Delivering Large Scale Assessment Center for an Indian Bank during the Lockdown

The team had been working with the HR team of one of the largest Indian Banks to prepare for the launch of an assessment center process expected to cover 11,000 managers in the Bank. This was a difficult and critical process even in the best of times. And then the pandemic stuck. The Indian Government notified a countrywide lockdown which ultimately lasted for almost 3 months. The choice with the Project team was clear – postpone the initiative till the situation improved or figure out a way to deliver the process in the middle of the lockdown. In balance was a super-critical client project with direct sponsorship from the Bank CEO as well as the large delivery-based fee for the Consulting firm.

The Project leaders in both teams agreed that this was a critical initiative and a solution needed to be created. Thankfully, the assessment processes at the Consulting firm had already been transitioned to the digital platform. This allowed the firm to quick get its entire team of 10+ Project Managers and 50+ Assessment Consultants online. The two teams also worked together to create a set of communication collaterals for participants to explain how to access and complete the different exercises. The entire flow of information – from user orientation and communication to internal project updates to exercise scoring and report creation could happen on the Platform. The Consulting firm also created a robust user support process to address issues reported by participants.