Posted by: Dr. Justin D'Arienzo, Psy.D., ABPP

The Benefits of Using an Industrial Organizational Psychologist To Assist in Hiring Employees

The Benefits of Using an Industrial Organizational Psychologist To Assist in Hiring Employees was written by future Industrial Organizational Psychologist, Brandon Araujo, for the D’Arienzo Psychological Group in July 2014. D’Arienzo Psychological Group is a Jacksonville, Florida based Clinical and Forensic Psychological Practice that is uniquely qualified to assist staffing companies, human resource departments, and small business in providing psychological testing and evaluations to potential employees. D’Arienzo Psychological Group can assist you in selecting the very best employees for the clients you serve or for your business.

Hiring and training an employee can be a very time consuming and expensive process.  With a national turnover rate of 15.1% it is very common for companies to lose recently hired employees.  Research has found that replacing an employee can cost a company 10-30% of that employee’s salary. This high replacement cost has stressed the importance of hiring the right individual.

Many companies including Google, IBM, and Disney have turned to the field of psychology to help with the hiring process. The reason for this is because psychologists are able to implement research-oriented techniques that have been scientifically proven to cause a decrease in turnover rates. The majority of these techniques are psychological tests that measure certain characteristics, such as cognitive ability, leadership, and personality. They then compare an individual’s test results with the statistical norm to determine whether or not that individual would be a good fit for the job. The money that a company saves by consulting with a psychologist far exceeds the cost.

Another benefit of having a psychologist help with the hiring process is that they minimize possible discrimination lawsuits. Occasionally organizations will unknowingly discriminate against a protected class and lose a large amount of money in legal fees. For example, in 1971, Pan Am did not hire a male applicant for the position of flight attendant because the company favored women for the position. The applicant ended up filing a lawsuit against Pan Am and won due to the fact that being female was not a bona fide occupational qualification. These types of situations are very common; a great way to avoid them is to consult with a psychologist from outside of the organization to assist with the hiring process. Overall, psychologists make the hiring process more efficient, more accurate, and less biased.

Please contact D’Arienzo Psychological Group if you have questions about how we can assist you with employee psychological testing, interviewing techniques, or our services. We can be reached at 904-379-8094 or you can find us on the web at drdarienzo.com.