By mid-April, offers will be made to 250 people who applied to the British civil service's "fast-stream" programme - the scheme aimed at selecting elite government administrators. This year was the first in which a fully automated screening process was used to reduce 30,000 applications to the 1,000 who attend an assessment centre (of whom 250 are selected).
The system, designed by Cubiks, a selection company, aims not just to find the usual brainy-but-distant types who become British mandarins, but also to assess how far the candidates will be effective in "delivering" policy. The first stage of the process is a "de-selection tool" in which candidates are asked to respond to an imagined situation from a range of options, and to try out an ability test. The great majority exclude themselves after being scored automatically.
Next, a numerical and verbal reasoning test is combined with a competency questionnaire in which candidates choose statements about themselves they identify with. A second screen involves an "e-tray exercise" - designed to measure operational effectiveness and the ability to prioritise - and a written analysis test. This stage is invigilated and carried out at regional recruitment centres. Given that anyone could have done the previous stages of testing, candidates also re-sit the reasoning tests to ensure security. Any discrepancy in scores indicates a fraud.
Yvette Radford-Foley, head of fast stream at the Cabinet Office, says taking recruitment online has cut the time involved from nine months to about five and helped ensure that a slightly more diverse group of applicants goes through. The civil service also flirted with personality tests but decided against them. "We were unconvinced they were sufficiently robust," says Ms Radford-Foley.
