Navigation trail

• Home page
• Types of jobs
• Human resources and employment
• Occupational psychologist: Job description and activities

Occupational psychologist: Job description and activities

Job description

Occupational psychologists apply psychological knowledge, theory and practice to the world of work. They aim to help an organisation get the best performance from their employees and also to improve employees’ own job satisfaction. 

Occupational psychologists apply expert knowledge to all levels of working and may work on organisational issues, such as culture and change, as well as issues at an individual or team level. They may work in a consultancy role or in-house as an employee of an organisation, in collaboration with management, human resources and training specialists, trade union representatives, and staff in teams and individually.

Typical work activities

Both organisation and consultancy-based occupational psychologists carry out a range of work according to the needs of their clients or employing organisation. The British Psychological Society (BPS) divides this work into eight key knowledge areas:

• human-machine interaction;
• design of environments and work: ergonomics, health and safety, and well-being;
• personnel selection and assessment, including test and exercise design;
• performance appraisal and career development;
• personal development and counselling;
• training (identification of needs, training design and evaluation);
• employee relations and motivation;
• organisational development and change.

Typical activities for occupational psychologists working in the area of organisational development include:

• designing/applying methods to understand an organisation's or team's current culture and helping them develop a new culture or achieve specific performance objectives;
• advising on new technologies, such as e-learning, portfolio working and virtual team working;
• helping people to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills, working with groups or individuals;
• advising on employee relations and schemes to motivate staff.

Activities for those working in the areas of assessment and training include:

• developing, implementing or evaluating selection procedures, including psychometric tests, assessment centre exercises and structured interviews;
• developing and evaluating a training and appraisal programme;
• giving guidance and counselling to help staff plan their career or cope with redundancy;
• life and career coaching for managers and other staff, working collaboratively with individuals to enable them to reach their full potential.

Activities for those working in the area of ergonomics and health and safety include:

• working with engineers, physiologists and ergonomists to improve the design of the working environment and equipment;
• improving companies' health and safety performance by studying the causes of accidents and their prevention, designing and applying behavioural change interventions and assessing safety culture;
• advising companies about stress prevention and stress management strategies, and training staff in techniques.

AGCAS

Written by Ed Riddick, AGCAS

Last updated:

October 2009

© Copyright AGCAS & Graduate Prospects Ltd | Disclaimer