The time has finally come! Next week SIOP’s 2019 Leading Edge Consortium, Advancing the Edge: Assessment for the 2020s (LEC) is taking place.

The 2019 LEC will address a timely and significant issue facing our field: the fast-paced evolution of the assessment field.

For those of you attending, get ready: We have a fantastic lineup of speakers! We believe we're at a critical juncture in the assessment field and hope that by bringing together thought leaders and professionals, we can have a lively discussion about where the field needs to head. Assessment is a hot topic right now; I see an article about artificial intelligence and hiring or how technology is changing recruitment and hiring almost every day. If you haven’t recently seen or read an article about how machine learning and new advanced technologies are changing the assessment landscape (in both positive and negative ways), then you need to get out more. In the meantime, you can catch up by reading some recent reports and articles in the media to get a quick (albeit tiny) glimpse of how assessment is evolving drastically:

What workplace trends do you think will be most important for the coming year? The Visibility Committee needs SIOP members’ help identifying the 2020 trends for the  seventh annual “Top 10 Workplace Trends” list. 

SIOP has been creating the trends lists since 2014, and you can review previous lists here. This outreach effort has been well-received and covered in a variety of media outlets.

It’s hard to believe but SIOP’s 2019 LEC is over and the planning for SIOP 2020 LEC is underway! I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the annual consortium and start translating the amazing insights and discussions had during LEC into action.

SIOP’s 2019 Leading Edge Consortium, Advancing the Edge: Assessment for the 2020s (LEC), had record-breaking attendance. In fact, it SOLD OUT! What was even more exciting was that about 20% of the audience were non-SIOP members. Their unique perspectives and expertise greatly contributed to and heightened the conversation about where the field of assessment needs to head in the future.

In today’s climate, organizations need leaders who can turn on a dime. Identifying, and investing in, those potential leaders early in career or tenure to the organization is important.

Although learning agility--the ability to learn from experiences and then apply that knowledge to new conditions and environments--is starting to be seen as an important construct trait when it comes to identifying organizational leadership, there hasn’t been a lot of work done on how that trait impacts learning and performance over time. Erin Laxson, PhD, a managing consultant with Hogan Assessments, found that curious. After all, organizations were starting to invest in employees who demonstrated behaviors associated with learning agility, but how did that predict future career success for individuals, and in turn how those individuals contributed to their organizations?

In her presentation, “The Impact of Learning Agility on Career Success,” at the 2019 SIOP Annual Conference she took an in-depth look at the links between learning agility and learning and performance—two indicators of career success. 

The SIOP White Paper series organizes and summarizes important and timely topics in I-O psychology. The newest white paper, “Culture and Overseas Work: Expectations, Preparations, Coping; Return,” focuses on the well-being of expatriates.

The term sojourners is broad and includes all kinds of overseas experiences, including work, study, migration, diplomacy, proselytizing, and tourism. Expatriates, the main focus of this paper, often categorized as corporate or self-initiated, the former group sent overseas by an employer, perhaps for several years, whereas the latter moves overseas to seek employment.