Lixivium Consulting are experts in the field of designing and running graduate recruitment programs. We tailor each program to suit the specific stream and associated competencies that we are seeking to measure. We also work in the small to medium size business space, for both the government and corporate sector, to assist our clients in formalising processes and to deliver customised solutions to meet their assessment needs.

Our approach is to meet with our clients to discuss their particular objectives and ideas thereby creating an ‘assessment process’ that specifically meets their recruitment needs and desires. Requests for assistance range from regular once-off testing for particular roles to larger recruitment projects. In some cases this has required us to create and run a large scale assessment centres.
 
A recent example of this is VicRoads who asked Lixivium to design an assessment centre to target graduates from a diverse range of disciplines. Lixivium was invited to design and run all elements of an innovative assessment centre that was both sensitive enough to discriminate between candidates and broad enough to include related, but not identical job requirements.

To meet our client’s objectives, Lixivium devised a process that consisted of initial short listing based on academic results, followed telephonic screening interviews, face-to-face behavioural interviews, reference checking, and psychometric testing. This allowed us to take a field of 2500 candidates, across 12 disciplines, and screen them down to a short list of 70 candidates across the disciplines. This group went on to final interviews with the company to determine culture fit.

The outcome for VicRoads was that they were able to reduce a large pool of candidates to a short-list who met the competency requirements at an extremely high level, thereby reducing the amount of time that the company had to invest in interviewing candidates who were not going to be a good match for the company from either an ability, personality or culture fit paradigm.

Lixivium typically assesses anywhere between 5000 – 6000 candidates per year nationally, with the vast majority of those in Sydney and Melbourne. Although our assessment turnaround times vary depending on the size of the project, we generally work within a 5 day report back time on bigger recruitment type drives.

In running graduate programs, we typically employ a multiple hurdle approach. This is explained as follows:

The Multiple Hurdle Selection Technique

A ‘multiple hurdle’ selection technique is one whereby candidates are evaluated against selection criteria in stages. For a candidate to progress beyond a stage, he or she must meet the criteria for that stage. Thus, at every stage of your selection program, a portion of your candidate pool will be excluded from the following stage, ultimately leaving you with a ‘shortlist’ of suitable candidates. The multiple hurdle approach is ideal in situations such as this where you have a fairly large pool of candidates and a comparatively low number of positions, as it provides a very effective means of minimising costs whilst still offering comprehensive information on your most suitable candidates.

The multiple hurdle approach that we recommend for the present scenario is depicted in Figure 1, below.
 

Figure 1. Diagrammatic Representation of a possible Selection Process