Why Should Your Organization Use Assessment Centres for recruitment?

The way you always believe in what you see rather than what you assume or hear; in recruitment too it is better to see the skills in actions. The point is just because the resume tells you that the candidates are good for your business, you must not completely rely on it. After all, it is always better to see things working practically than simply getting to know about it through papers or documents.

In the present time businessmen have started investing in tools that help them recruit the right candidates for job roles. After all, it is all about what you do to make the best recruitments in your organization. Whether content manager, coder, research analyst, accountant, manager or any other type of job role; you have to evaluate the skills before you recruit a person.There is a dynamic tool or rather a concept that you can use in your recruitment program. The concept is of assessment centres for recruitment and promotion.

You know these assessment centres can be really useful for screening manifold candidates, as well as in individual interview instances. These centres can assist in the important task of removing any unsuitable candidates, or they can be used to select the most right from a group of potentials. One of the main advantages of assessment centres is that, the tests employed provide a detailed insight into the capability, psychology, alignment of values, and even the motives of candidates. Assessment centres are held either in-house or they are also used through an independent company. You must not skip these tools for your recruitment drive.

What is the clear meaning of assessment centres?

An assessment centre is a comprehensive facility that is used mostly for employee selection purposes. But it is even used for training. Individuals for selection or training are brought to a specific centre for concentrated ‘real-life’ examinations and interviews for a couple of days at a stretch that measure and simulate actual job conditions and issues.Assessment centres are made use of by professional and experienced managers or trained personnel specialists to examine each candidate’s response to these realistic situations.

These are the assessment centres that are usually used in huge organisations for selecting middle and top-level personnel or managers, because the performance dimensions for higher degree managers are not always straightforward. Thus such centres seek examine such management skills as leadership, decision making, communication, initiative and motivation, creativity, delegation and even inter-individual (or inter-per­sonal) bonds or relations.

What type of exercises these centres have?

There can be different exercises differ from centre to centre but again some common ones are like:

In–basket exercises

An assessment centre examines ability to perform job-related tasks through imitation techniques. Onethe ‘in basket’, places the applicant in the role of manager of an imaginary company who has four hours to decide how to respond to different types of letters, memos and data and information.

During this time the applicant has to make decision, communicate with subordinates in writing, and arrange meeting, delegate authority, assign priorities and so on. On different occasions following the in-basket simulation, applicants are even asked to justify their actions.

Group Discussions without leaders

Another important technique is a leaderless simulated organisation meeting. In such a meeting, candidates participate in group discussions related to a job problem, such as discipline, promotion, group management skills. Individuals get rated on such characteristics   as persuasiveness and inter-personal skills and verbal ability.

Management games

These are the games that measure the technical skills involving finance, manufacturing, or personnel. More often than not these involve computer simulations. These games would get the skill side of the candidates to light. Of course, since the recruiters and the authorities supervise all the actions, they make a note of everything for their final decision making regarding candidates.Certainly what can be more validating than seeing the candidates performing skills in front of you?

Presentations by individuals

Individuals are asked to make a presentation on a specific or prescribed topic or idea and their communication skills, poise and persuasiveness get measured therefrom.  Of course, the way a person gives a presentation would tell a lot about his skills, knowledge and overall understanding of concepts. These presentations will help the recruiters see the layered levels of skills in the candidates. The presentation would not just tell about the knowledge of the candidate about a specific concept but also about his or her communication skills, behaviour and attitude.

Other methods and techniques

There can also be other assessment centretechniques or methods. These can be like   making oral presentation to groups, intelligence and psychological tests, role playing, personalisedinterviews and written communications, all designed and made around particular job dimensions. Every single exercise in the centre is exclusively designed to measure the skills and knowledge of the candidates in a specific niche or job role.

Following the above-mentioned exercises along with other type of exercises, the assessment centre personnel summarise the assessments and draw conclusions about the performance of the candidates. Managers having progressive outlook often deliver a summary report to the candidate who might also be briefed on his or her performance.

Quick advantages of centres

  • Prima facie: actual job problems and situations get measured, as in modelling training.
  • Assessment centre results are absolutely useful for promoting employees.
  • Assessment centre techniques and methods are particularly useful for spotting fresh management talent, i.e., talent in individuals who have not formerly held manage­ment positions.
  • Assessment centre exercises are even used to spot   and identify managerial weaknesses and deficiencies, and training and development can be advised to overcome these.

Of course, different level organizations encounter different types of advantages.  The assessment centres are really useful to get the best talent on board. Whether recruitment procedure or the promotion; these exercises conducted in the assessment centre are really effective and powerful.

Conclusion

Thus, you can think of using this strategy or tool in your business. This would give a better insight and view of the candidates and their calibre, capabilities and knowledge.