An assessment centre and psychometric testing process for a large-scale interagency graduate program in the public sector

Summary/overview

This organisation wanted to re-design the assessment centre process for a large-scale graduate program in the public sector. We helped them create a new candidate-friendly process that boosted the image of careers in the public sector, while simultaneously helping the hiring organisations identify and select top quality graduates.

Situation & Challenges

One of our clients was a couple of years into running a large-scale interagency graduate program, hosting over 20 graduates across a number of different public sector agencies and involving rotations between agencies over the year-long program. Given the focus on quality and continuous improvement of the program overall, they wanted to review the recruitment process ahead of applications opening for 2025.

The client wanted to design a recruitment and assessment centre process that was fun, engaging, and that taught candidates more about the public sector agencies and the graduate program, as well as challenging their pre-existing notions about what a public sector career involved. They also wanted to balance this with ensuring that they were selecting the most suitable candidates for the program, maximizing diversity, and looking after candidates with disabilities or who were neurodiverse.

Due to the number of different agencies and stakeholders involved, the number of candidates, and the different ‘work streams’ that made up the graduate program (each candidate nominated and was allocated to one stream), the assessment process was necessarily complex.

It was important that all agencies sent a representative to assess on the day, and for us to ensure that all assessors from all agencies had an opportunity to meet and/or assess all candidates at some point throughout the session, so that they felt involved in the process and had some input into selection decisions for those who may end up at their agency. We were also conscious of managing both candidate and hiring agency preferences when it came to final placements.

Our Solution

To assist with initial shortlisting (given the large number of applicants), we administered a gamified cognitive ability assessment to all eligible candidates. The results from this were combined with their written application to determine who would be invited to the assessment centre day. The gamified assessment provided us with an insight into their ability to work with written and numerical information, as well as their ability to problem solve, in a format that was more fun and engaging for the graduate cohort.

Then, we designed an assessment centre process that involved:

• A hands-on ice breaker group activity aligned to the host public sector agency
• A second practical group activity themed around the industry in which the candidates were applying to work
• One-on-one interviews
• A speed-networking session with different agency representatives
• Morning tea and lunch breaks with informal networking
• Q&A sessions
• An assessor wrap-up session where we talked through each candidate one at a time and discussed their performance and whether or not to progress them

We ran two sessions, each of which took around 6 hours, with around 23 candidates and 18 assessors participating in each session. We also ran two assessor training sessions the week before the assessment centre, to train all assessors on the competencies we were assessing, the activities we were using, unconscious bias, how to assess fairly and objectively, how to use the rating sheets, and tips for the day, as well as to get them all on the same page around expectations.

Result

The two sessions ran very smoothly, with a high level of participation from both candidates and assessors.  We were particularly impressed by how well the assessors put their training into practice on the day, helping to create a positive candidate experience and ensuring that the assessor wrap-up remained focused on objective performance information.

Feedback from candidates after the day indicated that they felt very comfortable and relaxed, and many felt more positively afterwards about a potential career in the public sector. Feedback from assessors indicated that they were very satisfied with the overall experience, enjoyed participating, and found it to be well organised and managed, as well as a progressive approach to recruitment.