Assessment Centres Designed Specifically for Diversity

The importance of a diverse workforce continues to be a key driver for all Employers. Whilst ensuring inclusion, diversity of thought, creativity and strong decision-making is at the forefront of their minds at all times. But are we doing all we can to meet our Diversity goals? Are we giving all people the best chance of success?

People Solutions has invested heavily in the best practice principles of Assessment for Diversity and have had exciting opportunities to put this into practice.

A long-term client and leading Mining Organisation (Company X) approached us in May 2016 with the long-term vision of increasing their Employment Diversity on one of their most remote mine sites. It was our commitment to adopt a collaborative approach whereby we worked together to develop a Diversity Campaign that would attract and assess a diverse range of candidates in a fair and equitable manner. Company X was not afraid to adopt a different approach in order to create better / improved outcomes.

The stages of this Campaign included:

1. The Audit:

We agreed that it was important to review all current recruitment material such as job advert content, and interview guides to ensure that we understood what the current processes were and whether modifications needed to be made to ensure diversity and cultural sensitivity.

In addition to reviewing all relevant recruitment material a People Solutions Consultant travelled to the remote site to interview a variety of employees across the business, coupled with tours underground to gain a true understanding of ‘life on site’ and what the work involved. This step was integral to this campaign for designing relevant and meaningful activities and assessment criteria. In doing so, Company X and People Solutions could provide candidates with a realistic understanding of what the role entailed, and to assist them in making a more informed decision as to whether this opportunity was right for them.

2. The Design:

Together with Company X, we re-designed the recruitment approach and tailored all steps of the recruitment process so that it would attract a diverse range of applicants, with particular attention to Females and Indigenous Candidates.

Not only did we revamp job adverts, the avenues for advertising and the screening process, we also designed a bespoke Assessment Centre, developing culturally sensitive activities based on content relevant to Company X. The Best Practice principles were incorporated into each step of this recruitment process.

3. The Delivery:

Together with Company X, People Solutions travelled to the Northern Territory to run the multi-day Assessment Centres. In addition to running a tailor-made assessment centre, People Solutions trained all Assessors sourced from Company X and their business partners. This was to ensure all participants of the day had a thorough understanding of the assessment methodology and the objectives so that a fair assessment could be made.

4. The Outcome:

In addition to Company X successfully gaining a strong pool of candidates to draw from, the anonymous feedback collected from assessors and candidates demonstrated a positive impression of the recruitment process and the usefulness of Assessment Centres as a means of recruitment.