Violence in the workplace is a shocking and traumatic, but fortunately rare event that nevertheless has lasting implications for employees who experience or witness it. Whether an organisation has relevant insurance coverage or not, it is imperative that affected workers are provided with professional support so that the emotional, financial and psychological impact of the event is minimised. Writing for workforce.com, Sheena Harrison discusses the steps that employers must take after an incident of workplace violence happens.

Read more - http://ow.ly/cWVmP

Different people see themselves as the navigators of their success while others see themselves as subject to outside forces. Writing for the Examiner, Richard Paino discusses how our Locus of Control influences how we approach work, and ultimately how much we achieve.

Link: http://ow.ly/cWUrq

From a report on new research from the University of Iowa, University of Illinois-Chicago and Arizona State University in the Wall Street Journal, people who undertake professional development will look for opportunities to advance. If they aren’t available within the company, people will look towards new horizons. Yet new responsibilities, projects or other such changes can be enough to take advantage of the new skills and lead to better retention.

Link: http://ow.ly/cWUCd

Effective Professional development strategic programs produce organisational benefits including the ability to “adapt, compete, excel, innovate, produce, be safe, improve service and reach goals” according to a new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Yet despite the enormous sums invested in training—around $135 billion annually in the USA alone—training is approached in an ad-hoc manner with scant attention paid to transferring what’s learned into business improvements. The authors suggest a range of actions to address this including the analysis of roles and skill sets; motivating trainees to learn; providing structure and guidance; and providing a structure that encourages the application of new skills into the workplace.

Source: http://ow.ly/cWUGM

‘Gossip’ is often seen as a negative term but it has strong social benefits when used effectively, according to a new article in the New York Times. Reporting on psychological studies, the article discussed how gossip provides benefits such as being able to provide important information on the habits and behaviours of third parties such as if they are selfish or prone to cheating, as well as providing people with an outlet to share such information with others in danger of being cheated upon. Gossip therefore acts as a barrier to behaving badly when people know their actions may become the subject of negative discussions.

Read the New York Times article http://ow.ly/cWNK6

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Too many employers don’t understand the importance of the job ad. More than just a way to advertise that you’re hiring, it also involves advertising what you’re hiring for while also enticing the best workers to apply—including those who don’t need to, and who will only apply if the job sounds better than the good job they already have. To work well, the job ad should closely and positively resemble the job, the team and the organisation. The more honest you are with yourself about your organisation and the role, the more likely it is that your job ad will appeal to the right people, while avoiding raising any expectations that won’t be met by the successful applicant. And don’t worry about an aspect of the position or organisation you think are negatives—some people enjoy the challenge of restructuring, or being somewhere slightly chaotic, or working within a start-up. Just make sure you use positive language to sell the challenge. Just remember that just like all ads, a job ad is selling your business: to potential great employees.

Read the Entrepreneur.com article http://ow.ly/cWLil

A business-oriented, formal onboarding program delivers stronger retention and higher achievements of new hires but one third of businesses still fail to have their program formalized according to new research by Aberdeen Group. The new research found that strong formal onboarding programs began prior to a new hire’s first day and lasted three months or more. They were connected to higher retention rates, achievement of first year milestones and improvements in hiring manager satisfaction.

Visit Aberdeen’s website http://ow.ly/cWNtk

A meta-analysis of psychological experiments published in “Perspectives on Psychological Science” has found that generally speaking, the world’s understanding of occupational psychology is solid. Analysing 82 previous meta-analyses that considered 217 lab-field experiments, Gregory Mitchell found that occupational psychology experiments showed a correlation with field observations of 0.82, which suggests we can be confident that occupational psychology is on solid ground.

Visit the Occupational Digest website http://ow.ly/cWL50

We are in an era when businesses must carefully consider how best to investment for maximum return, and with the workforce being the largest annual expense for many businesses, getting the best from workers is a strategic priority. Achieving this doesn’t happen by accident. It takes careful nurturing to create and sustain great workplace cultures that develop a stream of innovative ideas while retaining top talent. Are you providing the right structures and tools to nurture workforce productivity via strong trusting relationships with your organisation?

Perspective: Philosophy of Workplace Culture

‘Workplace culture’ is a term that has entered the popular lexicon as a way to describe the workforce of an organisation. But its increasing popularity has brought about a loosening of the term beyond its original meaning. It’s time to revisit what it means for contemporary Human Resources.

Incubation: Nurturing the Potential of Innovation

Innovation has become accepted as a way to address continuous technological and practical challenges. And now, some businesses are making it part of their core strategy by establishing business incubation hubs for new enterprises.

Relationships: Employee Retention Strategies

Retaining talented workers has become a major focus of Human Resources over the past decade, and the global downturn has limited the options available to do so. What how can you improve retention in ways that don’t involve costly salary increases?

As of today Psych Press now has an official company blog! Our aim is to keep our audience informed of trends, inspire interest and comment on current topics in the organisational psychology and business performance sectors through engaging and thought provoking content. As experts in our field we hope this blog provides an insight into our world, our industry's world, and organisational psychology as a whole.