
Senior Occupational Psychologist
- Public sector
- 02/01/2025
- £42,382.00 - £45,920.00 /yearly
- Full Time & Permanent
Job Type
Salary
Date Posted:
Expiration date:
Job ID
Work Location
The job is in the Occupational Psychology Service (OPS), which sits within the Government People Group (GPG) in Cabinet Office. The job is part of the wider Government Occupational Psychology Profession (a recognised government specialist profession).
GPG
GPG exists to work with departments, professions, and functions to build a modern, effective Civil Service.
We support the government workforce with the right skills and capability. We are working with leaders to get the right people in the right jobs, with the right skills and continuous learning to excel in their roles.
We provide leadership, and in turn, create leaders with exceptional line management capability across departments, influencing partners in the wider public sector and beyond. This involves getting our retention and reward strategy right, to nurture specific skills, and create pride and resilience in our workforce.
Our role is also to provide system leadership across central government in pulling together back office services. Collectively, we help support the Cabinet Offices priority to drive efficiencies, and reforms that will make government work better, to ultimately provide a better service to the public.
OPS
Acting as an internal consultancy to all of the Civil Service, we collaborate with government departments, functions and professions to develop and deliver high quality, customer-focused assessment products and solutions grounded in great digital standards and best practice occupational psychology and psychometrics principles. Our services aim to help identify and develop the best people from all backgrounds, including the Civil Services prestigious talent programmes.
You will be joining a high performing multi-disciplinary team of occupational psychologists, psychometricians and digital experts who use evidence-based practice to put the client and user at the heart of what they do.
The Government Occupational Psychology Profession
The profession comprises over 250 members across all the major government departments and many agencies and arms-length bodies which makes us the largest Occupational Psychology community in the U.K. The Head of the Government Occupational Psychology Profession is Dr Antonia Dietmann. Building on the foundation of skills that you developed in your Masters degree, your career in the Government Occupational Psychology Profession will develop both your technical and consultancy capabilities. Throughout the year there will be many opportunities to connect with other members of the profession and build the relationships that will make the most rewarding occupational psychology career.
As Senior Occupational Psychologist you will work closely with the Head of the Occupational Psychology Service to provide thought leadership in the areas of selection and assessment for the Civil Service.
You will play a critical role in supporting the design, development, trialling and evaluation of a suite of online tests used for recruitment and talent selection in the Civil Service. You will also provide support and advice for clients to ensure best practice use of assessments and create guidance to support candidates through their testing journey.
You will have the opportunity to lead on psychological and insight-led research projects using both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the wider recruitment context and better enable the Occupational Psychology Service to make evidence-based decisions. Examples of such work could include:
You will act as a subject matter expert and represent the Occupational Psychology Service professionally with a wide range of customers and stakeholders. You will also be expected to contribute to the development of professional practice and work collaboratively with colleagues on a wider portfolio of activities when the need arises.
Key responsibilities include:
Psychological Assessment at Work
Leadership, Engagement and Motivation
Providing expert advice and research
Memberships - Essential
Licences - Essential
Qualifications - Essential
Technical Skills
Additional information:
A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
Application and selection process
Expected timeline (subject to change)
Additional Sift of CSNT (if required) = 27 January
Interviews = w/c 17 February
Interview location - Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview.
As part of the application process you will be asked to first confirm that you meet the eligibility criteria for Memberships, Licenses and Qualifications. If you confirm your eligibility, you will be asked to complete the Civil Service Numerical Test. The pass mark may be raised on this test if the numbers passing it are high.
After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Numerical Test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.
Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 23:55 on 22/01/2025. If you fail to complete the online test and full application before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.
If you pass this test, you will be invited to submit a CV and Personal Statement.
Your CV must provide full details of your eligible qualifications, license and professional membership and these will be reviewed to confirm they demonstrate eligibility. If you do not meet these eligibility requirements, you will not be invited to interview. Your CV will only be used to assess eligibility requirements set out in the person specification and will not be scored.
In the Personal Statement you should provide evidence of each of the technical skills (Knowledge Base, Consultancy and Research, Evaluation and Ambassador) listed in the Government Occupational Psychology Skills & Standards at Senior Psychologist level. These will not be evaluated at sift, and will be used to inform the interview if you are selected for interview. The Personal Statement must be no longer than 750 words.
At the interview, you will be assessed on Ambassador and each of the technical skills (Knowledge Base, Consultancy and Research and Evaluation) listed in the Government Occupational Psychology Skills & Standards at Senior Psychologist level. At Interview you will also be asked to provide a presentation. Further information about the interview process will be provided if you are selected for an interview.
Further Information
A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.
Any move to Cabinet Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service or Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.
However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing [email protected] stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email [email protected]
Please note that this role requires CTC clearance, which would normally need 3 years UK residency in the past 3 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.
For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting
Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicants details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
Reasonable Adjustment
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
Contact Government Recruitment Service via [email protected] as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the Assistance required section in the Additional requirements page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if youre deaf, a Language Service Professional.
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
Cabinet Office Terms and Conditions - External Opens in new window (pdf, 81kB) |
Cabinet Office Employee Offer Opens in new window (pdf, 302kB) |
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