bills while pursuing other careers, while others hope to ascend the management ranks. Effective managers must dictate goals that the entire organization is motivated to complete. Supporting employee growth among individuals may be time consuming, but taking the time to understand what motivates them in the first place will save time later and make for a more constructive work setting.