Preparation and onboarding
Developed the processes around candidate guidance, familiarisation, equipment and technical checks, communications and assessment-day readiness so candidates understood what to expect before the assessment began.
Candidate Experience in practice
Creating a consistent Candidate Experience at national scale
Designing, implementing and operationalising a new national clinical assessment for the Royal College of General Practitioners.
National assessment
Candidate Experience
Digital transformation
Operating model
Supplier management
10,000+
candidates delivered
99.5%
overall completion
£2m+
procurement savings
4 nations
national delivery model
Introducing a new high-stakes national clinical assessment meant creating much more than an examination. The delivery model had to work across thousands of GP practices, bring together candidates, examiners, role players, suppliers and technology, and remain reliable under significant operational pressure.
Candidate Experience depended on the whole system working: clear preparation, effective onboarding, appropriate adjustments, dependable technology, consistent delivery, rapid incident handling and confidence that candidates could demonstrate their ability fairly.
The programme therefore had to solve operational, digital, commercial and assessment challenges at the same time — while moving from implementation into a stable business-as-usual service.
What we did
Designed the Candidate Experience as part of the operating model — not as an add-on.
Reasonable adjustments
Built the operational capability needed to translate increasingly complex adjustment requirements into workable assessment arrangements, balancing fair access, consistency and assessment integrity.
Consistent national delivery
Connected examiner, role-player, invigilation, supplier, platform and operational processes so that candidates could receive a reliable experience across different assessment days and locations.
Incident management and learning
Established clearer processes for identifying, escalating and resolving delivery issues, supporting affected candidates and using operational data to drive improvements in later diets.
Suppliers and technology
Managed the relationships, procurement and performance expectations behind a complex digital delivery model, ensuring technology and supplier decisions supported the assessment rather than dictating it.
Transition to sustainable delivery
Put in place governance, responsibilities, performance measures and operating processes that supported the transition from programme implementation into stable business-as-usual delivery.
Candidate Experience
The experience was shaped long before the candidate entered the assessment.
This work reinforced a central principle behind CX Works: candidates experience the whole journey, not an organisation's internal structure. Preparation, communications, adjustments, technology, workforce, operational decisions and what happens when things go wrong all contribute to whether an assessment feels fair, reliable and trustworthy.
Build Trust
Create clear, dependable processes and respond well when delivery does not go to plan.
Improve
Use incidents, operational performance and candidate feedback to identify where change will make the greatest difference.
Grow
Build a scalable assessment model able to support increasing candidate volumes without sacrificing quality or experience.
The assessment became an established national delivery model supporting more than 10,000 candidates, with overall completion above 99.5% and individual diets reaching 100% completion.
The programme also established an approximately £8m operating model, delivered more than £2m in procurement savings and created the governance, supplier model and operational capability required for ongoing delivery.
Why this matters
Candidate Experience improved not through one isolated intervention, but by connecting assessment design, people, processes, technology and data around the needs of the candidate and the assessment.
Facing a similar Candidate Experience or assessment challenge?
Start with where you are.
This case study reflects experience led by Liam Wynne while working with the Royal College of General Practitioners.