Assessment Centers

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Assessment Centers

• By Yamina Ketteler and
• Patrizia Krüger

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Index
1. Definition of an Assessment Center (AC)? 2.
What can be part of an AC? - What is the
in-basket game? - What is the survival
game? - One-on-One exercise - Tricky
Tasks 3. The use of it all 4. How assessors and
others should be prepared 5. Additional Links
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What is an AC?
Definition An assessment center consists of a
standardized evaluation of behavior based on
multiple inputs. Multiple trained observers
and techniques are used. Judgments about
behaviors are made, in major part, from
specifically developed assessment simulations.
These judgments are pooled in a meeting among the
assessors or by a statistical integration
process.1
1 Guidelines and Ethical Considerations for
Assessment Center Operations. Task Force
on Assessment Center Guidelines endorsed by the
17th International Congress on the Assessment
Center Method, May 1989.
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What is an AC?

• An approach to select applicants using complex
  tests and exercises that are administered to a
  person or a group of people (for example
  job-related simulations, interviews,
  psychological tests etc)?
• An AC normally lasts from a few hours to a whole
  day or up to three days
• Mostly a method to select candidates for a
  higher management position (often the job
  requires more complex skills that cannot be
  assessed with a normal interview or simple test)?
• Interaction skills can be tested with multiple
  candidates
• Evaluation and judgment of the applicants
  behavior during the tests and his leisure time
  (breaks)?

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What can be a part of ACs?

• Interview
• In-basket exercise
• Business game
• Leaderless group discussion (e.g. survival
  game)?
• Projective tests
• Paper and pencil tests
• Personal history questionnaire
• Autobiographical sketch
• etc

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What is the in-basket exercise?
An in-basket exercise (or in-tray exercise) asks
you to assume a particular role as an employee of
a fictitious company and work through the
correspondence in your in-tray. This exercise is
designed to measure your ability to organize and
prioritize work.1
Example An applicant is told to be in the role
of a company leader who leaves for a two- week
business trip to Japan in about 45
minutes. His/her in-basket is full of tasks that
need to be done before he/she leaves. It is
impossible to do all the tasks within 45
minutes. The applicant must now organize the
tasks in the basket in order of importance. What
can be done before the business trip and what can
wait until he/she returns? The task is about
being organized and showing the ability to
determine what the most important thing to do is
and what can be done later or by other employees.
1 http//www.psychometric-success.com/assessment-c
enters/assessment-and-development-center.htm
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What is the survival game?
This game is a role-play where a group of
candidates is taking the role of survivors of an
airplane crash, boat accident or spaceship crash
on the moon. They are handed a list of items from
which they have to pick some to take with them in
order to survive. Some items are very necessary
to survive, whereas others are useless. Still, in
this game it is not usually important who chooses
the right items but what role he/she takes in the
group discussion and the interaction with the
rest of the group.
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What is the survival game?
Example1 - You and your team have chartered a
yacht. - None of you have any previous sailing
experience, and you have hired an experienced
skipper and two-person crew. - As you sail
through the Southern Pacific Ocean a fire breaks
out and much of the yacht and its contents are
destroyed. - The yacht is slowly sinking. - Your
location is unclear because vital navigational
and radio equipment has been damaged. - The yacht
skipper and crew have been lost whilst trying to
fight the fire. - Your best guestimate is that
you are approximately 1000 miles southwest of the
nearest landfall.
1 http//www.training-manager.co.uk/documents/TMSS
-LostatSeaExercise.pdf
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What is the survival game?
- You and your friends have managed to save the
following 15 items, undamaged and intact after
the fire 1. A sextant 2. A shaving mirror 3. A
quantity of mosquito netting 4. A 5 gallon can of
water 5. A case of army rations 6. Maps of the
Pacific Ocean 7. A floating seat cushion 8. A 2
gallon can of oil/petrol mixture 9. A small
transistor radio 10. 20 square feet of opaque
plastic sheeting 11. Shark repellent 12. One
quart of 160 per cent proof rum 13. 15ft nylon
rope 14. 2 boxes of chocolate bars 15. A fishing
kit - In addition to the above, you have salvaged
a four man rubber life craft. - The total
contents of your combined pockets amount to a
packet of cigarettes, three boxes of matches and
3 5 notes.
Possible answers can be found here
http//www.training-manager.co.uk/documents/TMSS-L
ostatSeaExercise.pdf
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What is the survival game?
Other Survival scenarios and possible answers
can be found here (online links) Military
survival game Survival on the moon Plane crash
scenario Nuclear holocaust scenario
1 http//www.psychometric-success.com/assessment-c
enters/assessment-and-development-center.htm
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One-on-One Exercise

• Additional to the presented methods of
  role-playing in which you are usually forced to
  deal with a group of people you don't know and
  meant to team up with them accordingly, there are
  also one-on-one exercises. This means that you
  are forced to deal with one of the assessors
  alone without a group.
• Popular exercises are preparing and holding a
  presentation on a little known topic within a
  brief preparation time-span. You might be asked
  to hold a presentation about a certain
  job-related topic within only 20 minutes. The
  given information might be far too comprehensive
  to discuss and work out.
• -Another situation might be to lead an interview
  with one of the assessors dealing with a certain
  topic. This is the reversed situation of holding
  a presentation and often both tasks are meant to
  be fulfilled in a short time. In any case you
  should prepare yourself by gathering information
  about the company you are applying for (and their
  products and/or services) before entering the
  assessment center.
• Don't panic if you are overwhelmed by the
  information the company might provide in the
  assessment center tasks! Stay calm and be
  organized.

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Tricky Tasks

• The whole value of the assessment center is based
  on judging your ability to deal with tricky
  situations and tasks. A good assessment center
  focuses on four to six tasks and should test the
  abilities and knowledge necessary to the aspired
  position within the company but you should always
  be prepared for surprises.
• The rate-yourself trick. Assessors might ask you
  to rate your own behavior and solutions, perhaps
  giving you the details of the rating system they
  use on you. Usually you score if you rate your
  own activity close to the score the assessor
  already has in mind.
• Rate-the-others trick. The assessor might as
  well demand from you to rate the other volunteers
  whether they are present or not. That is another
  mean trick as it creates a high stress level but
  also makes it easier for the psychologist to
  estimate your personality.

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Tricky Tasks
- Surprise attack. Sometimes the assessors create
questions which seem to be of questionable value
for the assessment at best. I know of a case in
which the volunteer was asked which animal he
would relate to his own personality. His answer
was A wombat. The assessor asked why and the
volunteer said 'Because that answer isn't in
your rating scheme. You can't do anything with it
according to your guidelines.' He got the job and
is a pretty wealthy manager today.
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The use of it all
- Assessment Centers have become quite popular in
the last 30 years. The value and validity of the
achieved results have been discussed by
psychologists and companies over and over and
some of the ways to test candidates have changed
over the years. - A good assessment center
should be well prepared and is not cheap to set
up. There are some guidelines for companies who
wish to run an assessment center successfully
which are probably interesting for the volunteers
as well. - The assessment center is not a place
to torment poor applicants, after all. The
intention behind it is to evaluate the capability
and suitability of the volunteers for the given
job or position. - A poorly run assessment
center benefits neither the enrollees nor the
company. The volunteers might find it useful to
be able to judge the methods of assessing
themselves afterwards.
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How assessors and others should be prepared

• - Ensure that the people who will be assessing,
  role-playing, etc. are ready beforehand. The
  assessment center should not be a learning
  exercise for assessors.
• - Two days of training are better than one.
  Include theory of social information processing,
  interpersonal judgment, social cognition and
  decision-making theory.
• Make assessors responsible for giving feedback to
  candidates and accountable to organization for
  their decisions. This encourages them to be
  careful with their assessments.
• Directions to the center sent well beforehand,
  including by road, rail and air.
• Welcome for candidates, with refreshments and
  waiting area between exercises.
• Capturing feedback from assessors immediately
  after sessions.
• A focus with assessors on criteria.
• Swift and smooth correction of assessors who are
  not using criteria.
• A timetable for everyone.
• Lunch! Coffee breaks!
• Thanks to everyone involved.
• Finishing the exercises in time for the assessors
  to do the final scoring/discussion session.
• After the center, follow up with candidates and
  assessors as appropriate. It is a good practice
  is to give helpful feedback to candidates who are
  unsuccessful so they can understand their
  strengths and weaknesses 1

1 Information taken from http//changingminds.org
/disciplines/hr/selection/assessment_center.htm
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Additional Links
Feel free to browse the following web-links for
more information about assessment
centers.http//www.psychometric-success.com/asse
ssment-centers/assessment-and-development-center.h
tmhttp//www.hr-guide.com/data/G318.htmhttp//
www.wcupa.edu/_ACADEMICS/sch_cas.PSY/Career_Paths/
Industrial/subfield3.htmhttp//changingminds.org
/disciplines/hr/selection/assessment_center.htmh
ttp//www.ipmaac.org/files/ac101.pdf