News

The Division of Occupational Psychology (DOP), British Psychological Society, has launched www.pow-bps.com as a fresh destination for new and existing users of occ psych products and services, with an emphasis on showing the business benefits and added value that applied occupational psychology can deliver. The site offers a variety of features, including an explanation of practice areas, case study examples and an FAQ section, which are designed to explain precisely what occupational psychology is, how it works and where to find it. This first generation site will be followed up with further features, including more comprehensive database development and an extensive linking programme, over the coming months. Said DOP Chair, Eugene Burke: "The site is a central part of our wider strategy to take the message about the benefits of what we do out to a wider audience. There is a large constituency of people we want to reach and show how they can use occupational psychology to add value to their organisation's performance."

Whilst organisations are investing considerable sums in programmes and initiatives to maximise the performance of their people, few are measuring the link between their investment and the return. This is one of the findings of new research from the BPS's Division of Occupational Psychology. The research, 'What Works At Work?', also found that organisations are increasing their spend on leadership development and change management, areas they see as strategically important to organisational success. Spending on these areas, seen as key to creating competitive advantage, is predicted to grow by 10% in 2006. Alan Bourne, who co-authored the report with Professor William Scott-Jackson of the Centre for Applied Human Resources Research at Oxford Brookes University, said: "Our findings suggest that the demand for occupational psychology is set to grow by an estimated 6% in 2006, which indicates that it is increasingly being used by managers to help implement key programmes for developing leadership and managing change, as well as within more traditional areas of HR." You can access the full research report on this site by visiting the 'Downloads' page.

The Division of Occupational
Psychology is part of:
The British Psychological Society