Situation

People Vision have undertaken an application sifting programme to support the PAP programme since February, 2017. The PAP programme is run by Civil Service Learning to support and encourage under-represented groups to achieve higher graded job opportunities within the Civil Service.  Civil Service Learning decided to outsource this to an external organisation to gain an independent perspective from Assessors. People Vision were selected due to their in-depth understanding of the Civil Service, having delivered on the Recruitment and Selection courses throughout the Civil Service Learning contract since 2012.

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Each year, applications are received from different grades within CSL including AA/AO, HEO/SEO and EO Grade 6 and 7. 

Over the past 2 years, People Vision have successfully completed 3 phases, and are currently working on the 4th phase which has rolled out throughout 2019. 

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The team consists of Tracy Mountain, Lead Assessor, Katie Thomas, Project Manager and up to 12 Assessors at a time. 

Challenge

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The first 3 phases were carried out with all 3 grades being completed simultaneously and with volumes of up to 1,200 applications being assessed within each phase. People Vision were tasked with allocating, marking and collating the scores with little certainty of how many were to be expected until they reached KPMG.

Action

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Applications would be received in batches of 50 to 100 at a time which the Team Leader would be responsible for allocating to the Assessors once they had been briefed by the Quality Lead.

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The Assessors were asked to mark each of the 5 questions in each application with a score of between 1 and 5, based on required behaviours (previously competencies).

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10% of the scoring sheets would then be quality assured (QA’d), all scoring sheets collated and returned to KPMG in anticipation of the Validation Meeting held between the Quality Lead, KPMG and Civil Service Learning.

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During the Validation Meeting, the scoring sheets would be reviewed for each Assessor by the attendees to ensure the marking was fair and accurate. 

 

Results

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Sifting results were accepted throughout all 4 phases during the validation meetings for all grades that were assessed during the project with no amendments required. Significant praise was subsequently placed upon the feedback that the Assessors provided to all candidates. In the 4th phase, a decision was reached for the feedback to be sent back to the candidates based on the quality, demonstrating the confidence CSL had in the quality of the Assessors and their marking.

Outcome

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The project has always been delivered on time and within the budget allocated, ensuring that there were no delays in the successful candidates being offered a place on the programme. Programme credibility was maintained for future development opportunities for all candidates and we look forward to the start of the next phase!