Industrial Psychology

Moving abroad for work can be a great career move, but those that have been on an international assignment before know that the expat life is not as easy or luxurious as it looks on the outside.

My first job in HR was in International Mobility, but that’s not where I gained my knowledge on expatriation. Above my professional and educational experiences, it’s my personal life experiences that have made me knowledgeable in the field. I started moving abroad when I was only 2 years old because of my family’s professional life and became what is known in the relocation world as a “Third Culture Kid.” By the time I was 25, I had switched cities, countries & continents 10 times, often going back and forth between them.

Last year, I presented a Human Resources research project on wellbeing in the future of work and its impact on the HR function. When I reflected on the fact that this topic would gain importance in the future of work, and for the HR function in particular, I never would have imagined that “the future” was only a couple of months ahead. Fast forward time to the first months of 2020, and we are all seeing HR professionals and business leaders gain interest in wellbeing at work due to the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The positive consequences of taking care of employee’s mental health have been documented in thousands of research papers and academic books of psychological sciences and other related fields for many years. Despite this, it’s still one of the last remaining taboos of the world of work. Improving wellbeing & mental health at work has always been, and will always be, a very important aspect to keeping an organisation and its workforce healthy and efficient, even in the worst of times.

Category Archives: Industrial Psychology

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