Other Professional Services
Alongside our expert witness work, Doherty Stobbs provides practical business psychology, occupational psychology and vocational services for individuals and organisations. These include vocational rehabilitation in line with the Rehabilitation Code, and return-to-work support, job retention and employer liaison, career guidance and coaching, non-litigation neurodiversity and workplace-needs assessment, and assessment for recruitment, promotion and development. Our aim is usually simple: understand the problem or situation properly, then help the person or organisation decide what to do next.
Our approach is personal and practical. We take time to understand the individual, the work and the organisational context, using structured interview and assessment and psychometrics where they add useful information to identify realistic next steps. This may involve helping someone return to work after injury or illness, supporting a neurodivergent employee, advising on career change, or helping an organisation improve selection, assessment or workplace practice.
We support people returning to work after injury, illness or disability by looking at what they can realistically sustain and what may help them get there. This can include graded return-to-work planning, pacing, role modification, retraining and identifying suitable alternative work. The aim is not simply to decide whether somebody is theoretically “fit for work”, but to understand what would give that person a realistic chance of getting back to work and staying there. Christine’s work in particular has long included vocational rehabilitation and return-to-work support.
Where someone is struggling to remain in work, we look at the interaction between the individual, the job and the organisation. This may involve identifying barriers to performance or attendance, considering reasonable adjustments, helping employers understand what support is likely to be useful, and working with both parties to find a sustainable way forward. The aim is practical: to preserve employment where that is realistic and to reduce the risk of difficulties becoming entrenched.
We provide career guidance and coaching for people making decisions about career direction, retraining, progression or return to work. Our approach combines detailed interview with psychometric assessment where it adds useful information, including measures of ability, interests and personality. Personality measures and other psychometrics can be particularly helpful in exploring patterns of working style, motivation and fit, and we have extensive experience in their use. Psychometrics are used to inform discussion and judgement, not to dictate a career choice. Christine’s programme ‘Where do I go from here?’ has been helping people at a crossroads in life make sound, well-researched decisions about moving on, with their career.
Our occupational psychologists provide non-litigation assessment and advice for adults with dyslexia and other forms of neurodivergence, including where the main question concerns work, study, career development or reasonable adjustments. Assessment considers the individual’s strengths and difficulties alongside the demands of the particular role or environment, with recommendations aimed at practical support rather than simply attaching a label. This can include workplace-needs assessment, guidance on adjustments and consideration of how neurodivergence may affect learning, organisation, communication or performance.
Our Business and Occupational Psychologists help organisations design and use fair, evidence-based selection and assessment processes, from structured interviews and psychometric testing to the design of assessment centres and assessor training. Our experience includes graduate, professional and senior appointments, and the evaluation of whether particular selection methods are valid and being used properly. Personality assessment is an established part of this work, including extensive use of measures such as the NEO, where a detailed understanding of behavioural style, interpersonal approach or leadership potential is relevant.
We provide tailored training and development in areas where psychology can improve workplace judgement and behaviour, and ultimately, the business case. This includes assessor and interview training, fair recruitment, resilience, workplace inclusion, bullying and interpersonal behaviour, communication, promotion preparation and personal impact. Training is designed around the organisation and the people involved rather than delivered as a standard package, and can be supported by coaching or assessment where that adds value.