Rhys Davis from Armstrong Watson shares his story of how PDW helped him with his professional development goals, and gives some great tips on how you can start your own journey towards self-improvement!
Assessment Centres In Recruitment
Invest in a game changing assessment centre that properly and fairly assesses candidates in a challenging and realistic environment.
We adopt a simulation approach with the use of high-quality filming of simulated scenarios with remote observation by assessors, giving you a realistic view of your candidates and the opportunity to replay footage for further assessment.
An assessment day can add real value to your external and internal people activities such as…
- Recruiting new external talent to your organisation
- Maximising people moves and promotions within your organisation
- Making key decisions on development investment as a precursor to a learning & development programme
- Measuring the effectiveness of a training programme by assessing development and growth
How Does A PDW Group Assessment Centre Work?
They typically take place over one day. It requires meticulous planning & preparation beforehand, and effective choreography & facilitation during the day.
We work with our clients to properly understand your objectives for running an assessment centre and your candidates who will be taking part. We then design challenging and appropriate exercises to robustly assess the candidates and ensure you achieve your ideal outcomes.
For clients where it is practical to run the event at our Nottingham based development centre, we can add extra value by tapping into the uniqueness of our behavioural development model. We simulate highly realistic scenarios that candidates would typically find themselves in so as to allow them to demonstrate their ability to perform in these situations.
Furthermore, our state of the art AV technology helps assessors view these activities remotely. This adds further realism for the candidates and assessors alike.
Most clients choose a mixture of their own and PDW assessors to balance the day. The assessment mix is completely flexible so as to fit with each client’s purpose and budget.
What Activities Can Be Included?
There are many activities and exercises that we can use but a typical day would consist of some or all of the following:
- Competency and/or strength based interview
- Simulated scenarios that are relevant to the candidates being assessed (such as people management or customer meetings, etc.)
- Formal presentations, either pre-prepared or as part of an exercise on the day
- Data analysis and case study work
- Written technical or financial tests
- Psychometrics and personality/behavioural profiling
- Problem-solving exercises
- Group activities and discussions
For an internally focused centre, some clients include a 360 degree feedback survey prior to participating and make the 360 report available for use by the assessors on the day. This can be another highly robust mechanism to add to the mix. It allows candidates to obtain feedback from people in their own organisation and add significantly to their self awareness.
Many clients also invest in thorough 1:1 candidate debriefs. Our aspiration is the assessment experience will trigger the single best personal feedback experience the candidates have ever had. As such, this will add huge value to them personally regardless of the individual outcome.
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I often hear myself say “Great opportunity to use your PDW skills” – or, in shorthand, just “PDW!” This has been the most effective training I have done in my career – and to call it training downplays it.
Particularly good feedback from the team on all the practise sessions as this really brings the theory to life – and a great team helping to do that.
Good structure, very well facilitated and the combination of project and personal skills training meant that it was easy to see how the personal skills could be practically applied.
I often hear myself say “Great opportunity to use your PDW skills” – or, in shorthand, just “PDW!” This has been the most effective training I have done in my career – and to call it training downplays it.
Particularly good feedback from the team on all the practise sessions as this really brings the theory to life – and a great team helping to do that.
Good structure, very well facilitated and the combination of project and personal skills training meant that it was easy to see how the personal skills could be practically applied.
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