Wickland Westcott

Severn Trent - Assessing Senior Management

Does this Functional Head have the potential to be a CEO? Is our Executive team able to take the business to the next level? Where are our future leaders going to come from?

Many organisations retain Wickland Westcott to help them answer these questions. They use us to assess their senior talent, possibly as part of an external recruitment exercise, more commonly as part of personal development or organisational change project.

A recent example is utilities business Severn Trent . They called us in to help with the demerger of Biffa from the core business, and with the success of that project, engaged us more broadly. Over the last 18 months we have assessed over fifty of their most senior executives, both in the UK and the US, to give each person insight into their own strengths and development areas, and to provide the organisation with reliable information about its talent pipeline.

Each project is different, but generally our approach is differentiated in four main ways:

• We carefully select and employ a range of tailored tools to really understand the participant, giving appropriate weight to their previous achievements, their technical specialism, their abilities, and their personality.
• Traditional tools such as psychometrics are complemented with internal referencing or specifically designed business simulations.
• The assessment team consists of an Assessment Specialist (usually an occupational psychologist) and an experienced Search Consultant, to provide both behavioural insight and a market benchmark rating.
• A comprehensive report is produced, and the participant receives detailed one-to-one feedback. This feedback is handled sensitively, covering both strengths and development areas in an open, constructive manner. Occasionally, these can be tough conversations.

All team members involved in executive assessment are experienced Consultants, who have worked at senior levels across other organisations. To further ensure consistent, professional assessment, Wickland Westcott runs internal workshops for its Consultants, covering topics such as understanding business structure, assessment tools and techniques, report writing, and feedback skills.