 Liam
Healy & Associates
chartered occupational psychologists
Assessment and Development Centre Design
Research demonstrates that that there is no
substitute for objectively observing and
systematically measuring how people actually perform
"on the ground". A well designed Assessment Centre
is the most effective tool available for assessing
individuals in both individual and group based
environments for selection or development.
We provide a complete range of Assessment Centre
design and delivery services, from competency matrix
design through assessor training, exercise design and
the provision of psychometric testing. Even if an
organisation has no prior experience of this most
effective assessment method we can design and manage the
whole process from scratch using either our own
established procedures and assessment tools, or
designing entirely new and highly organisationally
relevant systems and exercises. From the most basic
unassigned role exercises to highly complex assigned
role problem solving and decision making exercises for
senior managers/directors, we apply psychometric rigour
to every centre we provide to ensure it is highly
accurate, stable and job relevant.
There is no such thing a 'standard' Assessment or
Development Centre - some can last as little as half a
day, while others can go on for three days or more.
However, all demand considerable commitment from the
host organisation.
What is
an Assessment/Development Centre?
The term assessment centre does not refer to a
physical place, instead it describes an approach.
Traditionally an assessment centre consisted of a
suite of exercises designed to assess a set of
personal characteristics, it was seen as a rather
formal process where the individuals being assessed
had the results fed back to them in the context of a
simple yes/no selection decision. However, recently
we have seen a definite shift in thinking away from
this traditional view of an assessment centre to one
which stresses the developmental aspect of
assessment.
A consequence of this is that today it is very rare
to come across an assessment centre which does not have
at least some developmental aspect to it, increasingly
assessment centres are stressing a collaborative
approach which involves the individual actively
participating in the process rather than being a passive
recipient of it. In some cases we can even find
assessment centres that are so developmental in their
approach that some of the assessment work done is
carried out by the participants themselves and the major
function of the centre is to provide the participants
with feedback that is as much developmental as
judgmental in nature.
Assessment centres typically involve the participants
completing a range of exercises which simulate the
activities carried out in the target job. Various
combinations of these exercises and sometimes other
assessment methods like psychometric testing and
interviews are used to assess particular competencies in
individuals. The theory behind this is that if one
wishes to predict future job performance then the best
way of doing this is to get the individual to carry out
a set of tasks which accurately sample those required in
the job and are as similar to them as possible.
The particular competencies used will depend upon the
target job but one will often find competencies such as
relating to people; resistance to stress; planning and
organising; motivation; adaptability and flexibility;
problem solving; leadership; communication; decision
making and initiative. There are numerous possible
competencies and the ones which are relevant to a
particular job are determined through job analysis. The
fact that a set of exercises is used demonstrates one
crucial characteristic of an assessment centre - namely
that it is behaviour that is
being observed and measured. This represents a
significant departure from many traditional selection
approaches which rely on the observer or selector
attempting to infer personal characteristics from
behaviour based upon subjective judgement and usually
precious little evidence. This approach is rendered
unfair and inaccurate by the subjective whims and biases
of the selector and in many cases produces a selection
decision based on a freewheeling social interaction
after which a decision was made as whether the
individual's 'face fit' with the organisation.
The type of centre can vary between the traditional
assessment centre used purely for selection to the more
modern development centre which involves self-assessment
and whose primary purpose is development.
One might ask the question 'Why group assessment and
development centres together if they have different
purposes?' The answer to that question is threefold.
Firstly, they both involve assessment and it is only the
end use of the information obtained which is different
i.e. one for selection and one for development;
secondly, it is impossible to draw a line between
assessment and development centres because all centres,
be they for assessment or development naturally lie
somewhere on a continuum somewhere between the two
extremes; thirdly most assessment centres involve at
least some development and most development centres
involve at least some assessment.
This means that it is very rare to find a centre
devoted to pure assessment or pure development. The
issue is further confused by the political
considerations one must take into account when running
such a centre, it is common practice for an assessment
centre with internal candidates to be referred to as a
development centre because of the negative implications
associated with assessment. It is easier to think about
assessment centres as being equally to do with selection
and development because a degree of assessment goes on
in both.
Development centres grew out a liberalisation of
thinking about assessment centres and it is a historical
quirk that while assessment centres were once used
purely for selection and have evolved to have a more
developmental flavour the language used to describe them
has not. Another problem with using the assessment -
development dichotomy is that at the very least it
causes us to infer that little or no assessment goes in
development centres. While you will hear centres being
called 'assessment' or 'development' centres remember
that assessment goes on in both and so to some extent at
least they are both assessment centres.
The end result of this is that it is not possible to
talk about assessment or development centres in any but
the most general terms. It is more useful to talk about
the constituent parts and general processes involved in
each.
In these terms we can identify a number of
differences between assessment and development centres
that one might typically find:
Assessment Centres usually -
- have a pass/fail criteria
- are geared towards filing a job vacancy
- address an immediate organisational need
- have fewer assessors and more participants
- involve line managers as assessors
- have less emphasis placed on self-assessment
- focus on what the candidate can do now
- are geared to meet the needs of the organisation
- assign the role of judge to assessors
- place emphasis on selection with little or no
developmental feedback and follow up
- give feedback at a later date
- involve the organisation having control over the
information obtained
- have very little pre-centre briefing
- tend to be used with external candidates
Development Centres usually -
- do not have a pass/fail criteria
- are geared towards developing the individual
- address a longer term organisational need
- have a 1:1 ratio of assessor to participant
- do not have line managers as assessors
- have a greater emphasis placed on
self-assessment
- focus on potential
- are geared to meet needs of the individual as
well as the organisation
- assign the role of facilitator to assessors
- place emphasis on developmental feedback and
follow up with little or no selection function
- tend give feedback immediately
- involve the individual having control over the
information obtained
- have a substantial pre-centre briefing tend to
be used with internal candidates
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