Graduate Student Highlight: Brad English

Second Year I-O Master's Student Brad English

I am currently a second year student in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology Master’s Program, and I will graduate in May 2013.  In addition to the knowledge and skills that I have acquired from coursework associated with the curriculum, I have also gained a considerable amount of expertise in human resource law, strategic job design, employee engagement, and competency modeling.  I am also currently conducting secondary research to examine the relationships between employee diversity programs and career success. 

            I have enjoyed both the “I” side and “O” side of the program.  Within the organizational domain, I have enjoyed several topics in Organizational Behavior which include on-boarding, organizational development, and leadership.  Within the industrial side, I have thoroughly enjoyed Performance Management Systems, from workforce planning to how to develop a performance system.   The most valuable lesson I have learned from the program is the importance of examining and demonstrating how an organizational intervention or application adds value to an organization to ensure that the optimal solution is selected that maximizes value.

I completed a nine month internship with a high-volume manufacturing and production organization that supplies many of the beverage companies with various products.  One of my main roles was talent acquisition that included full-cycle recruiting for salary-exempt and non-exempt positions; I was also certified to use Lominger’s Interview Architect for behavioral-based competency interviewing.  In addition, I exported production and human resources data from SAP onto spreadsheets for statistical analysis to show where and how human resources practices impact production performance.  My most memorable project was when I created processes for workforce analyses and planning, and also job redesign, for use across all facilities in the Southern United States. 

My internship was essential in providing insight into how and what to communicate to managers and leaders in order to help them make more informed decisions.  I also learned how I could utilize advanced statistics to show how various human resources practices impact production performance.  Also, I gained valuable experience with SAP, interviewing techniques, and the implementation of new practices that facilitate organizational change and development.  Lastly, I learned how industrial-organizational psychology interacts with human resources, and how the synergy of both disciplines can result in the most significant organizational outcomes.