If you understand what assessors are looking for and how they mark
the
assessment centre exercises then this will make it easier for
you to achieve success. With this knowledge you can then prepare
to maximise your score and stand out from the other candidates.
Tina Lewis Rowe provides an excellent definition of an Assessor.
'An Assessor is an individual trained to observe, record, classify
and make reliable judgements about the behaviours of those being
assessed.'
Source: Lewis Rowe, Tina; A Preparation Guide for the
Assessment Center Method; (2006) Charles C Thomas Publishers Ltd,
Illinois, USA.
Who are your assessors? They are usually people one level above
the position you have applied for. They will be ambitious and
successful individuals within their own departments. These people
will have a very clear idea of the qualities they expect to see in
an individual performing the new role.
Many agencies have a preferred list of assessors they like to use
and the human resources department will have key people they call
upon for the assessment centre days. For senior roles, assessors
who are external to the organisation may be used to bring a
broader perspective to the assessment.
The training an assessor receives, whether they are internal or
external to the organisation will equip them with the skills to
observe, classify and record candidates behaviour during the
exercises. They will also have a thorough understanding of the
requirements of the role and have studied the job specification.
From this knowledge a list of key behavioural areas will be drawn
up, each having a more detailed description to ensure consistency
among the assessors when scoring candidates.
There are three things you need to remember about the assessors:
- They know nothing about you.
- They can only give you marks for behaviours you show
them during the exercises.
- They are only concerned with how well you display the
behaviours applicable to the role.
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Your key objective is to find out what behaviours the
assessors see as essential, desirable, adequate and a liability.
The amount of time you have before your assessment will influence
what you can do in preparation. At the very least, you need to
look objectively at those above you who perform the role well and
think about the behaviours they exhibit. You can use this analysis
in the exercises to show how you'd use these observations to
influence your performance once in the role. If you have
sufficient preparation time you may want to approach someone to
whom you'd report to in the new role and agree for them to mentor
you.
For many organisations their Human Resources department will have
drawn up their own specific scoring sheet which they will modify
as appropriate for the role in question. As you can see from the
example below there is space for the assessor to write in how you
exhibited a certain behaviour & then a column for your score. This
scoring is usually from 1-10; 1 being poor or unsatisfactory and
10 being totally capable and suited to role.
A key part of the assessors training will be to understand the
scoring mechanism being used for your
assessment centre. The assessors themselves often perform the
exercises they are going to observe, with half of their group
playing the role of candidates and the other half actually being
assessors. In this way the organisation ensures that the assessors
are all measuring and marking behaviours in the same way. It is
through this preparation that assessors learn to all award a score
of '5' for similar behaviours.
As well as practising the exercises and their observation skills,
the assessors will follow each exercise with a discussion. This
discussion will give them all an opportunity to say what they
observed and how they've marked this behaviour and then to gain a
consensus from the group to award the candidate a final score for
an exercise.
This ensures that each candidate is judged fairly and that the
company or organisation has a thorough record of how a final
decision was made. This enables a candidate requesting feedback on
their performance to receive an objective overview of their
performance on the day.
Another essential part of the assessors training will be in how to
use the scoring sheets or rate cards that your assessment centre
will be using. Each agency, organisation or company have minor
variations in their scoring and assessors need to be familiar with
the method being used at your centre. Examples of the scoring
sheets are given in the next section.
Some organisations prefer that the assessors use a legal pad to
make their notes on and these are then used during the discussions
and retained by the organisation once the assessment centre is
completed.
Many organisations like to include an exercise where they use
multiple assessors, usually a minimum of three people, and they
will be at least one level above the position you are applying
for. In these exercises the panel will be made up of diverse
individuals, some may be external to the organisation or
department. So you will need to be mindful of assessors who may
have different priorities and adapt your behaviours accordingly.
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psychometric tests
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