I-O Education Gaps and Potential Solutions: A Town Hall Discussion at SIOP 2025

Author Note: We have no known conflicts of interest to disclose. This material was presented at the 2025 SIOP Annual Conference. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1842494. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Karyssa A. Courey, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, 77005. Email: kac23@rice.edu

On April 4, we held a highly interactive town hall session at the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) annual conference in Denver, CO. Led by co-chairs Karyssa Courey and Brittany Ikner and featuring discussants (and I-O graduate program directors) Chris Cunningham and Marcus Dickson, our session aimed to facilitate thoughtful conversation and action planning to improve I-O education and the professional development of future I-O psychology professionals (IOPs). The goal of our session was twofold: (a) to bring together I-O psychology students, practitioners, and academics to identify gaps in current I-O education and (b) to propose potential solutions, strategies, and next steps.

Overview of SIOP Town Hall Session

The core questions guiding this town hall discussion were as follows. What I-O education-related gaps exist from the perspective of students, academics, and practitioners? Even more important, what is our plan as a field for addressing these gaps? We define gaps as perceived or observed deficits in skills, knowledge, and experiences that one needs to develop proficiency or mastery, and to feel competent and prepared for future IOP career endeavors. Such gaps will naturally vary person by person, depending on one’s career objectives and a variety of underlying individual differences, as well as by program type. We grounded this conversation in the 26 critical competencies outlined in SIOP’s Guidelines for Education and Training in I-O Psychology (referred to as Guidelines; SIOP, 2016), which we broadly categorized into four content areas and used to guide small group conversations in our session (see in Table 1). It should be noted that this session is also timely, as the current Guidelines are under review and set for release very soon.

Table 1

Content Areas, SIOP Competencies, and Potential Gaps

Content area	SIOP competencies	Examples of potential gaps
1. Professional practice/business acumen	1. Ethical, legal, diversity, and international issues 2. Fields of psychology 3. History and systems of psychology 4. Professional skills	Practicum experiences, business analytics, estimating the financial impact of I-O interventions
2. Personal and job-specific competencies	8. Career development 11. Human performance 12. Individual assessment 13. Individual differences 14. Job evaluation and compensation 15. Job/task/work analysis, competency modeling 16. Judgment and decision making 21. Performance appraisal/management 22. Personnel recruitment, selection, and placement 23. Training	Assessment development, training assessment, recruiting talent, conducting validation studies, developing competency models, designing equitable pay systems
3. Social and organizational competencies	7. Attitude theory, measurement, and change 10. Groups and teams 17. Leadership and management 18. Occupational health and safety 19. Organization development 20. Organization theory 24. Work motivation	Applications of occupational health, leadership development
4. Research and analytical methods	5. Research methods 6. Statistical methods/data analysis 9. Criterion theory and development	Bayesian statistics, big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, open science

Note. In our session, we are focused exclusively on SIOP’s “general knowledge and skills” as well as “core content.”

Overall, this session was an opportunity to come together and demonstrate some ownership in the future development of competencies and experiences necessary for current and future IOPs. Highlighting gaps in current training and development opportunities within graduate education programs can motivate deliberate discussion and action planning to better equip future IOPs with the necessary skills and knowledge to study, manage, serve, and improve organizations globally.

Nearly 30 participants contributed to this discussion, reflecting both faculty and graduate student perspectives. We structured the session around two small group and two large group discussions, using Padlet, an internet-based discussion board, to facilitate the sharing and reviewing of ideas and comments. In the following sections, we provide an overview of each content area explored in this session, with insights from the small group discussions that highlighted current gaps in I-O competencies and experiences developed within graduate programs and the proposed solutions to closing these gaps.

Professional Practice/Business Acumen Gaps

Overview of Content Area

The professional practice/business acumen content area includes SIOP competencies related to ethical, legal, diversity, and international issues; fields of psychology; history and systems of psychology; and professional skills. Highlighting gaps within this core content area is particularly important in furthering the development of I-O education, considering many master’s and doctoral I-O graduates pursue careers in applied settings postgraduation (SIOP, 2022). Moreover, increases in the number of students admitted to I-O psychology master’s programs may further support the integration of practice-oriented classes, projects, and applied experiences within classroom settings (e.g., Bailey, 2020). Potential educational gaps identified by participants in the professional practice/business acumen content area may involve the transfer and application of I-O knowledge within business settings.

Insights From Session Discussions

Participants identified the following professional practice gaps in I-O education: receiving and giving feedback, professional communication skills, collaboration skills, general work and business etiquette, in-person interactions, presentation skills, and science communication skills (e.g., translation theory and results to business partners). As this list illustrates, there was a large emphasis on the need for more educational and developmental opportunities for students to cultivate and practice both general and scientific communication skills and to generally polish their ability to interact with others in professional contexts.

This content area elicited the most conversation among participants. In the larger group discussion, there was a clear emphasis on the need to learn professional communication skills (e.g., making a solid PowerPoint) and develop other skills that cannot be taught with isolated coursework or assignments, called experiential gaps. Ongoing struggles with developing professional interpersonal skills were also noted, including how to seek and respond to feedback, how to handle conflict with others, and skills for finding and keeping a job. Participants also noted that these challenges have become more serious since the pandemic. Extending from this, numerous competencies associated with interpersonal communications and social influence emerged (e.g., persuasion, pitching ideas to stakeholders, managing others). A few other competencies also emerged from this discussion, including project management, handling “dirty” data, and understanding critical thinking versus mastery knowledge.

Potential Solutions

Participants discussed several strategies and potential solutions for gaps in this area. First, some suggested that courses could provide more opportunities to practice these types of professional and interpersonal skills. Others discussed the need to unpack developmental and work-related experiences by connecting them to important competencies (e.g., creating a portfolio to showcase research and applied projects). In this context, portfolios and applied projects may serve as important ways to practice and demonstrate scientific and business-related communication skills. Another solution may involve creating meaningful and practical experiences inside and outside of the classroom, such as through group projects and providing more opportunities for mentorship from nonfaculty. Finally, a reoccurring recommendation was for students to take initiative and maximize their graduate school experiences by actively networking—showing up to presentations, workshops, research talks, and so forth; and engaging in networking and follow-up with professionals. In practice, this could be facilitated by graduate program directors and instructors being as clear as possible with students regarding where they may need to “dig in” a bit deeper and continue to build their knowledge and skills beyond the limits of a particular assignment or set of weekly readings.

Personal and Job-Specific Competency Gaps

Overview of Content Area

The personal and job-specific competencies content area includes SIOP competencies related to acquiring and managing talent within organizations, such as individual differences, individual assessment, and job evaluation and compensation. Although I-O graduate programs include core coursework covering these topics, there may still be knowledge, skill, and experience gaps related to the understanding and application of attracting, selecting, training, evaluating, retaining, compensating, and managing talent successfully postgraduation. Discussion of such skills raises the importance of engaging in conversation regarding the role of curricula versus external learning experiences (e.g., internships) when considering educational gaps. A few examples of potential educational gaps in the personal and job-specific competencies content area may include (a) experiences applying theories of validation through on-site validation studies; (b) knowledge of attracting, selecting, and retaining talent; and (c) skills for designing equitable pay systems.

Insights From Session Discussions

Participants identified few if any gaps within this content area. The general consensus was that I-O education programs currently do a good job of helping students develop personal and job-specific competencies.

Potential Solutions

One idea to help students more fully develop competence in this domain may involve incorporating knowledge checks at the beginning of classes to support accountability and engagement among students. Knowledge checks can be helpful across content areas to ensure that students develop an understanding of course material.

Social and Organizational Competency Gaps

Overview of Content Area

The social and organizational competencies content area includes SIOP competencies related to teams, leadership, occupational health, and organization development. Such classes typically provide students with opportunities to learn about processes that broadly impact organizations. Gaps in this area may stem from current and impending changes in the legal and political landscapes that shape organizational dynamics (e.g., DEI backlash). More work is likely needed to educate students (and industry stakeholders) to navigate these changes with evidence-based practices focused on supporting employees within organizations (e.g., Follmer et al., 2024). Other potential educational gaps in social and organizational competencies may include (a) knowledge for supporting employees’ health and well-being in the workplace, (b) cross-cultural skills to support multinational organizations (Kline & Rowe, 1998), and (c) skills and experiences supporting the implementation of new technologies within organizations (e.g., artificial intelligence [AI] tools; Tippins et al., 2021).

Insights From Session Discussions

Participants identified the following social and organizational competency gaps: cross-cultural considerations and AI applications in organizations and understanding the role and context of organized labor. Supporting cross-cultural and AI-related education were identified by participants as current gaps in I-O education, and both were big discussion points within this session. Regarding AI, there was a clear call for understanding how students are using AI in education and understanding applications of AI in I-O work. Some questions arising from this discussion included

• How should we use AI in our work?
• What is okay and not okay ethically?
• How does AI affect the mastery of material?

As discussed by participants, one potential solution may involve adding AI clauses to client contracts that clarify these areas. However, it was apparent that there were many AI-related issues that are not currently resolved across I-O education programs.

Guiding of Master’s Versus Doctoral Students

Some of the discussion within this session explored ways in which AI might be differentially applicable and useful to master’s versus doctoral students. As an example, participants suggested that master’s students may be more likely to use AI tools to assist with research summarization and synthesis in written work, whereas doctoral students may be more likely to rely on AI tools to facilitate programming for advanced statistical analyses or assist with abstract generation from a larger manuscript.

Critical Thinking Versus Mastery of Knowledge

Regardless of education level, there was a strong consensus among session participants that I-O education must ensure that current and future students continue to build competence in critical and scientific thinking and not fall into the trap of “outsourcing” this to AI tools. Developing IOPs need to learn how to properly set up AI actions (e.g., prompt engineering) and evaluate AI-generated output for its quality, accuracy, utility, and so on. Competence in these areas requires strong and well-rounded education in core I-O knowledge, skill, and ability domains and needs to continue to be emphasized (despite the availability of AI-supported “shortcuts” or “workarounds”). A key takeaway was that programs need to think carefully about how to incorporate AI (or not) and recognize that this will need to be re-evaluated regularly as the technology and its uses advance rapidly.

Potential Solutions

Participants recommended AI be integrated into existing classes, which can be supported by increasingly available resources (e.g., an upcoming book about AI for IOPs to be published through SIOP in the near future). In addition to this, participants also noted the importance of discussing cross-cultural considerations and understanding the role and context of organized labor. However, there was no clear understanding of what this would look like in the classroom.

Research and Analytical Methods Gaps

Overview of Content Area

The research and analytical methods content area includes competencies related to statistics, research methods, and theories. Courses and experiences in this area provide important foundational knowledge for guiding theory- and data-driven research, developing experimental designs to address research questions, and analyzing data with appropriate statistical tools. Although many programs offer courses in statistics and research methods (and theory is often integrated within many courses), many students do not understand or lack confidence in their knowledge of foundational concepts (e.g., Kline, 2020). On top of this, various researchers have pointed to the increasing complexity of theory, data, and methods within the field (e.g., Murphy, 2021), calling for the retraining of IOPs to be equipped with the skills needed to navigate these changes effectively (e.g., Oswald et al., 2022). Future educational initiatives in this area should aim to equip students with the necessary tools to effectively and confidently address a variety of current research and applied problems. Potential educational gaps in this area may include

(a) knowledge of various methodological approaches (e.g., Bayesian statistics, machine learning), (b) skills for handling large and complex datasets (e.g., big data; Guzzo et al., 2015; Oswald et al., 2020), and (c) increasing knowledge of open science practices (Foster & Deardorff, 2017; Torka et al., 2023).

Insights From Session Discussions

Participants in this session identified the following gaps pertinent to this domain: low familiarity with a range of data analysis programs from Excel to more advanced programing intensive tools, open science principles and when they are relevant, and basic computing skills (e.g., file management, data archiving and retrieval, functions and formatting in specific programs), which can make learning statistical software programs difficult. Group discussion emphasized the need for more educational experiences with analytical tools (including Excel, given its dominance in many workplaces). This need points to more general skill and competency development challenges related to software and other technologies (e.g., AI tools). There is an assumption that students nowadays come with a strong understanding of technology, but that is not necessarily the case. Students often need more support with some basic aspects of technology (e.g., file management, prompting AI).

Potential Solutions

Similar to the previous content area, participants recommended more training in coding and predictive analytics. Some ideas to enhance learning in this area included comparing models and creating small student competitions within courses or programs to help engage students with the material. Some participants recommended that students have access to more basic research training (e.g., doing efficient literature searches).

Action Planning

At the end of the session, participants were asked to brainstorm one (or more) specific actions they could take after the conference to advance the discussed solutions. Some ideas included increasing connections and presentations by alumni, including SIOP competencies in course syllabi, increasing applied projects in classes, and increasing opportunities for mentorship and leadership.

Conclusion

Periodic reflections and brainstorming of potential gaps and solutions, as demonstrated here, are essential to the health of our field. This is especially true now, as updated Guidelines for Education and Training are soon to be released, hopefully stimulating further critical evaluation of I-O education programs. Participants recommended addressing I-O education-related gaps by supporting opportunities to develop professional and interpersonal skills, learn about AI and cross-cultural considerations within core courses, and expand methodological instruction. Importantly, our participants emphasized the need for a holistic approach to developing these competencies through classroom instruction, networking, seminars, and student-led initiative. We recognize that identifying and then addressing these gaps requires overcoming a number of logistical challenges, such as obtaining buy-in from program directors, rethinking course content and offerings, and encouraging student-driven learning. Given these very real and practical constraints, we want to emphasize that even small and incremental changes to individual courses can have a meaningful and lasting impact on competency development in I-O students. We leave readers with an action-oriented request: What is one action you can take to improve I-O education in your learning or practice communities?

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