Assessment Center exercises

Fact Find Exercises

The Participant is given a very short
general summary of the immediate situation and is asked to prepare questions for the Resource Person. After asking the questions the Participant is required to make a decision and recommend what action is to be taken. When the decision is presented, the Resource Person questions the Participant’s arguments and effectiveness of the recommendations: determining how well the situation is resolved. This type of exercise is ideal for assessing Analytic Skills, Decisiveness and Tenacity of the Participant.

Analysis & Oral Presentations Exercises

This type of exercise combines the following exercises:

• Written exercises, which require analysis of information both verbal and numerical to produce a report with conclusions and recommendations. There is an option to add an oral presentation of the report, which is an opportunity to ask the Participant questions
• Oral presentation, where the Participant is asked to prepare for and make a formal presentation of the results of a situation analysis

These exercises assess such competences as Attention to Detail, Planning and Organizing, Judgment and Analytic Skills.

In-Basket Exercises

The Participant is given the in-tray of a predecessor which must be managed within a specific length of time. The Participant is required to attend to a range of issues that could emerge in such situations at different organizational levels, complexity or volume.

This type of exercise is ideal for assessing Analytic Skills, Judgment, Decisiveness and use of Initiative by the Participant.

Scheduling Exercises

The Participant is provided with background information describing a situation that requires the scheduling of limited resources.

The Participant is required to analyze the data provided and prepare a plan indicating how the resources will be used to achieve a specific objective.

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Role Play: interaction with a workmate (subordinate, colleague, manager)

This type of exercise is a simulation of a one-to-one meeting between the Participant and a Role-player. The purpose of the meeting can be a performance review, job interview, counseling, disciplinary interview or a complaint review.

Role Play: interaction with a customer

This type of exercise involves the Participant working with a Role-player in a simulation of a one-to-one meeting with a member of staff of another organization, for example, a cold phone call, a negotiation or customer service situation.

Role Play provides an opportunity to assess such competencies as Flexibility, Leadership, People and Process Management, Persuasive Oral Communication and Self Motivation.

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Assigned Role Group Discussions

This type of Group Discussions is based on different views of the situation described. The Participants have competing interests in accordance with different roles and conflicting objectives, allocated to them. For example, it could be a meeting of representatives of different departments, who have to make decisions for the good of the company as well as for their own departments. There are six different role descriptions. A minimum of four people per group is recommended.

Non-Assigned Role Group Discussions

The Participants are all given the same brief, which in most instances consists of a number of different issues which require immediate action. The nature of the group is essentially co-operative and the discussion is unstructured. The recommended number of Participants can vary from four to eight. However, with a 4-person group it is possible to assign the role of Chairperson to each Participant for one of the four scenarios typically presented within these Exercises.

The Group Exercises enable to assess such competences as Leadership and Decisiveness, Judgment and Commercial Awareness, Persuasive Oral Communication.

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