Framing Appropriate Assessment and Development Centres

 

Identification of objectives

 

Having ensured the accessibility to needed resources; the reasons for introducing a centre must be clarified. Try to sell the concept to the whole organization by justifying the costs on the basis of predicted improvements in selection process and the current cost of poor selection. You also need to develop policy statements so as give guidance on plans for the future and also to project a directed and guided view of the entire process.

 

Analyze jobs

 

The key to success with assessment and development centres lies in effective job analysis. Thus, the probability of success is drastically reduced if the behaviors and the criteria used by assessors are general and unrelated to jobs specifications.

 

Some chiefly employed tools for effective job analysis are:

• Work and Time and Motion study methods
• Direct observation
• Structured interviews
• Critical incident analysis
• Grid analysis
• Questionnaires on job analysis

 

Design the centre

 

There are no definite criteria for designing a centre. Designing a successful centre is really a form of art well as science. Usually, designers need to take into account the following factors:

§         The extent to which the exercises correlate to the jobs

• The backgrounds of the participants
• The relative importance of different criteria
• An interesting and balanced mix of exercises
• Restrictions and limitations posed by time and resources.

 

Train assessors

 

Assessors must be carefully selected and prepared because irrespective of the design, the effectiveness of the centre will ultimately depend on the quality of assessment.  Assessors should be properly trained and educated to make them familiar with the requirements of the job.

 

Some related vital questions posed before the organizations are:

• Who should be chosen as the assessor?
• How many assessors do we need? What will be the number of participants, what will be the frequency with which the centres will be held?
• What are the qualities that the assessors must possess– for example, committed, good observers, analytical, attentive, patient, counseling experience, etc.
• What are the objectives of training – for example, thorough knowledge of techniques, to standardize performances, to reduce deviations from the established results, to eliminate/reduce errors?
• What should be the content of the training sessions?

 

Plan the centre

 

Assessment and development centres require careful and extensive planning so that they do not fail to run on the day. Of the various issues that need to be considered by the team, the chief ones are:

• The kind and quantum of people to be brought together, such as administrators, assessors, role players, resource providers
• The schedule and timetable for exercises
• The master schedule or plan – this will give the time and location of all exercises and individuals
• The allocation of room and equipment, i.e. what equipments would be assigned to what rooms
• Procedures for briefing
• Checklists for all concerned.

 

Conduct assessment

 

An able administrator is an all-weather man/ woman. Thus, selection of a capable administrator is thus important to run a centre smoothly.

 

A typical programme might go as follows:

• Start the centre - Check for the required facilities.
• Arrange a meeting with participants
• Administer exercises
• End with a proper closing session
• Hold the assessor ‘wash-up' session
• Analyze the centre's report
• The report should reflect the main purpose of the centre containing a summary of the performance of each candidate with recommendations on their performance and abilities.

 

Periodically evaluate the centres and make necessary modifications

 

• Growth is a must for a constantly changing, dynamic environment in business. Jobs change and there are always new ways available of assessing criteria.
• Thus, the assessment and development centres should continually evolve to maintain their effectivity in serving the organization well.
• This asks for quality assurance reviews of the design on a regular and objective basis. Change, after all, is the greatest static fact of life.