Solving Workplace Challenges with IO Psychology

How can IO psychology improve workplaces and create better experiences for employees? In this episode of UMBC Mic’d Up, we sit down with Sabrina Williams, M.P.S. '23, a recent graduate of UMBC’s IO Psychology program, to explore the real-world impact of industrial-organizational psychology.

Sabrina, now a Management & Program Analyst at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), shares insights on workplace development, employee satisfaction, change management, and how data-driven decision-making helps solve complex workforce challenges. She also discusses how her time at UMBC prepared her for success, the skills essential for IO professionals, and why knowledge management is key to organizational growth.

If you're curious about the role of IO psychology in today’s workforce—or considering a career in the field—this episode is a must-listen!

🔗 Learn more about UMBC’s IO Psychology program: https://umbc.edu/io

#IOPsychology #WorkplaceSolutions #BetterWorkBetterLife #UMBC #ProfessionalGrowth

Transcript

Dennise Cardona  0:00  
Welcome to the UMBC Mic'd Up podcast. My name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs here at UMBC, and today I am joined by a very special guest, Sabrina Williams from the IO psychology graduate program. She graduated in December of 2023 and Sabrina, it is so great to have you here. Thank

Sabrina Williams  0:19  
you. Thank you for having me and thank you for reaching out. I'm just so grateful to always be able to give back to the IO program, because it's done so much for me in my career. Oh, that's great

Dennise Cardona  0:31  
to hear. Speaking of your career, could you tell us a little bit about yourself in terms of what you are doing now professionally in your current role? So

Sabrina Williams  0:41  
currently I am employed at the National Institutes of Health. I am a management and Program Analyst in the Office of Human Resources. So a lot of my work heavily focuses on workforce support and development and the experience that I have ranges. So it's in talent and development areas like new employee orientation and mentoring, even on to data analysis, some survey design and development, consulting rewards. I mean, it's honestly a wide array of experience that I have in HR and organizational psychology areas.

Dennise Cardona  1:15  
So you and I have very closely related, I guess. You know, likes in a career sense, I graduated from the Learning and Performance Technology program in 2023 and it's very similar in terms of some of the things, like onboarding, new orientation, working on surveys, things of that sort, being able to analyze data. So that's those skills are so critical, no matter what kind of role you find yourself in within these fields of training and development and HR, what is it that you love most about being in this field? Oh,

Sabrina Williams  1:50  
okay, so that is a question I love to answer. Honestly, I love IO psychology for a few reasons. I'm going to try to keep this brief. It's such a broad field. And of course, someone, they can find their niche in the IO field, and whatever topic they may choose, whether it's job analysis, assessments, training and development, human performance, technology, the list goes on. But I've often found that in my love and practice of organizational psychology, I get to move around, and I get to gain experience in so many areas, like employee satisfaction and retention, change management, knowledge management and Deia. And another thing that I love is that for a lot of IO practitioners, we're so supportive of each other. You know, we have this common goal, because we're striving to make the workplace better. We want to get to the root of organizational problems, because that's really, that's what unites us. We're analytical in nature, and we like to get to the why of things, so we can do something about it. That's what I love about IO.

Dennise Cardona  2:51  
I can see because hearing your voice, you can hear the passion in your voice. And you know, one of the things that I think is so critical is in life, even as well, is finding the root cause of things, right? So you you mentioned you work at NIH, and I am a self proclaimed addict when it comes to looking up peer studies, and also what the NIH has to say about these studies on different things that have to do with just general health, you know, being able to live the best life and figure out what's going on. And I love NIH for that reason. They publish all their stuff, and it's just fascinating to read some of the data that they have out there. And it to me, it relates to that root cause, like I mentioned, it's in professional also with everyday life, is, you know, why is something happening? What is the why? Why is this happening? There's always a root cause to things. Absolutely, absolutely.

Sabrina Williams  3:50  
That's what I love about us at NIH, to be honest with you, we're huge. We're 27 institutes and centers and gosh, we have a focus on a range of things, mental health, cancer, minorities and health disparities, dental and cranial. It's amazing, amazing. So to see all this research that's being done, and I also work in the I have experience with the award side of things. We have the NIH Director's awards, and to just read through the nominations, to see the amount of labs that we have, the kind of studies that's been done, it is amazing, and how we're really changing health, and how we're really helping each other to be more healthier, and to get to, like we said, the root of issues, and so that's why I love

Dennise Cardona  4:42  
it. Yeah, now you mentioned root cause analysis and things of that sort, in your role with using data analytics in the realm of HR, maybe orientation training and things of that sort. Can you go, I'm very interested in this topic. So can you go just a little deeper on that? What exactly, what kind of things do you do to. Figure like, what are the things that the problems you run into when it comes to training and development, that root cause is so important, because sometimes training is never it's really not the answer, and it could be just something cause creating the mayhem, if you call it, yeah,

Sabrina Williams  5:15  
that's an awesome question. And you know what I've found is that, especially when we've done consultations across our institutes and centers, it always boils down to knowledge management as the root of a lot of things. So I'll give you a prime example of that. Sometimes they'll say, oh, we need training. You might not need training. Sometimes you need a job aid. Sometimes you need SOPs, right? And that's something that we've constantly run into, especially when you have very important people that end up leaving. It's like, okay, so how do we transfer this knowledge? And everyone starts to panic, right? When they realize that person is left or is about to leave. We have to be proactive, and we have to figure out what is the core knowledge and skills and abilities that we need to have. And what I've noticed is that we've started creating more repositories. We're very big with SharePoint, that's where we post a lot of our documents and our data. And so at least in the divisions that I've worked with, we have started these initiatives where we say, okay, we're reaching out to everyone. We need to know what the core roles are. If you could write down what you're doing, let us know, because that also helps us, especially when we're talking about bringing new people on board and they're trying to figure out what to do, and you can give them that job aid or that SOP, and then they're learning on their own without you having to constantly, you know, spoon feed the information to them. Sometimes it's better. People learn better when they actually do it. And then they run into the own, their own issues, and then they can ask the questions. And so that's what we're looking for. We want people to be as resourceful as they can be for themselves, but first we have to provide them with those resources so that they can succeed. And that's what we're finding.

Dennise Cardona  7:09  
that whole human asset capital is so critical and the legacy, it's always about legacy with with training and development, and actually with any realm of life, that legacy that we leave behind, meaning documenting being that resource for others, thinking, thinking a year down the road, five years down the road, 10 years down the road, even if you're new in your career, and you think you know you don't want documenting that knowledge base that you you have and then you acquire as you go along is so helpful to the organization, yes, but if people want to think even more community oriented wise, you're helping the next generation of learners, right? You're helping the next generation of employees to be the best version of themselves and to and to help bring their professionalism to a new level. So that's really, for me, one of the most important things when I'm talking about legacy is it might not be the organization you're thinking about, okay, but go down to the human element. The human think about how you felt on day one and how you want someone else to feel on day one after.

Sabrina Williams  8:18  
I love it. I love it. We're on the same page.

Dennise Cardona  8:21  
We are absolutely, apparently, yes,

Sabrina Williams  8:26  
yes. And honestly, when I got into this role, I was inspired by past jobs that I've had, and I always when I'm in this position that I'm in now, I always think about it, if it was me, since I'm helping out the workforce, if that was me, what kind of help would I need? What would be the most helpful approach or resources? And I'll look at it through that angle. When we are looking at programs that we have, how can we help our workforce? What are they what do they truly need? When we do these needs assessments, even, how can we really help them out as most efficiently as possible? And I put myself in their shoes, as if it's me, as if I have no knowledge of what's going because I have to be objective. That's that's just my approach. I want to treat people how I would like to be treating all that golden rule, but more importantly, how do they want to be treated so you want to be sure that you're talking to them and you have a clear understanding of what they need, because you don't want your efforts to be in vain either.

Dennise Cardona  9:29  
That's a powerful statement that is so true. Now, what kinds of skills, knowledge and abilities do you need for the role that you're in, or a typical say IO psychology role,

Sabrina Williams  9:43  
there are a few roles that I would say just broadly. They would just fit broadly amongst different IO roles. So I would say definitely the effect of oral and written communication that is huge to have those people skills is also very huge for us. US, time management, research and analysis, also definitely have that eye for innovation and improvement, because that really is a lot of what we do in IO our goal is to make things better within organizations, but in order to do so, we need to know how to really connect with people. So you want to be able to also kind of have a consulting or consultants lens, rather, be able to ask the right questions. Know how to get in contact with those with those senior leaders, really try to understand what are they looking for, but also connect with staff to to figure out what's what's happening. Right? I would also say data very huge in IO right now, from data collection to analysis, even on down to presentation, is what I'm realizing. To what I mean by that is being able to take data and to really show the story that the data is telling whether it's in PowerPoint or something that's very popular right now is Microsoft Power BI. We call them dashboards, and that's something that senior leaders really love, because the Power BI dashboard is very interactive. So you know, they can compare data. It's right in front of their face, just through simple clicks, they can look at they can do filters and look at data and see what are the trends, and it really gets to the core of what they really need to know. So there's a lot of knowledge and skills and abilities, but I say those would be more of the core knowledge skills and abilities that I'm often finding, at least in my role.

Dennise Cardona  11:37  
That's great. Why did you choose to apply to the IO psychology program at UMBC?

Sabrina Williams  11:45  
I chose the IO Psychology program for a few reasons. The first was that I was already a graduate under a graduate at UMBC, I graduated in the psychology department, and I knew that I wanted to come back for grad school now, while I did look at my options at other schools, what I was really drawn to was the plethora of information provided on UMBC, IO programs, the website, I saw a variety of classes that I could take, and that really gained My attention because looking at some of the other schools, the classes were predetermined versus UMBC IO program. There are some core classes that everyone needs to take, but you also have electives that you can choose from. So you can if, let's say, if you have a niche that you want to go for, you already know what area of IO you want to do, you can pursue classes in that area, or if you're not so sure you want to try different classes like that's what I did, and that's how, that's what helped me figure out what areas of IO do I really enjoy the most. I see another reason why I chose the IO program is that they offered hybrid courses. So with the program, it's mostly in person, but that's what I like, because I tend to learn better in person. And then I say lastly, what Cho what drove me to the IO program was that there's an opportunity for students to connect with mentors, and that is so important, especially as you're just coming into the field and you're trying to start on your portfolio, your professional portfolio, make sure that you're also expanding your network too, that can definitely help any new student out in the long run.

Dennise Cardona  13:32  
So true. So so true. How did the program prepare you for what you are doing now?

Sabrina Williams  13:39  
So the program prepared me for what I'm doing now, to be honest, I have to give a huge thanks to Dr Lasson, and the reason for that is because if it was not for Dr Lasson sending out IO job announcements to students and alumni, I wouldn't be where I am today. He actually sent out the exact announcement that got me into the role where I am right now, I would also say it prepared me for what I'm doing now because of the classes that I chose to take, more specifically, the human performance technology class that was taught by professors Uranus and when I had interviewed for my role as a management analyst, I was in the middle of that human performance technology class completing a consulting project that we had. And so when I did my interview, I had explained all that I was the entire process of the project, from the data collection to the full report and the presenting on findings and how it was important, important to have data literacy. And believe it or not, me leading with that is what ended up selling my boss, and that's when he had connected with my professor, who was also able to do. You the recommendation for me. So I would say that the program directly put me in the hands of the field where I am right now, to be honest with you, directly,

Dennise Cardona  15:15  
you can't ask for more than that. Wow,

Sabrina Williams  15:17  
you can't. And I got into the IO field within my first year of being in the graduate program, and that is something that I will forever be thankful for.

Dennise Cardona  15:30  
What was your biggest takeaway from the program?

Sabrina Williams  15:34  
One of the biggest takeaways from the IO Psychology program was understanding the importance of consulting skills and data analytics, because with IO, data often drives much of what we do. It drives the changes that we propose, and it really helps organizations thrive and reach their goals. That was the biggest takeaway consulting skills and data analytics people skills as well

Dennise Cardona  16:03  
people skills, that's an important answer, yes, absolutely. Do you think that people can learn people skills, or is that sort of in a in someone's nature?

Sabrina Williams  16:17  
I would say that it's a mixture of both, that people can learn people skills. It's something that you learn on the job, especially, let's say, if you're doing consulting, that was something that I definitely learned on the job just by watching other consultants. But also it's something that you would naturally possess within you as well, and that's because with me and with my personality type. I really like to help other people get through any issues that they have. I tend to have a listening ear. I always practice active listening. I want to let whoever I'm speaking to know that I'm hearing everything that you're saying. I'm taking the notes because I want to be sure I truly understand what the issues are. I'm going to repeat that back to you. I'm going to make sure that we have a clear understanding of what the issue is with the problem that you're facing and the solutions that we plan to implement. And this is a partnership. So even even though I am I'm considered the expert in whatever I'm helping you with, I also want you to know that you have a voice and that I truly care about what it is that you're concerned about, too, and that's just people skills that you have to naturally possess. That ability, it would show that you truly care, that sympathy, even that empathy, is going to show it's not something that's forced people since that and so I was grateful. Was it was one instance where I just started off with consulting, actually, and I was still a student in the program, in the master's program, by the way, and I finished talking to the client, and they had wrote my boss and basically said, Sabrina did an amazing job, and I really look forward to still working with her, and that was when I knew the power of leading with confidence in a conversation, but making sure that people understand, that you understand them and you care.

Sabrina Williams  18:11  
That's a people skill that's so underrated,

Dennise Cardona  18:16  
so well stated. Wow, so people centric is pretty vital in the role of IO psychology, absolutely. My last question for you is, what advice would you offer someone considering the field of IO psychology?

Sabrina Williams  18:31  
Yes. So the advice that I would offer someone is, first, definitely be inspired, be motivated, and have an open mind, as I was saying previously, the IO is such a huge field, and so there's many possibilities of directions that you could take and should you choose to go with UMBC IO program. Have fun with selecting your electives. Figure out what it is that you truly enjoy about the IO field, because that can help you determine your niche if you haven't already. Other advice that I would give to someone considering the IO field is to stay up to date on the latest with IO. There are a few organizations that they can join. We have SIOP, the Society for industrial organizational psychologists, and we have SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management. There are other IO related societies to join, but being part of these networks would be great, and it helps you expand your network as well, and you stay up to date with the latest news and trends. And lastly, I would, for the last piece of advice, if you also choose to go with UMBC IO program, understand that you're a part of a community when you accept being in this program, and that is great because it helps you stay in touch with your cohort, stay in touch with your professors, your program directors, and even other alumni, because that can help take you farther in your career and get opportunities that you might not have known about. Had you not built your community and decided to stay a part of it

Dennise Cardona  20:06  
so well stated, such great insights. Sabrina, this conversation has been great. Thank you so much for sharing all that information with us. It's wonderful to see you succeeding out there in the world after one of our programs. It's great to see that you're very passionate about what you do, and it just comes through. So thank you. Cheers to you.

Sabrina Williams  20:27  
Thank you so much. I truly appreciate you, and thank you for having me on this podcast, and thank

Dennise Cardona  20:33  
you everyone for tuning into this podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. If you'd like to learn more about our offerings, simply click the link in the description and you will be taken to the pages that you need. Thanks so much. Bye.