Assessment Center > Introduction

The term 'Assessment Center'  can be defined as ‘A method for assessing aptitude and performance; applied to a group of participants by trained assessors using various aptitude diagnostic processes in order to obtain information about applicants' abilities or development potential.’

As you can see, this does not refer to a location, but to a process which is being increasingly used by organizations to assess staff, either as part of the recruitment process or for internal promotion. Assessment Centers allow you to demonstrate aptitude and general skills related to the requirements of the job.

The Assessment Center develops a set of varied exercises which are designed to simulate different aspects of the work environment. These exercises usually last from half-a-day to two full days. They are usually conducted at the employer's training facility or in facilities provided by the HR consultancy, that have been contracted to design and conduct the testing.

Types of Assessment and Development Center Exercise
The most common type of assessment center exercises include:

An in-tray or in-basket exercise asks to assume a particular role as an employee of a fictitious company and work through the correspondence in your in-tray. This exercise is designed to measure your ability to organize and prioritize work.

In a presentation exercise, you will be given a topic or possibly a choice of topics and asked to make a presentation of around ten minutes with five minutes at the end for questions. This is designed to measure your presentation skills including your ability to organise and structure the information and to communicate your points clearly and concisely.

Group discussion exercises involve you working with other candidates as part of a team to resolve a presented issue. These exercises are designed to measure interpersonal skills such as group leadership, teamwork, negotiation, and group problem solving skills.

Panel interviews are regarded as a more objective means of assessing your suitability as you will be interviewed by between three and five people and therefore the decision is not reliant on just one person's opinion. In addition, they are usually more structured than a one-to-one interview as the panel need to assess all of the candidates against the same criteria.

The expense of conducting an assessment center is usually somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000 per candidate. This tends to restrict their use to situations where the costs can be justified in terms of preventing high expenses associated with unsuitable personnel e.g. high staff turnover or poor job performance resulting in low productivity.

Assessment centers are seen as one of the most effective ways of identifying top candidates who'll get on well with others and fit in with the organizations culture. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's ‘Recruitment, Retention and Turnover 2004 Survey’, 34 per cent of employers now use assessment centers when recruiting managers, professionals and graduates. This figure will inevitably grow as organizations seek to make more accurate selection and promotion decisions.

The assessment center method is utilized in a variety of settings including industry and business, government, armed forces, educational institutions, and safety forces to select individuals for supervisory, technical, sales, or management positions. One recent trend is in the development of mass testing. This is done by video-taping candidates as they perform various exercises and by using objectively scored exercises. This permits the assessment of a much larger number of candidates per day as the scoring is done later and requires far less observation and administration.

Assessment centers are usually used after the initial stages of the selection process, because of the large amount of time and expense in conducting them, and usually follow the initial job interview. Other measurements such as psychological tests may complement the selection process. They are commonly held either on employers’ premises or in a hotel and are considered by many organizations to be the fairest and most accurate method of selecting staff. This is because a number of different selectors get to see you over a longer period of time and have the chance to see what you can do, rather than what you say you can do, in a variety of situations.

How are the Assessment and Development Center Exercises Conducted?
Assessment Centers may be conducted by HR personnel within the employer company or by outside consultants. They are highly structured in their design, application, and assessment procedure and are specifically adapted to assess factors such as your level of skills, aptitude and compatibility with the organization's culture. Each test measures a range of indicators within these factors.

During each test, a group of observers will rate you on a range of set indicators, using a prescribed performance scale. Results are then cross compared against the same indicators, which are measured in other tests. Following test completion, observers meet to discuss the test results and reach a group consensus about your ratings.

At the beginning of the assessment, you should receive an initial briefing about the timetable of tests, location of rooms etc. Prior to each test, you will be given instructions describing the exercise, your role, timeframe's, equipment etc. You will not be told in detail about the individual indicators which will be measured. In addition, you are unlikely to receive feedback on your results, unless you have been successfully selected.