The assessment centre

Pioneered in the US and the UK, by the mid 80’s more than a quarter of UK companies employing more than 500 people were using assessment centres as the core method for employing new staff. Now in 2005 nearly half of the UK’s top companies are using assessment centres to help them recruit staff.

Professor Victor Dulewicz, Head of 'Human Resource Management & Organisational Behaviour' at Henley Management College, stated as early as 1989 that one of the core reasons behind the increase of assessment centres is due to the dissatisfaction within some organisations with the highly subjective models previously used to identify talent.

In Australia, assessment centres are now being used by more and more companies in a variety of industries. These roles can range from graduate recruitment programs in Financial Services to call centres to airline cabin crew through to mining personnel. In fact, anywhere companies in Australia start to bulk recruit, assessment centres are now being utilised as a valuable tool in assessment and hiring of suitable candidates across all fields.

What is an assessment centre?

An assessment centre is a combination of multiple assessment techniques usually held over one or more consecutive days. Generally it is made up of competency based interviews, psychometric testing and experiential exercises and in some cases individual and/or team presentations. They can be held either at the employer’s premises or an external venue.

To ensure validity and reliability, the assessment centre should be based on a detailed job analysis of the roles to be filled. Assessors or observers should be given extensive training in behaviour observation, categorisation and evaluation. And candidates should be rated using generic competencies.

In most cases candidates should be pre-screened by a telephone interview and then notified in writing if they have progressed to the next stage – the actual assessment centre. Ideally line managers are involved in the assessment centre as interviewers and as assessors/observers during the experiential exercises.

The psychometric testing component can be run by an administrator, however the interpretation, debrief and candidate feedback processes should be undertaken by a registered psychologist (see Potential V2-05). Psychometric testing generally includes abilities and personality measures, but the tests used will depend on the positions to be filled and associated capabilities. In most cases these can be administered and processed on site.

Why use an assessment centre?

Finding new people is not always as easy as it seems, the ‘right decisions’ need to be made. Costs, not just recruitment but also training costs are on the increase. A poor hire is not only expensive to fix but the side effects can be extremely detrimental to a team, individuals within your organisation, yourself as a manager and your customers.

If you are looking to fill only one or two roles then commonsense would dictate the usual process of individual recruitment as the best option. However where you are looking at a number of roles then an assessment centre may prove to be the best option for your organisation.

Research suggests that the results from assessment centres are valid and reliable. In a recent study conducted by the Corporate Executive Board (2003) assessment centres ranked number one in terms of validity and reliability when compared against using only competency interviews, cognitive ability tests, reference checks, personal history information, personality tests and letters of recommendation.

So what is best practice for assessment centres in Australia?

Based on the latest research here in Australia and overseas, an effective assessment centre should take into account the following factors:

• A detailed job analysis for each role. The competencies for each role should be aligned to the behavioural interview and those demonstrated in any experiential exercises.
  
• Accurate pre-screening of candidates prior to attendance at the assessment centre.
  
• Multiple assessment techniques, eg, competency based interviews, psychometric testing and experiential exercises.
  
• Minimising against any candidate bias, eg. for candidates already working in the organisation and those applying externally.
  
• High quality assessors/observers achieved through careful selection and appropriate training in observational skills.
  
• Same day candidate data integration resulting in a recommendation at the end of each day.
  
• A legally defensible selection system.
  
• Feedback to successful and unsuccessful candidates delivered by qualified professionals as soon as possible.

Daniel Vaughan – Consultant

Since joining us at Talent Solutions a little over 12 months ago, Daniel has hit the ground running. Daniel oversees the administration of psychometric assessments as well as our program research. He has also facilitated various workshops including Career Compass™ and Managing Priorities. Many of our Assessment Centre experiential exercises are designed and facilitated by Daniel.

With over 20 years experience in the corporate sector, Daniel has worked in a variety of industries ranging from financial services and telecommunications through to member-based organisations in roles as diverse as customer service through to program management. He has also been active as a volunteer in a number of community organisation and events.

Daniel has qualifications in Workplace Training and Assessment as well as a Certificate in Executive Coaching. He is currently studying at a post-graduate level in Human Resources and Industrial Relations at Sydney University.