HRM and Psychology

The Role of Psychology in Human Resources

Being a recruiter, I meet candidates day in and day out for job interviews. The first thing we exchange is a smile and a handshake. It’s the first opportunity to create a genuine human connection. To an extent, it also helps me to sense the other person’s personality traits. Their appearance, tone of voice, and body language are the next notable gestures to navigate their basic persona traits. I am not an expert at underlying passive-aggressive behaviors, but I find it's really helpful if you can at least learn how other people communicate their feelings and manifest them in a productive way especially when you deal with people regularly.

I don’t want to present myself to a candidate like I'm a psychic reader and they are my subject of study - after all, we all like a good human experience. Nothing can or ever will be of more value than an authentic personal interaction. Be it a candidate, client, or any professional setting, we look for a “HUMAN TOUCH” and recruitment robots can never perceive this term unless they comprehend it and put it into practice. Understanding psychology together with authenticity can get you guaranteed access to this superhuman behavior and others a tremendous human experience.

The characteristics recruiters exhibit to successfully generate more influence with applicants are: perceived ‘warmth’ (enthusiastic, personable, empathetic, and helpful) and knowledge about the job. You have nothing to offer your candidates and employees that other organizations don't, apart from human and vibrant culture. If I put my real psychological hat on, that's a great combination for being an HR person. 

How can a study of psychology benefit you if you are an HR professional?

• Psychology plays a very important role at the time of recruitment, taking disciplinary action, or resolving disputes between employees.

• HR focus and expertise mainly lie in dealing with people. The essence of Human Resources lies in knowing the person in front of you. It is essential to observe their behavioral attributes and conduct themselves accordingly. Sure processes, competencies, and technology come into play but really, it's all about people. So, it makes sense that the study of the human mind should fall within their area of expertise.

• Psychology not only illuminates the challenges we face in modern living, but it also provides some solutions. Understanding its result can help the HR professional maximize the well-being and performance of his or her workforce. Seligman distinguishes between three types of happiness: pleasure, engagement, and meaningfulness. If people feel a strong sense of engagement or meaningfulness, they tend to be very happy. Pleasure provides a bonus for these people, but people who have only pleasure without engagement or meaningfulness are not as happy. The sense of engagement, which derives from using your strengths in your work, is probably the most relevant of these to HR. Placing the right employee in the right position based on his or her strengths, and then building a sense of flow and engagement in work, not only boosts productivity but contributes to the loyalty and well-being of the worker.

•  Psychologists often apply research to increasing workplace productivity and selecting employees best suited for particular jobs. People working in areas like teaching, training & development and marketing, are becoming more attracted to these courses. This allows them to broaden their horizons and to think in context about human behavior rather than burdening themselves with only management books. You don't need to go for an advanced degree if you are a busy professional. Much of the related topics and knowledge is easily available online and by far accessible today.

HR professionals are experts in maximizing the potential and understanding the psychology of any organization’s most important assets – its people. Instead of seeking instantaneous gratification and multi-dimensional stimulation, let us re-visit being fully human - use that amazing mass of grey matter in our heads, cherish the engineering magnificence of our physical body, nurture our fragile yet valiant hearts, and reflect on that which is larger than ourselves that we can draw strength from and give freely to (Godara, 2015.)

References

Exeed College, 2022.. Exeed College. [Online]
Available at: https://exeedcollege.com/blog/importance-of-industrial-organizational-psychology-in-hr-management/
[Accessed 05. 08. 2022.].