Assessment Centres in Talent Management

• – How are things going at the office?
• – Don’t even ask! There’s a real shortage back home. There are four vacancies; I’ve been trying for eight months now, but I just can’t seem to find the right person. I must be doing something wrong.

The other day, whilst sitting in a café trying to write something on competence management, I overheard a conversation that really brought home the fact that matching the right person with the right job is one of the toughest challenges facing businesses today, from the smallest to the largest. Whilst employers, both men and women, are constantly on the lookout for the right person, candidates are also on a quest to find what’s right for them, moving from one application to the next, from one company to another, and often even hopping from one sector to another, one by one.

So, is matching the right person with the right job nothing more than a sweet, almost impossible dream? Thankfully, the answer is no! With the right and effective competence management, this is entirely possible. When we hear the word ‘competency’, most of us immediately think of ‘talent’ or ‘skill’. Whilst encompassing these two terms, it also refers to knowledge, motivation, attitude and any behavioural trait that could lead to success in a particular role. Of course, the essential requirement is that all of these are observable behaviours and traits.

Competency management enables an organisation to compare the current competency level of its human capital with the competency level required to achieve its strategic objectives and fulfil its vision and mission. It facilitates the creation and development of plans and strategies aimed at identifying gaps, and seeks to address these gaps through their implementation.

Throughout the process from recruitment to retirement, Competency Management monitors, shapes and guides an employee’s work-related behaviour and approach; the most powerful tool at its disposal is undoubtedly the Assessment Centre, which is used to evaluate an employee’s skills and competencies.

In the broadest sense, it involves the assessment of a candidate under consideration for recruitment or promotion, using standardised techniques within a controlled environment. It is an approach aimed at selecting suitable candidates through tests and simulations administered to an individual or group over the course of one or more days. The behaviours sought in response to various scenarios are assessed by multiple professional assessors using a variety of techniques and tools, based on standardised assessment criteria.

These assessments are consolidated during an integration meeting held at the end of the process, and the observations and findings are discussed amongst the assessors until a consensus is reached regarding the competency-related behaviours demonstrated by the candidate and the level at which these behaviours were displayed.

For an assessment process to be recognised as an Assessment Centre, it must meet the standards adopted at the International Assessment Centre Congress:

1. A job analysis of the relevant behaviours; in simpler terms, the identification of the barriers to successfully fulfilling the role in question and the competencies required to overcome these barriers.

2. Pre-defined competencies; the prior definition of the competencies to be assessed during the assessments.

3. Multiple assessment techniques; an effort to collect data on each competency to be assessed using at least two different tools, such as tests, simulation exercises, interviews and group work.

4. Classifying competencies into meaningful and interrelated competency groups.

5. Observing each competency group using more than one method.

6. The application of different tools by more than one professional assessor for each candidate, with the aim of minimising any errors that may arise from the assessor.

7. Behaviours are systematically recorded by the assessor.

8. The preparation of a detailed behavioural report for each candidate by the assessors prior to the integration meeting.

9. During the integration meeting, the assessor shares the information they have gathered regarding the purpose of the assessment, and the integration process is concluded once the assessors have reached a consensus.

As Performance Appraisal Centre (PAC) applications are used to identify candidates’ strengths and development needs and to enhance employees’ job performance, it is essential to ensure that competency behaviours—based on the organisation’s corporate culture, working practices and sector dynamics—are correctly defined in advance.

The concept of an Assessment Centre is a systematic method of data collection designed to reach a decision regarding specific processes that are heavily influenced by a particular individual or group of individuals; consequently, it can be applied wherever the assessment of individuals is required.

It must be borne in mind that the aim during the design and use of these applications is to create stronger and more resilient organisations by enhancing overall performance and productivity, whilst the assessment and evaluation process is merely a tool; and it should not be forgotten that, like any tool, it will deliver the desired benefits if used appropriately and correctly.

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