Recent Projects We’ve Completed For Our Clients
How we Assess the right Candidate for your Organisation
1. PLANNING
We work with you to find out what you need and when you need it. This might simply involve speaking to you over the phone or may require some short ‘subject matter expert’ interviews. As specialists supporting the Fire & Rescue Service we are used to working to changing and challenging deadlines, resource constraints and the unique demands of an emergency service.
2. DESIGNING
Creating your solution may be as simple as helping you identify suitable exercises or training from our portfolio. It may be more complex, such as designing a bespoke suite of exercises for a specific role; helping you implement a change in existing process; or working with you to adapt one of your existing services.
3. DELIVERING
We deliver tools, training or other services by prioritising a streamlined and partnership approach. Whether we manage the majority of your assessment process (from timetabling to feedback reports) or support you to implement individual tools (training your in-house teams to deliver), we are flexible to your needs. How we deliver depends on what you need.
4. DEVELOPING
Post-assessment process, we deliver comprehensive reports on candidate performance, recognising how important it is for the individuals and organisation to understand current performance and future areas for development. Our feedback reports are targeted and bespoke, including examples of performance against criteria and guidance from our Occupational Psychologist assessors on areas for future improvement.
Your preferred Psychological Assessment Provider
It isn’t always easy to know which methods are best for making organisational selection decisions or creating in-depth assessments for promotion and development. That’s where VCA comes in, because we use tried and tested techniques in combination with bespoke design and delivery to ensure you get exactly what you need.
Our core business revolves around assessment. We assist the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) across the UK with assessments for promotion. We have Assessment & Development (ADC) online (and traditional format) exercise toolkits which have been created specifically for use in the FRS for immediate use at Crew to Area Manager level, which are also available for use in contexts outside of the FRS for Supervisors up to Strategic managers.
For organisations who prefer to use a more bespoke approach to their assessment process we design targeted assessment exercises to be used as part of an existing assessment process or perhaps as a stand-alone exercise.
In addition to creating ADC or job simulations exercises, we specialise in providing all the supporting services which go hand in hand with a comprehensive assessment process. This includes assessor and interviewer skills training, pre-ADC candidate briefings, and post ADC developmental feedback reports. If your organisation is seeking to outsource the running of these events we can supply assessors, role-players and centre manager and admin staff. Or, if you prefer a more ‘low-touch’ approach, our Career Progression Gateway System does everything for you, from timetabling to assessing. All you need to supply is a room for candidates to complete their assessment, which we will manage remotely via phone and computer.
We mark written exercises (inbox, case study) and application forms to tight timescales, including feedback reports and developmental direction. Some services prefer a mixed approach where we fit around the resources they have and fill any gaps where required.
Our approach is to be flexible and adaptive whilst retaining a strong emphasis on best practice principles of design and delivery. Whether we are designing competency or values frameworks or running management development workshops we work closely with our clients, using a helpful and open communication style to ensure we consistently deliver excellent value and quality solutions.