2024 Membership Survey Results

Survey Subcommittee of the SIOP Membership Committee: Katye Griswold, Cameron Klein, Rushika De Bruin, Harry Kohn, Kelsey Byerly, Ziyad Muflahi, & Tianjun Sun

SIOP conducts an annual Membership Survey to evaluate member satisfaction and identify any areas for improvement to enhance membership experience. This year, the survey was live from January 23 to February 2, 2024, and nearly a thousand of you provided feedback. We thank you for taking the time to give feedback and help make sure SIOP is doing its best to continue to serve you, our members, and affiliates. Respondents included approximately 14% of SIOP’s total membership (n = 969 of 7,017 invitations that were sent)—a 4% increase from last year.

Our focus in this article is to share a high-level overview of the results. A more detailed report of the results can be found on the SIOP Membership Surveys Page. Throughout the coming year, the SIOP Membership Committee, in conjunction with SIOP staff, will continue to review the Membership Survey results to identify further opportunities for action.

Headlines

• Overall member engagement, which measures satisfaction, advocacy, pride, and commitment, is 82%, which marks a 2% decrease from 2023.

• Membership satisfaction emerges as an area to watch this year (73%) and has demonstrated a steady decrease since 2021 (79%).
• The top three drivers of engagement include membership benefits, resources available to members, and SIOP's criticality in practicing I-O psychology.

Key Focus Areas

• Benefits and Resources: Benefits compared to other professional organizations and satisfaction with resources are top drivers of engagement but are associated with lower levels of satisfaction (60% & 60%, respectively). Additionally, both items saw moderate decreases this year, -5% and -3%, respectively, suggesting greater need to focus here. Qualitative comments reveal that better delineation of information around what resources and benefits are available could improve satisfaction. Additional suggestions include improved access to research journals, best practice guides for practitioners, teaching materials, and discounts beyond those already available for conferences and workshops.
• SIOP Direction and Visibility: This year, satisfaction with SIOP’s efforts to promote I-O psychology emerged as a key driver of engagement, with 65% of participants reporting that they are satisfied with these efforts. Though this is up 2%, only 19% of respondents indicate that others outside of the field understand what they do as an I-O psychologist or practitioner—a decrease of 6%. Despite the low association with engagement, visibility efforts geared toward promoting outside the field may yield high returns.

Awareness of and satisfaction with SIOP’s strategic direction are relatively low (53% and 58%, respectively), with strategic goal satisfaction decreasing 5% from 2023. Although awareness and satisfaction are similar in favorability, 26% responded they are unaware of SIOP’s strategic goals, whereas only 7% responded they are not satisfied with SIOP’s strategic goals. Taken together, these results suggest that SIOP leadership may want to further engage membership to understand what strategic direction they are looking for from the organization and that prioritizing awareness before considering the re-alignment of strategic goals may be of value.

• Inclusion: Inclusion remains a key driver of membership engagement. Though 77% of participants reported feeling that members treat each other with respect, only 69% reported that SIOP supports an environment where differences of opinion are valued and encouraged. This suggests that there is an opportunity to foster conversation around the diversity of thoughts within SIOP. Comment data revealed an especially strong pull for including those with a master’s degree in full membership status.

Connections to SIOP’s Strategic Goals

Goal 1: Collaborate with organization leaders, communities, and policymakers to understand and confront relevant real-world problems and translate scientific knowledge to promote individual and organizational health and effectiveness.

• Although the value of I-O psychologists and practitioners is recognized in respondents’ workplaces (69%), less than a quarter of respondents (19%) indicated that others outside the field understand what they do as an I-O psychologist or practitioner. This suggests an opportunity to provide increased awareness and understanding of such professionals to those outside the field.

Goal 2: Build a diverse, inclusive, and agile SIOP that maximizes our impact through effective people, process, technology, and data infrastructure.

• Scores regarding inclusion suggest that SIOP creates a respectful environment, but there is room to improve on valuing differences of opinion. Similar to last year, 68% of SIOP members reported that SIOP creates an environment where differences of opinion are valued (down 4% since 2022), and 77% reported that everyone is respected and valued (no change in 2022 or 2023).
• Many comments also suggest that financial barriers limit the accessibility of the annual conference. Less than half of members reported that they receive full funding from their employers for SIOP membership (38%), annual conference registration (40%), or webinar registration fees (20%), indicating an opportunity to better message the benefits of SIOP membership and events to employers.

Goal 3: Use and strengthen our ability to gather, energize, and align all those invested in understanding and improving work and workplace issues in ways that inspire action and inclusive dialogue.

• When asked about the most valuable aspect of SIOP membership, qualitative comments suggested members find value in being able to connect and network with others, specifically by attending the SIOP Annual Conference.
• Similar to 2023, 59% agreed that SIOP allows them to connect with affinity groups, and 22% indicated that they participate in local I-O events. Together, these results demonstrate an opportunity to better facilitate connection with communities of interest and local groups beyond the SIOP Annual Conference.

Goal 4: Create an ecosystem that generates future I-O psychology capabilities to advance and advocate for both science and practice by guiding education and lifelong learning.

• 2023 gains in satisfaction with resources available to members have diminished in 2024 (down 3% to 60%). That along with the somewhat low score suggest room for improvement in resources such as journal accessibility, as well as clarity in what resources are available.
• Qualitative comments in response to the question “What can SIOP do to improve the promotion of I-O psychology?” give several suggestions to increase awareness of I-O and SIOP in the workplace and education system. Top themes include:
  • Improvements to branding and marketing strategy: Improving social media presence, hiring marketers, leveraging high-profile I-O psychologists, engaging with media outlets more actively, and overcoming the field's naming and branding challenges.
  • Increase engagement with nonacademic and wider audiences: Enhance the public's academic exposure to I-O (e.g., integrate I-O content into introductory courses and textbooks) to create a stronger presence in industry, undergraduate education, and professional settings.
  • Credentialing and accreditation: Providing official certification or credentials in I-O psychology (e.g., something akin to APA accreditation).
  • Research translation and practical impact: Translating I-O research findings into practical tips, tools, and best practices, and increasing visibility of I-O work in the business press as ways to translate our scientific research and make adoption and potential impact clearer to a nontechnical audience.

Thank you to all who participated in this year's Membership Survey! We encourage you to review the full results on the SIOP Survey Website, which include further insights around topics such as employer financing for SIOP-related activities, SIOP publications, and more! We’d also like to thank Talent Metrics Consulting, specifically, Mike Chetta, Sy Islam, and Jade Brown, who provided the platform, survey administration, and resulting data set.