Assessment Centers
An Assessment Center is a structured procedure for observing people in situations that are close as possible to working environments and assessing their behavior in these situations.
In an Assessment Center the group of participants perform various exercises under the observation of a team of trained observers, who assess each participant based on a set of pre-determined behavioral (competency) models directly related to work. At the same time, everybody knows how people should behave in the scenarios proposed by the exercises and what constitutes a mistake. Decisions are adopted on how the results of participants comply with previously determined competencies when summing up the results (overall session) through an analysis of all the received information.
The goal of the Assessment Center is to objectively assess the competencies of a participant. The Assessment Centers primarily use exercises, which imitate actual work situations, although the Center may also include competency-based interviews and psychometric methods.
Why do we need Assessment Centers?
- Experience shows that Assessment Centers make it possible to successfully forecast an individual’s behavior in a new position.
- Assessment Centers make it possible to identify high-class professionals among the participants, which is particularly important in a competitive environment when each organization strives to attract and retain talented employees.
- Assessment Centers enable employers to reduce the risk of error when selecting or promoting personnel.
- Assessment Centers provide a fair assessment, as the participants perform exercises that simulate as much as possible the actual work environment, while the employer receives a diversified picture of each participant.
- The Assessment Centers guarantee a standardized assessment process: each participant has identical opportunities and conditions to demonstrate his/her abilities.
- At the Assessment Centers one candidate is simultaneously assessed by several observers. This provides a more objective estimate than an interview, while the result may be fully determined by the subjective opinions of the individual.
When are Assessment Centers used?
Assessment Centers make it possible to successfully forecast an individual's behavior in a new role even if the individual's previous experience does not fully comply with the new work. Consequently this method has become particularly popular when:
- selecting personnel for management positions;
- hiring graduates;
- recruiting or transferring personnel to new positions within the company (in particular if an organization is expanded or restructured);
- promoting employees, for example, for appointments to key positions that require management skills.
What can we offer?
Detech has significant experience of developing and implementing Assessment Centers. We are responsible for:
- The development of Assessment Centers for different types of positions for independent use by the organization, including the development of the structure of the Assessment Center, the development/adaptation and selection of exercises, the training of employees of an organization in how to run Assessment Centers, etc.
- The delivery of Assessment Centers.
- Feedback to participants.
- The integration of Assessment Centers with on-line tests.
- Data collection, the preparation of reports and validation.
- Training in how to work with Assessment Centers.
- Verification of the effectiveness of Assessment Centers.
