Graduate Virtual Assessment Centre for Whitehaven Coal

In the wake of challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Whitehaven Coal turned to Davidson’s newly developed virtual assessment centre to keep their graduate recruitment program on track.

CHALLENGE

Whitehaven relies on their annual graduate recruitment campaign to meet their organisational demands and provide career opportunities to new graduate talent entering the workforce. Graduate roles span the disciplines of engineering, geological science, environmental science, electrical and aerospace engineering, health and medical, marine and environmental science and metallurgy.

Traditionally their graduate recruitment program was delivered face to face but lockdowns, border closures, working from home arrangements and social distancing requirements made this impossible in 2021. 

SOLUTION

Davidson partnered with Whitehaven to develop and facilitate a robust virtual assessment centre to assess candidates from across the Asia-Pacific region

Increased diversity of candidates were able to apply and attend with the typical location constraints removed. 

Significant cost savings typically associated with assessment centres: travel, accommodation, room hire, catering. 

Insights from the virtual assessment centre were moderated by subject matter expert assessors, informing best-practice hiring decisions.

Assessor training ensured a fair process for all candidates, reducing bias and effectively measuring candidates’ performance.

Candidates were provided with the opportunity to access feedback on their performance throughout the process.

Psychometric testing assessed candidates’ cognitive abilities and behavioural preferences, critical to ensuring a good fit to Whitehaven’s organisational values and business needs.

Whitehaven Coal used the successful candidates’ psychometric results to inform onboarding and individual development plans.

OUTCOMES

Over two days, 48 international and local graduates were assessed, with all vacancies being filled

By Davidson developing and facilitating the graduate virtual assessment centre, we enabled Whitehaven to engage a larger candidate pool as interstate and international applicants could now apply. Due to the remote nature of the centre, Whitehaven subject matter experts were able to attend from any location across Australia to provide comprehensive previews of day-to-day operations for the prospective employees. This provided realistic expectations for candidates, as well as ensuring a robust assessment process with well-informed assessors. Whitehaven were also able to save on costs that they would usually incur on traditional assessment centre elements such as: room hire, catering, travel, and accommodation.

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