Use of Assessment Centres to guide recruitment in organisations

An assessment centre refers to the process where an employer, through an assessor (generally an organisational psychologist) evaluates the competency of interviewees using psychometric tests to better inform the recruitment process and hone in on a candidate’s suitability for a role within that organisation.

Benefits of an Assessment Centre

An assessment centre makes the results of the psychometric tools used and therefore the selection process objective through standardised testing. Candidates are not in direct competition, but rather assessed against an employer’s criteria.

Therefore, an assessment Centre is often require a chance to see collaboration between a group of candidates.

An assessment centre ensures organisations will find the most appropriate individual for the role based on their qualifications, skills and competencies.

Organisations that us assessment centres have shown these are more cost effective overall as while there is an initial cost, it is a long term investment that will outweigh the initial outlay.

As applicants will be undergoing a number of aptitude tests and exercises, this will often act as an initial training for new employees. This also in the future increase the chances of long term employment, reducing the costs associated with running recruitment drives and further costs associated with looking for new candidates.

Having the right individual in the right position increases efficiency and productivity and reduces overall levels of spend on training new people all the time through frequent onboarding processes.

For organisations, having an assessment centre run by a recruiter can enhance the reputation of the organisation’s standing in the wider community and country.

Assessment Days

Assessment centre is usually run on a a day for a few hours and can use a series of exercises that encompass:

• Individual exercices
• Group exercises
• Panel interviews
• Aptitude tests, psychometric tests and personality tests (link to psychometric testing)

These are often designed in advance and the assessment centre exercises are often designed to assess specific aptitudes based on the different standardised tools that are available and reliably validated internationally. More information about this can be read on the psychometric testing page. (link to psychometric testing)

The process can be discussed at greater length to get a better understanding of what it entails and how it happens.