Assessment & Development Centre; AC/DC

The Assessment Centres were „invented” in Europe during the preparation period for the war, the leaders of the German and English armies both sought a way to increase the efficiency of the election method of military officers. After the war, it was first used in the United States to select secret agents, but major companies (AT & T cable company, IBM, Xerox, etc.) soon became aware of it as well. Then it came back from America to Europe (first to the subsidiaries of the American multinational companies). In Hungary, it has become more and more popular since the 1990s: SHL Hungary Kft. took a pioneering role popularizing it. The double name (Assessment and Development Centre) indicates that the method is suitable for development (to measure development needs) besides selection.

Assessment Centre (AC)

The Assessment Centre is a method for selecting new colleagues. If you want to make the selection process more objective than an interview, more practical than tests and you want to increase your chances of finding the perfect fit, then this is one of the best techniques we can use. The essence of it: putting the potential employee into a situation where they have to perform tasks that are related to the open job position so that observers can draw conclusions about their behaviour in the workplace, their problem solving skills, their teamwork, and their performance under stressful situations. The behaviour of the candidates can reveal who is the leader and who is the subordinate type, who is able to compromise and who is willing to confront, if the confrontation is inevitable. In the Assessment Centre, a potential employee sometimes has to work together with the other candidates ("competitors"), and in one of the practices they have to work together with an"undercover man".

Usually consultancy firms are helping companies to compile an Assessment Centre that is fit for the given position (putting together certain practices, and defining the competencies we want to observe (see SHL). The performance of a potential employee is analysed and evaluated by experts and the decision about who can fill the open position is based on that evaluation.

Benefits of the Assessment Centre:

• increases the chances of finding the perfect fit amongst the recruited employees,
• HR professionals can base their decision on practical experience,
• shows the strengths and weaknesses of potential employees,
• potential employees can prove themselves in many areas, revealing their strongest skills.

Development Centre (DC)

The Development Centre is similar to the Assessment Centre, but still there are many differences between them. It aims to assess the development needs of existing employees. It helps to achieve the organization's internal development goals: through periodic evaluation of employees, we can gain information about their competence and their ability to improve themselves. Here too, external or internal HR specialists determine the competences required for that position and choose appropriate practices. The Development Centres are typically longer than the Assessment Centres (they are usually two days long) and the feedback conversations are longer as well.

In the following, we will try to look at the essence of the Assessment Centre from the point of view of the experts doing the evaluations and the employees taking the Assessment Centres itselves.

Critics, or the Assessment Centre from the professionals’ point of view

The popularity of the Assessment Centre is gradually increasing, but not all professionals are satisfied with this technique. We are listing some of their criticisms to learn from them:

1. The tasks to be performed have nothing to do with the job to be filled. Unfortunately, candidates often have to face situations and simulation practices that are hardly related to the positions they want to fill (e.g., "if you are experiencing a plane crash into a desert where do you place the wounded").
2. The failure of the artificial environment. In group tasks, a potential employee sometimes has to be involved with "competitors", while several observers are watching and analysing what is happening. This can worsen theperformance of the candidates, preventing them to show theirparticular ability needed to fill the position.
3. Discrepancy between perceived behaviour and performance. The question of objectivity/subjectivity is unavoidable: even the most skilled professionals have their prejudices, they prefer certain attributes and gestures while dislike others.
4. Perhaps the strongest argument against the Assessment Centre method is that it is time-consuming and expensive. Although the duration of the Assessment Centre has been shortened in recent decades, the typical Assessment Centre is still one day long and the time of the executives making theevaluations is also costs a lot.

Bearing the criticisms in mind, it is worth trying to make the Assessment Centre's practices more closely related to the open positions, reducing the distortion resulting from subjectivityby training evaluators to be as objective as they can and not increasing the Assessment Centre time longer than necessary.

Advices for employees for AC preparation

The Assessment Centre may look troublesome, time-consuming and stressful from the candidate's point of view, but on the other hand, it provides a chance for candidates todemonstrate their professionalism, competence in several areas, and to prove their capacity to work. There are some good advices that can help the candidate successfully complete the Assessment Centre:

• Be well-rested: the basis of success for a candidate is to be in a "good state" when starting the Assessment Centre.
• Consider your strengths and weaknesses before the Assessment Centre: at the Assessment Centre, emphasizeyour strengths and show your capability to progress.
• Be a team player: Assessment Centres often involve a group assignment, where you have to prove that you can work in a team while at the same time you have to show that you are able to take the lead if that is necessary.
• Get ready for the presentation: if it comes to presentation, yours should be professional, convincing and interesting.

The Assessment and Development Centre method can be learned

The essence of the Assessment Centre can be learned during an intensive training course in 2 days (although the knowledge and skills required for planning, organizing and conducting the Assessment Centre can be developed furthermore). If you want to put your company's selection methods and the measurements of workers' development needs on a professional basis, contact us at SHL Hungary's website where there are many interesting information on the subject in the Assessment & Development Centre (AC / DC) sub-page.

Next Assessment & Development Centre Training Date: 20-21 March 2018

The EDGE2000 Ltd., the publisher of the SHL books, has recently released a comprehensive volume on the methodology entitled "Assessment Development Centre". The book is the first Hungarian summary of this topic. The book can be ordered from the Edge2000 Bookstore or from SHL Hungary Kft.