Military Spouses Are Poised to Fill Your Organization’s Talent Gap

Spouses of active duty military members are often assumed to be individuals whose sole purpose is keeping the home fires burning while their loved ones are deployed, training, or on other missions. This misconception overshadows the reality that 53% of military spouses are actually pursuing bona-fide careers outside the home (DMDC, 2015). Although there are in fact some military spouses, of both genders, that do support and maintain a home, the military spouse population is one that is vastly overlooked as career contributors.

Achieving work-life balance goes beyond finding time for the family

Ever feel a little guilty about taking the time for that pick-up game of basketball or a weeknight watercolor class? You shouldn’t—it’s good for you and your job.

That’s what doctoral candidate Victoria Daniel and Dr. Yujie Zhan of Wilfrid Laurier University discovered in their research titled “Wearing Many Hats: How Employee Personal Life Engagement Enriches Creativity at Work,” presented in April at the 2018 Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology in Chicago, Illinois.

The research touches on several topics in SIOP’s 2018 Top 10 Workplace Trends, including work-life balance, the changing nature of how people work, and engaging millennials in the workplace.

SHRM, SIOP and their foundations to award organizations that are improving HR management practices

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), along with their foundations, announced Amazon and PepsiCo as the winners of the 2018 Human Resource Management (HRM) Impact Award for their programs that affect internal and global hiring needs.

An Industrial, Work, and Organizational Psychology Perspective

In September, Gerlach, Farb, Revelle, and Amaral[1] published an article in Nature Human Behavior proclaiming they had identified four personality types that robustly replicated across 4 data sets. Its publication set off a media frenzy, with the authors’ university and major news outlets announcing this as a major breakthrough—for example, “Scientists identify four personality types”[2], “Comprehensive data analysis dispels established paradigms in psychology”[3,4], “Big data gives the ‘Big Five’ personality traits a makeover”[5], among dozens of others[e.g., 6–12]*. The Gerlach et al. article and ensuing media frenzy had an immediate impact on us. 

How are I/O Psychologists Supporting Military and Veterans?

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) wants to know about the work you’re doing to support military members, veterans, and their families.  SIOP will be promoting military- and veteran-related I/O research, content, and programs during the upcoming SIOP Serving Military Week, coinciding with the relaunch of the SIOP Military and Veterans Initiative in early November. SIOP is seeking links to research, infographics, videos, resources, projects, initiative highlights, white papers, publications, or any other appropriate online media to support this effort.