Assessment & Development Center
Assessment and Development Centers (ADCs) provide a number of benefits to an organization seeking to improve its approach to the selection and development of its employees, by helping the organization to identify and predict key behaviors in the workplace that transform people’s performance.
These ADCs are interventions designed & facilitated for any organization or for a specific level of team members for continuous assessment of the competencies required to perform current, future or higher-level roles. These can take a minimum of 2 to 3 hours to 1 day to 2 days to facilitate based on the need of the organization/ specific competency.
The benefits of facilitating ADCs
- Identification of individual strengths and development needs
- Identification of potential “high fliers” within an organization
- identification of “skills gaps” within the organization or individuals
- Identification of most appropriate development plan adapted to the employees’ needs and their potential for growth
Assessment Centre
An assessment center comprises basically a series of activities or assessments carried out using several techniques like simulation, psychometric testing, case studies, and impromptu and in-try exercises to observe & take critical decisions like selecting or rejecting candidates for certain promotions/ positions, recruitment, and appraisals etc.
Assessment centers need to have clearly defined competencies with behavioral indicators for observation & evaluation and the techniques used for assessment should assess these very competencies and behaviors. Simulation exercises are an integral part of both assessment and development centers. They basically are situations, exercises and conditions which imitate the real-life working scenario of the assessee. They find a special place in assessments because they allow opportunities to observe and assess the assessee’s behavior pertaining to each job-related competency. Examples of simulations include group exercises, in-basket exercises, structured interviews, presentations, and fact-finding exercises.
Development Center
Development Centers and assessment centers are often confused as being the same as they use the same techniques to evaluate employees. But there are certain clear differences between them. A development center like an assessment center uses assessment techniques like simulation, psychometrics etc, but the purpose of it is totally different. A development center as the name suggests is conducted only for the developmental purposes of the employees. It is conducted to assess the potential, to identify strengths and development needs and the end result is a well-documented individual development plan for each participant.
- Analysis and Presentation Exercises –case studies in which assessed participants receive a written brief they have to analyze and to use as a base for a business recommendation.
- Role-plays – simulations of real situations where the candidates meet with a role player in order to achieve a specific objective.
- Group Exercises – are designed to assess people’s performance in a group or team based setting.
- In-tray/ In-basket Exercises – participants are presented with a variety of items in the form of letters, e-mails, memos, reports etc. about issues that need to be addressed as part of the job written tasks.
- Fact-finding – participants are given a brief overview of a problem and they have to seek out the necessary information to make a decision.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of assessment centers?
Leadership Development
Assessment centers in human resource management have proven to be an extremely insightful tool to develop professionals in leadership roles. The predictive capabilities of development and assessment center tests can help deploy exercises that test leadership competencies relevant to a specific industry or organization.
The most significant benefit of assessment centers is that they are accurate predictors of performance since candidates attempt tasks closer to real work situations. This provision offers both the assessors and the candidates an accurate picture of what may lie ahead. Thus, assessors can make better hiring decisions, and candidates gain a more realistic insight into their roles, ensuring a long employment association.
The only disadvantage is that designing a candidate assessment center involves creating customized assessment development center exercises for every organization and job role, which can be a trifle lengthy process because of multiple stakeholders’ involvement.