89 candidates
Assessed for leadership potential using the Leadership Potential Dashboard
32 women
Identified for Development Centers, in under two weeks
20 women
Selected into ECC’s first Women in Leadership program, within days of the final Development Center
the majority of ECC’s workforce is women, but that wasn’t reflected in gender diversity at senior levels
A workforce mostly women, a senior team that didn’t reflect it
Essex County Council needed a rigorous, unbiased way to identify women with leadership potential for its first Women in Leadership Development program.
Whilst the majority of Essex County Council’s workforce is made up of women, this was not reflected in the gender diversity at senior levels in the organization. Following an external D&I audit, an action identified to pioneer equality, diversity and inclusion was to deliver the inaugural Women in Leadership Development program, aimed at creating a pathway for more women to reach senior levels.
It was integral to implement a rigorous and objective process, creating equal opportunities for identifying female leaders while mitigating bias, such as similar-to-me bias. The process also needed to take into account intersectionality and candidate experience, and to have a positive impact on every participant, whether they were selected for the program or not.
A three-stage, evidence-based process to select the first cohort
Candidate attraction, an objective dashboard and structured Development Centers, tested for fairness at every stage.
Our solution combined the validity of market-leading assessments with additional evidence-based exercises, designed to minimize human bias through a thorough and objective selection process. We first validated ECC’s new ‘Leadership Success Profile’ against Saville Assessment’s ‘Leadership Impact’ model, creating clarity around what good leadership looks like within ECC.
Attract
A diverse applicant pool was encouraged by engaging employee networks and service representatives through focus groups and 1-to-1 meetings.
Assess
All applicants completed Wave Professional Styles, generating the Leadership Potential Dashboard, which was tested for fairness and showed no differences by gender, age or ethnicity.
Select
The 32 highest-potential candidates went through Development Centers, a competency-based interview and future-focused presentation, assessed by pairs of one Saville consultant and one trained ECC assessor.
selected into ECC’s first Women in Leadership Development program
A first cohort, selected fast and fairly
An objective, three-stage process took Essex County Council from 89 candidates to a confident first cohort in weeks, not months.
Using the Leadership Potential Dashboard analytics, ECC gained insight into the leadership potential of 89 candidates and, in less than two weeks, identified 32 women to take part in the highly-structured Development Centers.
Objective scoring forms allowed for quick decision-making in the Development Centers, enabling ECC to select their final 20 participants into the Leadership program in just days after running the last Development Center, all within a cost-effective approach that fit the council’s budget.
“From the beginning, we established a true partnership. Saville Assessment fully understood our ambition and were able to advise us on how to make it happen. They took the time to understand our needs, our starting point, helped us refine our outcomes and provided invaluable advice throughout the process. We aimed to test new concepts and try out new ways of identifying talent, and couldn’t have asked for better partners in our journey. It was very important for us that all of the women that took part in this process felt supported during throughout the experience and Saville really helped us to achieve that.”
Maria Farres
Director, OD & Talent Management, Essex County Council
Want a fast, fair way to launch your own leadership program?
We can help you identify and select a first cohort objectively, without the process taking months.
