Reflecting on the DOP24 conference

Despite the turbulence around the profession and the challenges the country and the world face, participants in the DOP conference 2024 reaffirmed the commitment of the OP community to be a positive force for change. This has been evidenced by the high quality of practitioner and academic-led presentations delivered over the two days of the conference. One of the strengths of our community is precisely the opportunity for positive interactions between practitioners and academics that these events provide. 

Wellbeing stream

The Peter Warr Wellbeing Stream celebrated the psychologist's life
and work, providing a look at the past with the eyes on the present and future of
workplace wellbeing. 

As traditionally happens in DOP conferences, wellbeing has been a hot topic, with presentations looking at a variety of themes in this area such as work-study conflict, decent work, burnout, use of therapies to improve work wellbeing, and the role of line managers, among many others.

Psychological assessment at work

Another area that has received substantial attention during this conference was
psychological assessment at work, especially linked to employee recruitment and selection.

Presentations and the discussions that followed in these sessions came
up with challenges organisations face and innovative solutions to address those
challenges. For example, how to increase candidate engagement and conversion
rates in recruitment, especially in long recruitment processes? How to enhance
geographic diversity in graduate recruitment? How to deal with cheating in
asynchronous video interviews? Among others.

National and global challenges

Participants also engaged in discussions about national and global challenges and the role of occupational psychologists in addressing those challenges. These presentations focused on a diversity of topics including climate change, decent work, quality of life, digital wellbeing, and widening access to medical services, among others. 

The discussions around these topics were a testimonial of the need to broaden the areas of intervention of occupational psychologists and how our skill set can be applied to multiple contexts not covered by the traditional areas of practice.

Meet the DOP committee

Finally, it was great to see the engagement of the participants in the discussions with the DOP committee during the sessions 'Meet the DOP committee' and 'Qualifications and training: Discussing the Stage 2 QOP'. There is an overall commitment within the OP community to advance the profession, with a lot of ideas on how to do it discussed during these two sessions.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in the DOP 2025!

André Escórcio Soares: [email protected]