Diagnostic tool
The Kaplan Diagnostic is an online self-assessment survey that measures and reports on a variety of key areas that your organization deems important. Our tool presents business scenarios and poses two simple, but key, questions: Do you know the answer? How confident are you that your answer correct? With a few complex algorithms and a wealth of expertise, we analyze the answers to give a clear picture of who is likely to be spending business money wisely, and who is a risk to your organization’s financial health. This then empowers us to efficiently target who needs training and development, and in which areas they need it most.
Kaplan Leadership and Professional Development developed an innovative diagnostic tool to assess both technical competence and behavioral confidence for the Government Finance Academy.
We designed a series of challenging scenarios (targeted at ‘expert level’) addressing 10 key topics including Governance/the Role of the Accounting Officer; the HMT Budgetary Control Framework; Tax; Government Financial Reporting issues; and Risk Management & Fraud among others. Each scenario was reviewed by a team of subject matter experts from across government, and the whole diagnostic tool was reviewed and quality assured by a leading global accounting body – the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Stakeholder Feedback
As part of the program, individuals have now undertaken a self-diagnosis of their technical finance and capability skills. The online test allows results and feedback to be available quickly. With the ability to measure real-time insights on risk areas, hidden talent and learning trends, the tool is responsive and provides extensive online reporting capabilities. Reporting can be at a strategic level, providing an organizational heat map of strengths and weaknesses. Reporting can also be provided at an individual level whereby individuals can receive a detailed report on the results of their survey.
Each future cohort will undertake the diagnostic as part of their development program. This tool has now become an integral part of each senior member’s progression and development.
Feedback from participants has shown a positive and successful impact of the implementation of this innovative tool. Feedback has shown that anyone working in government finance would find it a useful tool to advise them of the topics that they should have knowledge of; and indicate whether their knowledge was adequate, thus indicating their personal future development needs.
“This was a very ambitious project for the Government Finance Academy, involving a complex group of stakeholders of high profile and senior audience. These individuals are responsible for putting finance at the heart of decision making in Government. Implementation of this diagnostic tool has allowed a unique means of testing both technical competence and behavioral confidence and has been critical in giving them the awareness of their skills gaps and fundamentally changing how they plan and execute their personal development. It also gives the GFA a rich picture of skills levels in the target group and will help us to develop targeted interventions to address any gaps.”
-Deputy Director
Government Finance Academy
