That they should be well-equipped in this area. Do you believe that having a background in psychology is a must in order to be successful in managing, leading and growing people?

Human Resources (HR) professionals are experts in maximising the potential of one of any organisation’s most important assets—its people. And understanding people is what psychology is all about. This science of mind is in a special position to inform the daily decisions and long-term planning of today’s HR professional. How can the study of psychology benefit an HR professional?

1. Common sense usually works, but the science of psychology is better.
We are all amateur psychologists making efforts to understand the motivations and behaviours of the people around us, and most of the time, we are quite successful at this. So why do we need a science of psychology? Although our “common sense” observations often work well, the science of psychology can show us where our everyday observations are incomplete or even inaccurate. For example, many people are convinced that “opposites attract,” when a substantial body of carefully controlled research shows that we are much more likely to choose to spend time with people we view as similar to ourselves in some way.

If an HR professional overlooks this fact in hiring decisions, the results could be disastrous. In other cases, our introspective looks inside our own minds can be misleading. Many people who are outwardly convinced that they are completely unbiased in regards to race or ethnicity are shocked to see the extent of their subconscious prejudices illuminated by their results on the Implicit Associates Test, available online as Project Implicit at Harvard University.

2. Psychological science provides insights that are easily applied to the workplace.
Both classic and contemporary work in psychology has much wisdom to offer to anybody involved with the management of people. One manager might use punishment, such as a reprimand placed in a file, when workers arrive late. A quick reading of B. F. Skinner, one of the classic scholars in operant conditioning, shows that punishment is not only difficult to implement outside the laboratory, but it typically produces less behaviour change than rewards do. If our manager switches to a reward system for arriving on time, even if it’s something as simple as praise or recognition at the next staff meeting, it is likely that more people will arrive on time and the morale of the group will be much higher.

More recent work by John Cacioppo might help Human Resources experts understand why feelings of inclusion in a workgroup are so essential to an employee’s well-being and physical health. Our human history has shaped us to form families and other groups, and when these connections fail, the resulting loneliness can produce the same level of negative health effects as smoking or obesity. Loneliness does not erase our social skills, but it can quickly make us behave in ways that are counterproductive, pushing others away just as our need for connectivity is greatest.

3. Psychology isn’t just about what goes wrong.
Psychology not only illuminates the challenges we face in modern living, but it also provides some solutions. For its first 100 years, psychology was focused on helping people with disorders like schizophrenia and depression, and it has had a lot of success. Many people today are able to lead fulfilling lives in spite of having serious psychological problems. However, led by contemporary scientists like Martin Seligman, psychology has turned at least some of its attention from what goes wrong with people to what goes right. Why are people happy? Understanding these results can help the HR professional maximise 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.

4. You can benefit from psychology without fancy degrees and years of study.
The good news for the ever-busy HR professional is that tapping into the knowledge provided by psychology does not require an advanced degree, workshops, or special training. Many of the best psychologists, like John Cacioppo, write not only for the scholarly community, but for the general public as well. Much of their knowledge is readily available online, and you can follow their updates on Twitter. Daily news feeds like ScienceDaily and New Scientist gather all of the breaking psychological news together in one place.

The HR professionals who add these sources to their daily news updates will not only be at the top of their game, but both they and their organisations will have the benefit of cutting edge information from the best minds in psychological science.