Consultancy and Reach Out

Throughout its long history the Psychology Department at Hull has combined the scientific study of behaviour with the application of psychological knowledge to the solution of real-world problems. In keeping with this, the Department offers a wide range of consultancy, training and psychological assessment services at commercially competitive rates. Collectively these activities are known as 'reach out', because they involve taking our skills as psychologists out into the community. Our reach out works encompasses a many different aspects of society, including business and commerce, education and training, and public services, such as police, prisons and armed forces. This page contains a few examples of recent reach out work.

Consultancy

In consultancy, the Department has recently been working with three large local companies in the design and implementation of effective assessment and development centres for middle to senior managers. All three organisations wanted to create managerial excellence that either involved the selection of new managers for the organisation or the promotion of existing managers. The members of the project team were - Dr Peter Clough, Dr. Iain Coyne, Dr Martin Sheridan and Fiona Earle - who all have long-standing experience and expertise in this field of occupational psychology. Working in close collaboration with the three organisations, the team identified the key competencies required of the managers in their respective areas of work. The group then developed appropriate methods for identifying these competencies - including structured application forms, team exercises, case study exercises, structured interview techniques, and behavioural checklists for the scoring of competencies - and finally trained personnel in these organisations how to use the methods. These projects not only generated income for the University but also helped local businesses become more efficient and better able to select good managers.

Training

Much of consultancy work in occupational psychology involves assessment and training. The Department's expertise in psychological assessment was also recently called upon to train psychologists at Centrex (the National Police Training Authority) how to assess adults for dyslexia. Adult dyslexia assessment is a highly specialised skill but the Department's Psychological Assessment Unit has several psychologists with expertise in this field. Recent developments in disability legislation, together with increasing national awareness of dyslexia, has meant that more employees and job applicants are requesting special arrangements in selection and promotion procedures, citing grounds of dyslexia.