Selecting the best talent is the foundation of your organisational effectiveness. Supporting your teams of the right managers and future leaders. Properly assessing and selecting for your team, manager and leadership positions is critical to making the right decisions.

Reduced staffing and tighter budgets over the past decade have resulted in many organisations having to find less intensive methods of assessing candidates, which can vary in consistency, quality, and fairness. At times, methods used can lack depth or validity, to reliably inform the appointment of the best talent.

Our Career Progression Gateway is an exciting new way to deliver important staff assessments in a robust, consistent and more efficient way. It is easy for HR staff to set up and deliver and for candidates to understand and complete. Results have proved it to be a great solution to the challenge of selecting the best talent in the most cost effective, convenient way.

The CPG system is currently being used by over eight UK Fire & Rescue Services to select the Crew, Watch, Station and Strategic Managers of the future. Read our case study here to learn more about the CPG in practice.

Timetabling can be handled via an online appointment booking service which gives candidates flexibility to choose a ‘slot’ from allocated times and dates which reduces internal administration.

Candidates can either attend their assessment at a central venue or access and complete the exercises on a computer from home.

All assessment activities will be managed through an individual ‘gateway’ screen. Candidates will access this gateway via personal login details, which we will supply. An in-house administrator can oversee the exercise (guidance will be provided), or candidates can simply read and follow the instructions and proceed independently.

Take a look at our ‘CPG Step by Step Guide‘ to show you exactly how the system runs for the candidate, assessors and HR team.

We currently have exercises suitable to support Firefighter recruitment, and 8 levels of management progression. At each level, we use two exercises; a Case Study and a video/ telephone Role-play, with an optional ‘values questionnaire’ (at Crew to Station manager levels, for use in development only).

This timed exercise (65-75 minutes depending on level) provides the candidate with several pieces of information and clear guidelines on their tasks. Depending on the level, these may include a letter or article, a proposal, project recommendation, analysis, strategy or change initiative.

Candidates read the information provided and type their responses into free text boxes during the exercise which are recorded for assessors to review and score online on completion. The exercise time is managed via an in-built timer which will log the candidate out when the time is complete.

Candidates access and read exercise information by logging into their CPG personal gateway screen and selecting the role-play assessment.

Candidates are given a set time (managed via an in-built exercise timer) to read the scenario information before an assessor video calls via MS Teams/ telephones them and the roleplay commences.

The roleplay is timed from when the candidate answers the video call/ phone.

During the call the assessor will present lines from their script and take notes of the interaction for use in later online marking.

Candidates can be invited to complete a short values assessment.

The VQ is based on brief scenarios which the candidate must evaluate using a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

The results of this generate candidate specific questions which can be used in later interview (telephone or face-to-face) to further explore the candidate’s alignment with organisational values.

The results of the VQ are not included as part of the final results reporting but are added into the feedback report and can also be used for developmental purposes.

There is a wealth of evidence for the validity of an assessment centre that is well-designed and professionally run. The use of two exercises and highly experienced Occupational Psychologist assessors promote fairness, and the ‘remote’ method of assessment decreases any potential for bias. Researchers note that there is “stronger predictive validity emerging when psychologists assess candidates”.

Enhanced assessment centre validity can be found where exercises are designed specifically for “the organisation and job in question”. For instance, the Fire & Rescue Service specific CPG exercises were not only designed specifically for the Fire & Rescue Service, but also to match the requirements at each role level, including in-band. These CPG exercises have a foundation of relevant, job critical criteria i.e. the FRS Leadership Quality Framework which has been thoroughly researched on an FRS population.

The rigorous implementation of the CPG assessments is also a key factor to its reliability, with the IT system and administrative processes drawing on VCA’s twenty years’ experience of running assessment centres, including with over thirty Fire & Rescue Services.

We conduct analysis bi-annually on the available data and will continue to review in line with BPS assessment centre best practice guidelines for validation of exercises. We work with an independent Occupational Psychologist, who has conducted numerous independent validity studies for the Fire & Rescue Service, to evaluate the tools and results.

Client feedback to date has confirmed that the exercises have good face validity, that results are aligned with other test reporting and reliably identify suitable candidates for progression.

You may have existing assessment tools developed in-house which you would prefer to use. We can import your assessment content onto our platform to allow your candidates to use your materials, supported by our ‘remote assessment’ system. This covers written exercises and one to one role-plays.

The candidate will complete exercises remotely, timed and managed by our software. Your assessors can continue to mark candidate responses using your existing methods.

Another option is that we can adapt our existing exercises to be more specific to your organisation. Contact us to discuss the possibilities here.

Assessment and scoring are done remotely, either by experienced VCA occupational psychologist assessors, or by internal assessors where preferred.

Our assessors assess the candidates’ performance using a leadership based behavioural framework* with scores from 0 (no evidence) to 3 (significant evidence) for each behavioural area. This generates a percentage score for overall CPG performance and per behavioural criterion, for ease of interpretation. Our assessors provide evidence to support each evaluation made, which is reflected in an automatically generated feedback report. Where appropriate, assessors also provide developmental guidance, adding value to the feedback report.

All results reports are generated automatically, providing organisations with a table of scores within a few of days of all assessments being completed.

On completion, the final feedback report on candidate performance can be accessed via the CPG portal by Learning & Development/ HR personnel.

*The marking criteria can be adapted to reflect your own organisational competencies where possible.

We believe feedback is as important as the assessment. Getting it right can have a huge impact on candidate wellbeing, efficacy, performance and motivation.

We generate detailed feedback reports for each candidate, including a personalised psychological evaluation of strengths and development needs, plus suggestions for next steps in developing potential and skills.

An option which candidates report finding incredibly useful is a telephone feedback sessions with one of the assessment team. We discuss with candidates their performance on the exercises and how they can take these on board and action them i.e. what support to seek from their line manager. We help them address areas where they need more experience or could benefit from the experience of others e.g. through coaching or mentoring input.

Anonymous candidate feedback obtained through survey

Read more here about how we support your candidates and line managers…

In the NEW CPG LITE version, the exercises, criteria and standardised scoring are the same as the full version CPG. The difference is that instead of the assessor writing a paragraph of evidence to support each of their scores, the CPG Feedback LITE allows assessors to choose two statements from a pre-written list as evidence for each score. This list of statements is developed from hundreds of previous assessments completed by psychologist assessors, and are therefore highly relevant and targeted. The feedback reports for both the full CPG and CPG Feedback LITE are automatically generated from the assessment content which has been either written or selected.

Due to the reduction in time taken to write up the evidence, the NEW CPG Feedback LITE is offered at a reduced price. This option may be best suited to assessments at Crew and Watch manager where there are high numbers of candidates.

Whilst VCA assessors objectively assess and score your candidates, removing the burden on internal staff, there is the option for internal assessors to be trained to evaluate performance using the CPG Feedback LITE.

Clients have found it highly beneficial to hold an interactive briefing before the assessments to ensure that candidates are fully prepared, know what to expect and what they need to do to maximise their performance.

Through our 2.5-hour facilitated briefing session your candidates will be able to ask questions, try example exercises, and become more familiar with the assessment methods, criteria and results reporting mechanisms. This significantly reduces uncertainty and errors on the day, and improves candidate buy-in and acceptance of the process.

This briefing workshop can be facilitated by an in-house trainer, with all trainer support materials, slides and practice exercises supplied. Alternatively, one of our consultants can deliver this workshop for you via Zoom.

Introduction – The Career Progression Gateway (CPG), benefits and key features, the Leadership Qualities in practice

The Exercises Practical – How does the online system work? Sample exercises and short practice, feedback and group discussion

Performance – Common mistakes and useful approaches, FAQ/Q&A

Self-study – The Career Progression Gateway Practical Handbook – a 43 page e-book full of support material to ensure candidates perform to their fullest potential.

Coming soon! An interactive e-learning version of the candidate preparation briefing and workbook.