How Occupational Psychologists Add Value

Recently Psychologists have been looking at how useful they are to their clients. Christopher Ridgeway, in The Occupational Psychologist, April 2000 said: 'the initial issue [is] how much occupational psychologists understand business strategy. The next step is the capacity ... to generate solutions [and] add value.'

So can Psychologists understand business strategy, add value and be very useful people' to individuals at all levels and organisations of all sizes?

Joshua Fox in 'The Occupational Psychologist' outlined the following scenario.

'At a Board meeting of a company that manufactures innovative software applications for corporate and home users'. The next item on the agenda is 'Current problems with the Customer Technical Support Department'.

The Chair opens the discussion asking each Director in turn for comment.

Finance: We invested lots of money, what are we getting for it? I have been warned that yet again the department will over-run its budget.

Human Resources: The department has a high turnover, low morale and too many staff off with so-called 'stress-related illnesses'.

Marketing: Customer Care is the current buzzword, but my market researchers and contacts keep telling me that we are not perceived as being caring by companies or home users.

Non-executive: My brokers tell me that our share price is likely to fall because it is believed that our technical support does not match the sophistication of our software.

Sales: Our distributors are threatening to stop promoting and supplying our software applications because we now have a reputation for poor after-sales service.

Technical Development: We have made the software as idiot proof and as intuitive as possible, but staff in the department keep pestering my staff for guidance and support.

After a lively debate the Board concluded that the solution was neither to outsource the department or not to give support only through downloads from the Internet. Instead, it was agreed that the HR Director should invite a range of consultants to tender.

At subsequent Board meetings consultants outlined their diagnosis of the problem and the solution they would recommend.

Counselling and Personal Development: The problem is that your staff has no confidential personal guidance and support. You need our Employee Assistance and Guidance Programme.

Design of Environment and Work: Health and Safety: The problem is that a combination of environmental, workload and health hazards is reducing productivity and generating stress. You need our Total Environmental Design System.

Employee Relations and Motivation: The problem is that there are conflicts within the department and with other departments and the company about financial and non-financial incentives and conditions and about the lack of consulting and grievance procedures. You need our Goals Focussed Compensation and Consultation System.

Human-Machine Interaction: The problem is that your staff cannot match their advice to the limited skills and experience of your users. You need our Interactive Troubleshooting System.

Organisation Development and Change: The problem is that managing support systems requires a different structure from managing technical innovation. You need our Service Focussed Communication and Structural System.

Performance Appraisal and Career Development: The problem is that you have no appraisal system to identify and develop the careers of those staff that make the best contributions. You need our Behaviourally Anchored Appraisal and Development System.

Personnel Selection and Assessment: The problem is that you are not selecting the right kind of staff. You need our Criteria-Oriented Assessment System.

Training: The problem is that your staff has not been given the proper training to grasp the problem of each user and offer solutions that the user can understand and act on with confidence. You need out Integrated Instructional System.

A somewhat bewildered Board tried to make sense of eight different diagnoses and solutions. They were relieved when one of the Non-executive Directors recalled a company that had found someone who first helped the board take an overall view of the problem and then recommended a combination of solutions. The Director could remember the person's name but not their title. The Board agreed that this person should be invited to speak to them.

The person turned out to be a Chartered Occupational Psychologist!

If Impact Consulting Business Psychologists had been called in, we might have said to the Board.

'You want your staff to achieve results that contribute to your corporate vision and reinforce your corporate values. To do this you must find the answers to four questions.

• What should the department contribute?
• What factors help staff achieve their objectives?
• What strategy should we adopt?
• How will the strategy we adopt be implemented and evaluated?

For each question, I will give examples of possible answers and how these answers could be used to improve the contribution the department makes to your corporate vision and values'.

What should the department contribute?
At an earlier meeting of the Board you all gave your views but you also need the views of your staff, retailers, users, competitors and the media. You should then agree on the contribution you expect, for example: 'Ensuring we are positioned as the leader in after-sales support.'

What factors help staff achieve their objectives?
Staff are more likely to perform and achieve their objectives when they have the right motivations, capacities and styles and when the company provides the right motivators, structures and environments.

• Staff are more likely to want to perform and develop, the more they have the right ambitions, interests and values and the more the company provides the right policies, responsibilities and values. To assist with motivation we would work with you to identify what motivates your staff and design and implement a strategy in partnership with you.
• Staff are more likely to be able to achieve their objectives, the more they have the right achievements, skills and knowledge and the more the company provides the right authority, resources and information. We would assist you in identifying the training and development needs as well as devising an information strategy with you to ensure that everyone is fully informed.
• Staff are more likely to co-operate with each other to create a productive working environment, the more they have the right group, personal and cultural styles and the right group, biophysical and cultural environment. We would identify the organisation culture and assess the need for change to improve the working environment. We would facilitate the change by working in partnership with the client to enable them to develop the skills to bring about the change themselves, not providing an off the shelf solution, but a tailor made approach to satisfy the organisations needs.
• We've all used the phrase 'people are an organisation's biggest asset' but how often do organisations remember to emphasise this when planning for future success.
• Research has shown that the impact of people management influences the bottom line even more than quality, technology, competitive strategy, research and development. Workforce development actually predicts future productivity.

What strategy should we adopt?
The strategy you should adopt will be the one that helps your staff achieve the objectives that will contribute to your corporate vision and reinforce your corporate values because staff have the right motivators, capacities and styles and because the company provides the right motivators, structures and environments. Your final choice will be the one that is most likely to increase the department's contribution, is accepted by the managers and staff and will pay back the costs of implementing it as quickly as possible.

Having identified the factors that are most likely to help your staff achieve all their objectives, the strategy you adopt will be based on what best incorporates the relevant factors:

• Coach, develop and train staff so they want to and can achieve the objectives.
• Help staff recognise what factors they need to accept or change so they want to and can achieve their objectives and will fit in.
• Change what some staff do, encourage some staff to move to other departments or out of the company and select new staff that will want to and could achieve the objectives and will fit in.
• Introduce policies, define responsibilities or adopt values that will motivate staff, and remove policies, responsibilities and values that demotivate staff.
• Enable staff by reassigning authority and providing resources and information, and remove policies responsibilities and values that disable staff.
• Encourage staff to fit in and co-operate by changing or removing aspects of the group, physical and cultural environment that discourage staff from fitting in.
• Create the best possible match between motivations and motivators, for example: one member of staff may want to achieve the objectives because a new policy matches their ambition; another because new responsibilities match their interests; a third because new values match their attitudes.
• Create the best possible match between capacities and structures for example: one member of staff may be more able to achieve the objectives because an increased authority allows them to make fuller use of their achievements; a second because they are given more resources to make up for their lack of skills; a third because more information makes up for their lack of specialised knowledge.
• Create the best possible match between environments and styles, for example; one member of staff may fit in better because changes in the group environment such as providing more flexible hours matches the demands of their family and leisure groups, a second because changes in the physical environment create a more healthy and less stressful life style; a third because changes in the company culture remove conflicts with their culture.

'People management is vital to business success.'

How will the strategy be implemented and evaluated?

The strategy will be implemented by your staff with the assistance of a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and appropriate other psychological or non-psychological specialists. It will be evaluated by identifying the ways in which the strategy has and has not helped staff achieve their objectives, contributed to your corporate vision and reinforced your corporate values.

Please contact us if your organisation needs help and development