Potential development and assessment programme, developed for companies in the finance and utilities sectors. Client not named for confidentiality reasons.
The need
Identifying and developing people's potential remains a constant priority for many companies, but traditional Development Center models have two structural limitations that reduce their real impact.
The first: they are designed as assessment sessions, and assessment ends up overshadowing development, making the experience feel like an exam to pass rather than an opportunity for growth.
The second: the difficulty of scaling to large populations, particularly when sessions are held in person, in addition to the slowness of the process.
For HR and L&D, the question becomes: how can we build a development programme that assesses people rigorously, but that they experience as their own — and that is sustainable across large and geographically distributed organisations, without adding to the organisational burden?
How we worked
We designed the Virtual Development Center with a people-centred approach, built around four principles: the complexity and change of the business context become the “playground” of the experience; the focus is on development from the very first contact, putting the assessment phase into perspective; engagement remains high throughout the entire programme through an open and nurturing journey; the entire organisational management process is streamlined thanks to dedicated platforms.
The programme is structured into five phases:
- On Boarding & Engagement — three teaser videos, sent weekly before the Kick Off, build the meaning of the programme: the concept of a continuous development journey (“Endless Journey”), viewing one's own experience as a project in constant renewal (“Me as a Project”). Participants arrive at the Kick Off already focused on development, not assessment.
- Kick Off and assessment — a competitive digital business game on sustainability in which groups of participants manage companies with the objective of maximising profits and preserving the environment represented by a shared natural resource. This business game is highly engaging and generates powerful insights into collaborative dynamics and results.
- Group Development Center — an exercise structured into four rounds based on a simulated business scenario: each participant contributes individually and interacts with others to reach a shared decision. This is the moment when participants' soft skills and potential emerge, which we share with the participants themselves during feedback.
- Nurturing — a programme of three interactive webinars based on Design Thinking applied to self-development, aimed at all participants: it prepares people to approach their own development consciously rather than passively undergoing it.
- Enhancing development — we provide each participant with a range of development opportunities aligned with their needs (individual and group coaching, workshops on innovation, execution and emotional intelligence), so that each person continues along their own path, rather than receiving a generic report to file away.
This programme makes it possible to obtain a “high-definition” picture of participants' potential, while also making them aware of their strengths and areas for improvement, with a concrete plan for improvement.
The results
- Participants leave the programme with a personal development plan built around their own growth opportunities, rather than a single assessment report to read once and file away.
- The combination of six different measurement tools reduces the weight of a single assessment moment on the overall outcome, increasing participants' perception of the fairness of the process.
- Ease of engaging and supporting large populations distributed across multiple locations while maintaining a high-quality individual experience.