Jeff T.H. Pon, PhD, is now the federal government's most prominent psychologist—and the only one reporting directly to President Donald J. Trump. On March 12, Pon began his tenure as director of the Office of Personnel Managementopens in new window (OPM), which oversees the government's human resources (HR) programs including benefits, vetting of potential employees and human capital management.
Pon earned his PhD in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in 1997. He has since held numerous senior leadership positions in the private sector—most recently as chief human resources and strategy officer at the Society for Human Resource Managementopens in new window, the world's largest HR professional society. Pon has also served as OPM's deputy director of e-government and as the chief human capital officer at the Department of Energy.
In his new role, Pon plans to employ evidence-based HR practices to improve outcomes across the federal workforce. "By applying principles from the I/O psychology literature of the past few decades, OPM can help build much more scientific rigor into the practice of human resources," he says.
In particular, research on human capital management will be key for driving cultural change, which Pon hopes can stabilize morale throughout the federal government. While more than 80 percent of NASA employees are satisfied with their work, only about half of Department of Homeland Security employees say the same, according to an analysis of responsesopens in new window to OPM's 2017 Federal Employee Viewpoint Surveyopens in new window. To address these inconsistencies, Pon says he will better recognize and reward employee accomplishments and administer satisfaction surveys more often.
Pon's other priorities are to incorporate technology into federal HR processes, including virtual interviews and mobile access to employee portals. He also plans to modernize civil service laws and celebrate the contributions of federal personnel. To accomplish these aims, he says he will rely on I/O psychology principles such as goal-setting theory—the idea that establishing goals motivates workers and improves performance—and equity theory, which holds that people are motivated by the perceived fairness of costs and benefits.
"Some of the ideas I'm bringing to this job are things we've known for a long time—they are all grounded in the work that psychologists have been doing for decades," Pon says. "I'm very hopeful that I/O psychologists can use these principles to help improve the practices and standards of HR across the federal government."
