Perpara OD at SIOP 2026

Advancing Organizational Development, Employee Voice, and Workplace Strategy

This April, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) brings together leading researchers and practitioners shaping the future of work—and Perpara Organizational Development Consulting is proud to be part of that conversation.

Lauren Kiproff-Downer, Organizational Psychologist, consultant, and founder of Perpara Organizational Development Consulting, will contribute to three sessions focused on advancing organizational development practice, elevating employee voice, and bridging the gap between research and real-world workplace impact.

Expanding the Lens: I-O Practice for Overlooked Workers

Thursday, April 30 | 4:00 – 4:50 PM

This split-format session explores Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology practice with often overlooked worker populations, including skilled trades professionals, non-traditional caregivers, and veterans. A panel of researchers and practitioners will share challenges, insights, and innovative approaches for addressing persistent gaps in workforce support and inclusion.

Lauren will focus on the realities faced by non-traditional caregivers—highlighting the financial, logistical, and emotional demands they navigate. She will also explore how individuals can advocate for themselves, alongside how organizations can design more supportive, sustainable systems that better reflect the needs of today’s workforce.

Practicing What We Preach: Integrating “I” & “O” Psychology in Applied Fieldwork

Friday, May 1, 2026 | 10:30 – 11:20 AM

This session examines the historically distinct “I” (individual) and “O” (organizational) sides of Industrial-Organizational Psychology. While the “I” side has traditionally focused on assessing knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs), the “O” side has emphasized workplace context—including social, emotional, and well-being outcomes.

Presenters will share applied examples of how these areas are inherently interconnected in practice. Lauren will speak on integrating psychological safety as both an individual competency and an organizational design principle—an approach that strengthens team effectiveness, improves employee engagement, and reduces the risk of burnout and turnover.

Is anyone listening? Transforming voice to action

Saturday, May 2, 2026 | 2:00 – 2:50 PM

Employee feedback is a critical driver of organizational change—but only when it leads to action. When leaders fail to respond effectively, even well-designed employee engagement and feedback systems lose credibility and impact.

This panel brings together practitioners across roles to provide actionable strategies for strengthening feedback loops, increasing leadership responsiveness, and translating employee voice into meaningful, sustained organizational change.

Moving the Field—and Organizations—Forward

These sessions reflect a broader commitment to helping organizations think more expansively about talent, act more intentionally in their organizational design, and create employee experiences that are both effective and human-centered.

For those attending SIOP 2026, these sessions offer an opportunity to engage directly with emerging ideas in organizational development, employee experience, and workforce strategy.

For those not attending, the insights don’t stay at the conference. Themes from these sessions will continue to inform Perpara Organizational Development Consulting’s work—bringing together research, applied psychology, and practical implementation in ways that drive meaningful outcomes.

Following the conference, Lauren will open limited availability for conversations with organizations and leaders interested in applying these insights to their own workplace challenges. If you’re exploring what’s next for your organization—whether related to employee engagement, organizational culture, or workforce strategy—this is an opportunity to start that conversation.

When Low Unemployment Doesn’t Tell the Full Story

Unemployment is low.
But the labor market does not feel healthy.

Across industries, many experienced professionals are struggling to return to work after layoffs, restructuring, or other career interruptions. These are not early-career candidates. They are individuals with graduate degrees, senior leadership experience, and decades of expertise.

If you are in the workforce right now, you have likely noticed this trend.

Something isn’t adding up.

Recently, Lauren Kiproff-Downer joined a conversation on This Is Nashville, where the discussion focused on the changing face of unemployment and what many professionals are quietly navigating behind the scenes.

This is not just anecdotal.

Through her work in organizational development—and in her leadership role with the Middle Tennessee SHRM Career Transition Group—Lauren sees this pattern repeatedly. Talented, highly capable professionals are actively searching, often for months, with limited traction.

At the same time, organizations are not necessarily conducting large-scale layoffs.
But they are also not hiring at a pace that offsets these ongoing disruptions.

The result is a kind of labor market stalemate:

Highly qualified professionals competing for a limited number of opportunities.

From an organizational psychology perspective, moments like this often reveal deeper structural challenges.

When leadership capability, organizational culture, workforce planning, and internal development pathways are not aligned, organizations struggle in two critical ways:

These are not surface-level issues. They are systemic.

And moments like this are pivotal.

They present an opportunity for leaders to pause and ask:
Do our people systems actually work the way we think they do?

This is where alignment becomes critical—between culture, leadership, and workforce strategy. Without it, even strong organizations can find themselves unable to retain talent, respond effectively to disruption, or create clear paths forward for their people.

When these elements are intentionally designed and sustained, organizations are far better equipped to navigate uncertainty and move forward with clarity.

For those interested in understanding more about what is happening in today’s labor market, the full conversation on This Is Nashville offers additional perspective and context.

These are complex challenges, and many professionals are navigating them quietly. Bringing more visibility and understanding to what is happening in today’s labor market is an important step forward.

For organizations and individuals alike, this moment presents an opportunity to better understand not just what is happening—but why.