Assessment Case Studies
Assessment and Development in the Finance Sector
BCL had worked with a large financial services organisation for 4 years on design and delivery of their award-winning flagship Executive Development Programme (EDP), when we were asked to design and deliver both the assessment and development parts of a new middle manager Leadership Development Programme across their Emerging Markets and International regions. For the assessment, we worked under tight timescales to design a 1-day assessment centre, adaptable for native and non-native English speakers, to identify those with the potential to both perform at more senior leadership levels and to benefit from the development programme. The centre was designed around the Global Leadership Capabilities, and incorporated an individual presentation and group discussion around a fictitious scenario, a paired coaching exercise, a competency-based interview and a psychometric. We briefed and co-delivered the centres with experienced internal assessors and facilitators in each region, managing each centre and providing support to both candidates and assessors. All candidates were given oral and written feedback and were offered a 1-to-1 full psychometric feedback discussion with the BCL facilitator. The client was totally satisfied with the decisions that were made for LDP selections, and they have noticed a clearly higher calibre of participants from the assessment centres than from 2 regions who subsequently took participants based only on internal nomination. Participants themselves felt that they had been stretched but not unfairly so, and that the feedback they received was extremely helpful in terms of their personal development.
On the back of this success, along with a perceived need for change, we were then asked to propose an alternative process for selecting participants for the EDP. We worked with the client to design and deliver a half-day assessment which addressed the concerns of the previous process whilst working within tight logistical constraints, and came up with a design which included a structured interview and a personal “sales” pitch, as well as a psychometric and a 360º Learning Agility tool. This received very positive feedback from the client and candidates; it provides more valid and comprehensive evidence for selection decisions, as well as fuller feedback to candidates, tied in with subsequent development activity (for both successful and unsuccessful candidates). This assessment process has since been streamlined further by removing the 360 and psychometric.
The client reported that the new EDP assessment process provided more thorough and integrated data on candidates than they had ever had, leading to greater confidence in the selections. It has also resulted in significant cost savings of around 70%.
Development Centres for all Grades as part of Leadership in the Health Sector
We are currently running a series Leadership Development Programmes for a large, public sector organisation for managers at all levels, AO/EO, HEO/SEO, Grade 6/7 and SCS. An integral part of these programmes is a one day Development Centre which forms part of the diagnostic phase and takes place at the start of the programme.
As part of our design for these Development Centres, we carried out focus groups with staff at each level in order to ensure a genuine understanding about what their roles involve. In doing this we were able to design various exercises that really represent the sorts of tasks that they will be expected to undertake in the organisation. The exercises are designed to provide participants with a challenging variety of tasks, each focusing on different competencies and behaviours. Exercises include group meetings, one to one role plays, written exercises and presentations.
Throughout all versions of the Development Centre, participants receive feedback. The extent of this feedback varies according to the level of managers involved. For HEO and above, participants are allocated one of the observers who will pay particular attention to their performance during the day. This observer is then be responsible for pooling all observations at the 'wash up', producing a feedback report based on this and spending some time with them discussing this in a coaching session following the event. This process gives participants time and support to think about prioritising their key learning objectives and to understand how they can use the programme most effectively in meeting these. For staff at AO and EO grades, we have designed a different kind of day that gives participants the opportunity to experience a challenging Development Centre, whilst benefitting from the support of experienced facilitators and role players. Observation is made to feel less intense in this day whilst the valuable feedback that is given is maintained through discussions following each individual exercise. Participants are given a short coaching session at the end of the day where they discuss their experience and begin to set themselves development objectives for the programme.
Evaluation shows us that participants at all levels rate the Development Centre aspect of the Leadership Programme particularly highly. Feedback tells us that they feel the challenging variety and pace along with the support and feedback provided by the experienced observers makes for an excellent learning and development experience. This is excellent feedback about an experience that can typically cause many individuals considerable anxiety and has been proven by a consistent increase in the interest that has been expressed in the programmes.
For further information on our Capability Assessment programmes please email nicola.hardy@berkshire.co.uk or call a member of our team on 0118 932 3580.
