Evolving assessments for Deloitte
With high-volume assessments planned across different regions, Deloitte needed to ensure consistency, objectivity, and reliable candidate differentiation.
About the Customer
Deloitte
Professional services
Validation and updating of assessment scenarios
Through the design of realistic, relevant, and engaging exercises
Background
Deloitte required support from Unseen’s team of organisational psychologists, Sten10, to validate and update 25 assessment scenarios used for evaluating frontline social workers across the UK.
The Challenge
With high-volume assessments planned across different regions, they needed to ensure consistency, objectivity, and reliable candidate differentiation (who’s good/ who’s great/ who’s not quite ready).
The scenarios; comprising role-play and written exercises, required rigorous testing to confirm that marking guides accurately captured observable behaviours aligned to KSS indicators.
The Solution
Unseen’s Sten10 team delivered a review and updating process:
We provided two occupational psychologists to work alongside Deloitte’s team across six intensive validation days in Birmingham and London. Each day tested six scenarios with real frontline social workers, allowing us to observe whether marking guides reliably captured the intended behaviours.
We developed standardised two-page background templates and scripted role-play lines (10-15 per scenario) to ensure consistent delivery across all assessments. We trained role actors one-to-one and delivered pre-delivery webinars for both actors and social worker assessors.
We recorded and analysed all role plays, systematically reviewing marking guides to assess behaviour frequency, calculate facility values (how easy/ difficult behaviours are for candidates to demonstrate), and confirm candidate differentiation. This approach provided evidence-based justification for each behaviour on the marking guides.
The Impact
The Unseen team successfully validated all 25 scenarios within the tight timeframe, delivering refined, objective marking guides backed by empirical evidence.
The standardised approach ensured consistent assessment delivery across multiple venues, while our detailed analysis confirmed that the scenarios effectively differentiated candidate performance; critical for Deloitte’s high-stakes assessment process and selecting the most suitable candidates.
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