Assessment centres comprise of a number of exercises, such as; in-tray exercises, presentations, group exercises, interviews, ability tests and personality questionnaires. These exercises are designed to imitate the tasks and demands of the job for which a candidate is being considered and evaluate the candidate’s performance against specific criteria.
Assessment centres are very thorough and tend to accurately predict a candidate’s future performance. On the downside though, they do tend to be expensive and time consuming and so are predominantly used for more senior positions or graduate training programmes.
What sort of exercises are we talking about?
The exercises may include case studies, in-tray, writing skills, role-plays and presentations.
How does an assessment differ from just an interview?
Assessment centres are considered to be a more fair and accurate method of selecting staff than interviewing alone. It gives the business the chance to see what individuals can do, rather than what they say they can do, and can allow you to observe team working and interpersonal skills, to give you a better idea of personality fit.
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