Assessment Centres

Assessment centres employ a range of techniques to assess a candidate's suitability for a role. Interviews, ‘real-play’, role-play and personality or ability tests are examples of some of the tools we use over a one or two day period to form a comprehensive assessment package. When used to assess development potential for existing employees the term 'development centre' is usually used.

Our assessment and development centres are firmly grounded in the coaching and development ethos and carefully constructed to link into and support the client's development and appraisal initiatives.

Success lies in correctly assessing an individual's capabilities against the key competencies and performance criteria of the current or prospective role. This involves the creative design or adaptation of a competency framework and the development of a set of tasks and activities that accurately model those which are essential to job performance.

Technical skills can be assessed in this way but it is often interpersonal and team competencies that determine an individual's success within a role. Assessment centres are especially useful for revealing an individual's strengths and weaknesses in this area as well as providing comparative data for a cohort of candidates such that easy and reliable comparisons between individuals can be made.

This not only simplifies the selection decision but also provides a structured and meaningful framework for providing feedback to both successful and unsuccessful candidates. For the successful candidate this feedback forms the basis of their ongoing development plan.