Bespoke activity design for graduate assessment centres

Situation and Challenge 

This insurance company was planning their assessment centres for their 2023 graduate intake. They were looking for assistance in designing a new, bespoke activity that was tailored to their organisation and industry. This activity would have to be both relevant and interesting for candidates, as well as drawing out behaviours that would allow assessors to assess them against key competencies for the role.

People Solutions had worked with this company previously, conducting psychometric assessments for their graduates and other roles. Given the importance of designing a robust activity with good face validity and the challenge of doing this well, the company reached out to us to help with both the activity and broader assessment centre design.

Solution 

People Solutions began this project by meeting with key representatives involved in the selection and development of graduates in order to get a better understanding of assessment needs (i.e., the key factors determining success in the organisation, as well as areas where graduates often required development). As the client organisation required a solution quickly, an initial activity idea was immediately suggested an agreed upon, allowing People Solutions to begin development soon after.

People Solutions designed a group activity that involved the candidates coming up with initiatives to recommend to one of the organisation’s steering committees. They were provided with several pages of information about the industry, current stats and trends, and concerns for the organisation and steering committee, to assist with their discussion and recommendations.

We created and provided the information packets, candidate instructions, and a facilitator guide for running the activity. We also designed a rating sheet to accompany the activity, on which we outlined the four competencies to be assessed and behavioural anchors to help assessors decide whether candidates were below, meeting, or above expectations on each of the competencies.

A handover and training session was then provided to ensure that the intricacies of the assessment were explained to the client organisation, as well as to ensure that they were comfortable running the activity in their assessment centre.

Result 

Feedback from the client indicated that the activity ran very smoothly on the day and was well received by both candidates and assessors.