Assessment centres are a recruitment technique that is often reserved by the tier one companies like, Emirates, Qantas, Rio Tinto, Shell and alike. But you don’t need to be a tier one company to enjoy all the benefits of running your own assessment centre. Assessment Centres can be very helpful for a small to medium sized business. If you haven’t done it then you should read on as I have found that it saves a time, money but most importantly it can really help you find the best of the bunch in less than 4 hours!
When to Use Assessment Center
Ok so we should start with when you should use an assessment centre.
Assessment centres can be useful for recruitment of 3 + roles at a time, i.e.
You have won a project and you need a few trades assistants to fill out the crew;
You are starting a new shop and need a couple of sales assistants; or
You are running a call centre and have multiple roles available.
You have one very important role with multiple candidates you want to interview
Often you would have significant interest in the role(s) because it is an entry level type position or without need for formal qualification.
The role involves dealing with the public or working as part of a team.
What’s so good about Assessment Centers?
This is the perfect way to assess a group of people for multiple roles or one role with multiple high-quality applicants. Done right it has so many advantages and I will run through a few of them:
One to many – explain the company, the role, and expectations – once.
Questions – answer questions about the role – once and enjoy the benefits of having the group hear the answers to all the questions.
Ability to observe how people interact in a group setting (something you don’t get from traditional one on one interview) i.e., who answers questions, who is on their phone, who sits by themselves, who is on time and who is late.
Assess candidate’s abilities, behaviours and ethics in line with the role and company values.
How to Run an Assessment Center?
If the above makes sense to you, the next natural questions is – how do you run an assessment center? It is actually a straightforward process. There is a little bit of work in the front end but you should find it streamlines the remainder of your recruitment process. I’ve outlined the process in bullet points to give you an idea of how to get started.
Pick a date approximately 14 days from when you advertised the role.
You will need at least 2 people available to run your assessment center
Filter the applications that you like, ideally you want to invite at least 10 people to your assessment center (you will have some no shows).
Put together an agenda for the Assessment center.
Put together a presentation on the company, role, and expectations.
Invite your top 10 to 12 applicants
Email all the invited applicants with details for the assessment center (who, what, when and where.
Follow up with phone call the day before to confirm the numbers.
What Else you will need to prepare to succeed?
Sign In – Sign in sheet, give out name stickers and discuss housekeeping, i.e. emergency exits, tea room and toilets
Provide at least two to three challenges, one individual task plus two team tasks.
Example of individual task – make origami, give everyone instructions plus a piece of paper and give them 10 minutes to make it.
So much great stuff will come out of this:
who completes the task on their own,
who asks for help,
who gives up and who gets angry,
who can follow written instructions,
who remains calm.
Sit back and watch it all unfold.
Group tasks ideas include: Make a maze (using chairs and tables doesn’t need to be fancy), blindfold one member of the group and have the rest of the group give instructions on how to navigate to the end.
Again so much good stuff here:
who gives clear instructions,
who volunteers to be blindfolded first,
who doesn’t care at all,
who considers the safety of the volunteer.
There are so many great options for group assessments – just google it for more ideas
Make sure you have one person from your organisation supervising and one person observing and taking notes.
After activities – tea break
Convene with your team for 20 minutes and discuss stand outs.
Bring everyone back together, thank them for their time and let them know you would like your top candidates to stay behind for one-on-one interviews.
That’s it – assessment center done, and you’ve found your applicants who you like could be real winners for your organisation.
I hope that’s given you some food for thought on Assessment Centres and given you another tool in your recruiter tool belt to consider.
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