4.1 A real example
Read through this case study of a group assessment activity The Open University Careers Service organised as part of the recruitment of four new Careers Advisers. This example starts by replicating an activity that the successful applicant will need to undertake as part of the role, followed by a group discussion.
Case study 1: Open University assessment centre activity
I work for The Open University Careers Service and recently our team has doubled in size, providing the opportunity to recruit four new Careers Advisers. As part of the interview and assessment process we wanted to provide a group activity which would enable us to test for group work skills and specific competencies which would be difficult for us to observe in either an interview or presentation.
The role of Careers Adviser at The Open University has a unique set of challenges as the team is spread across the country and nations and communicates virtually. We also work as a team to produce resources for students which can include running webinars, moderating forums or responding to student enquiries in a Facebook Live chat.
For a Careers Adviser to be successful in this role there are specific competencies we need to see apart from their ability to provide excellent guidance and experience of supporting students in Higher Education. These include resilience; adaptability; ability to work under pressure; willingness to have a go and take the initiative; confidence and social skills.
To assess these we replicated a forum activity for student careers queries. As a team, the candidates had to respond to the student queries that were posted in the live forum, keeping an eye out for any new posts that were coming through during the tasks. The candidates had 25 minutes to complete this task and afterwards they gathered round the table to discuss how they found the activity.
For some of the candidates this was a new activity while others were more familiar with this kind of format. We made it clear that we were not testing their knowledge of careers information, but were looking instead at their approach to the task. Specifically we observed how they operated as a team to complete the task and how they felt about the activity.
At the end of the interview process candidate feedback was that they had found the range of activities to be both a useful guide to what was expected from the role as well as enjoyable and a fair way of assessing their skills.
In this example, the assessors were looking for evidence of resilience; adaptability; ability to work under pressure; willingness to have a go and take the initiative; confidence and social skills. As you have already seen throughout the course, many skills and abilities play a part in effective teamwork, but these specific examples have been chosen by this employer as being particularly relevant to the role.
You can see from this example that the options for an assessment activity are endless, but the context will often reflect a particular aspect of the role you are applying for. The more familiar you are with what the employer will be looking for, the better prepared you will be for the assessment activity.