This presentation builds on a 2024 IOP conference session examining the expanding role of organisational psychology in shaping mentally healthy, safe, and productive workplaces. Since then, legislative, regulatory, and social drivers have accelerated, particularly in psychosocial risk, sexual harassment, and psychological health and safety, while parallel pressures around productivity, sustainability, and rapid technological change (e.g. AI integration) have intensified focus on the effective use of human capital. Together, these forces are increasing demand for organisational psychology expertise to improve both worker wellbeing (including the prevention of harm) and organisational outcomes such as performance, productivity, and sustainability.

This raises a critical question: can the organisational psychology workforce sustainably meet this growing demand, and if not, what are the risks to workforce capability, professional standards, and ultimately the health and performance outcomes organisations are seeking to achieve?

Drawing on a College of Organisational Psychologists (COP)-led initiative involving provisional psychologists and practitioner volunteers, this session turns our lens inward, applying organisational psychology methods to understand our own workforce and practice system. Using strategic workforce planning, a system-level, forward-looking approach that applies data, modelling, and systems thinking to align workforce capability, distribution, and design with desired outcomes, and aligned with the WHO Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health, we examine how current and emerging productivity, performance, and worker wellbeing demands are shaping the need for organisational psychology capability, and how well the existing workforce, including training pipelines, capability distribution, and role design, is positioned to meet this demand.

Integrating systems thinking, labour market analysis, and workforce modelling, we outline the likely consequences if these challenges are left unaddressed, including practitioner burnout, substitution by less-qualified providers, and erosion of professional standards.

We see organisational psychology as well placed to reflect on the sustainability of its own workforce and to take a more strategic, coordinated approach to workforce development. This session invites participants to step beyond their immediate context to identify shared professional challenges, consider how we might strengthen our collective voice, and explore next steps to ensure the profession can sustainably deliver impact across both health and performance outcomes.