Wates
Embedding inclusion into early careers
The Wates Group turned to PeopleScout to design and build a new assessment centre to boost diversity amongst their early careers talent.
The challenge
The Wates Group is a privately owned development, property services construction organisation, supporting both private and public sector developments. They wanted to increase diversity and inclusion across business areas. To achieve this, they decided to focus in on early careers talent. They were intent on creating a unique assessment centre that would be a positive experience for all. And crucially, delivered quality talent with behaviours well-suited to Wates.
Wates’ early career schemes recruit for a large variety of roles in multiple, distinct business areas. However, as all candidates to go through the same assessment centre, the new assessment design needed to balance the needs of all departments and efficiently assess individual people. Plus, they needed exercises and scoring that could be adapted for both apprenticeship and graduate scheme applicants.
To showcase their values and the kind of work that they do, Wates wanted the format to be fun and engaging.
The solution
It all kicked off with a discovery phase. We gathered information from Wates – ran focus groups with current early careers talent and conducted visionary interviews with senior stakeholders. We also carried out desk research to deepen our understanding.
From there, we were able to define key issues in the current assessment framework and come up with the concepts for a new assessment centre that suited the client’s needs better.
Enter in: a fictional project
We created an overarching fictional project scenario to thread together all exercises at the assessment centre, across all business areas. It also acted as a realistic preview. We had three distinct exercises which followed a story but didn’t rely on each other. Previously, not understanding one exercise had a knock-on effect on carrying out the next.
Design phase
We designed a new assessment framework that introduced a bespoke situational application sift and a new video interview stage. Our revised assessment centre included a new group exercise, case study presentation and interview. There were alternate versions for apprentices and graduates.
The tools for success
For assessors, we created a timetable for the day and scoring guides. For candidates, we created briefs for each exercise and a presentation to inform them of what to expect from the day.
Train the trainer
A pilot assessment centre was held. It was facilitated by the PeopleScout assessment team, with internal stakeholders acting as assessors or candidates. It was hosted on TopScore, so that Wates could stress test their chosen virtual platform. After feedback sessions, we implemented changes and then trained future assessors at Wates.
Results
Wates received over 3,800 applicants for their early careers program, and the new application sift stage allowed the client to filter down their candidate pool to 239. They also felt confident in the quality of the candidates who made it through to the assessment centre, with 81% passing. Plus, when looking at pass/fail ratios, we saw no adverse impact at assessment centre for gender, ethnicity or disability.
We surveyed candidates during the process, once after completing the video interview and again after completing the assessment centre, resulting in a Candidate NPS (cNPS) score of 49 which is considered “great”. Feedback from candidates was positive and reflected the support and care they received from the PeopleScout team during the process.
Being dyslexic and having to ask for extra time on my assessment sometimes can be challenging. However, they understood everything I asked for and made sure I was confident in knowing exactly what was needed from me.
– Candidate Feedback