Assessment centres are designed to help employers identify the skills, potential and suitability of existing and prospective employees for a specific role or training opportunity. An effective way to gain insight into an individual’s performance and abilities, assessment centres play a valuable role in both the recruitment and development processes.
In order for an assessment centre to fulfil its potential, it needs to be set up and managed properly. Done well, the exercise can yield invaluable results and help your business, and its team members, to grow and succeed together.
A well-designed assessment centre will produce more comprehensive and detailed results, so it’s important to spend time on the design process.
Tailoring your assessment centre to your specific goals and requirements will help you get more useful results. When designing your assessment centre, make sure you align your exercises and scenarios with the requirements of the role that you’re recruiting for. Think about the specific skills and personality traits the new team member would need and then create tasks designed to identify them.
Different people respond to different scenarios. Where one person may thrive in a roleplay situation, others will shine when working in a team or talking one-on-one in an interview. Using a variety of methods in your assessment centre will increase your chances of finding the right person for the job.
It’s very important to set clear evaluation criteria before you begin. Not only will this help the managers and supervisors tasked with running the centre, it will also create a more even playing field for your potential recruits.
Most good quality candidates will want to prepare for their assessment so they can increase their chances of success. Giving them the information and resources they need will help them to perform on the day.
Provide clear instructions to candidates around the purpose of the day. Make sure they understand the requirements of the role on offer and give them information about the structure of the day and how long they can expect to be there.
Some participants will want to practise various elements of the day beforehand. If they’re going to be required to carry out roleplays or exercises on specific subjects, it may help to provide your potential recruits with the resources they need in advance of the assessment day.
The way your assessment centre is run will be key to its success. The standards you apply and the assessors you use will have a huge impact on your results and, in turn, influence your choice of employee.
Ensuring the uniformity of candidate experience will help your results to be fairer and more valuable. Setting clear criteria before your assessment centre begins will help you to achieve consistency on the day.
It’s always a good idea to use trained and neutral assessors when running assessment centres. This helps to avoid bias and gives you clear, useful results.
Understanding and processing results will help you and your team to select the right candidate for the job.
Provide detailed feedback for all candidates, even the unsuccessful ones, so that they can understand their performance and where things might have gone wrong. This can turn your assessment centre into a valuable learning tool.
Sharing recorded footage can help you to highlight examples of a candidate’s strengths or areas that require development. Often, seeing a video of their performance is even more helpful than receiving detailed feedback.
The information and insights that come out of your assessment centre can be used for both decision-making and development, helping your organisation and your team to grow.
Regularly assessing and updating the process will help you to continually develop and improve your assessment centre and get even more from the exercise.
Getting all of the aspects of an assessment centre just right can be a challenge. There are lots of moving pieces and balancing all of these critical elements isn’t easy. Luckily, our team has a huge amount of experience in the area, so, why not get in touch to discuss your requirements and make your life that little bit easier?
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