Assessment centres were created in World War II to select officers and are still commonly used in military recruitment today.
Business in general followed this lead, although not overwhelmingly, in an effort to recruit more suitable people who would stay around longer.
Until now most assessment centres have been face to face and cover a range of activities from cognitive ability tests to competency based interviews to group exercises, all carried out in a hotel or training centre where everyone meets and chats (whether they want to or not), have a hugely stressful experience and a few days later find out the result. Great!
In the past year, of course, things have changed dramatically and those who use assessment centres have started to buy in online platforms to operate them remotely.
So, the question is, does it make enough difference to bother with specialist software and training people to use it, just to recruit the staff you need?
A couple of stats will perhaps help with the answer;
- Standard interviewing on its own adds only 3-7% validity to the hiring decision (Saterfiel & Associates)
- 69% of employees who undergo effective onboarding are likely to stay at least 3 years and 58% are likely to stay more than 3 years (O.C. Tanner)
- 75% of business and HR leaders are struggling to attract and recruit the top people they need (Deloitte)
Just by these stats it’s obvious who and how you recruit is critical.
The category that will really benefit from proper, effective, assessment centres is the surprisingly high number of fast-growing companies who have started up in the last couple of years and benefited from the restrictions of the last 12 months.
Typically, an IT orientated company can have its staff working from home and still maximise opportunities. In the current climate, the IT market is buzzing. Many of these types of companies are growing rapidly and the danger is they are filling their vacancies with people who won’t be around in a year’s time because not enough care was taken at the recruitment stage. No-one wants to admit they get it wrong, of course, what could be simpler than interviewing someone?
An interview or two will not do the job unless you get very, very lucky!
So, is it worth using a specialist company to run a virtual assessment centre? Start by asking prospective suitors these three questions;
- Are your centres organised by qualified assessors? Everyone thinks they can be an assessor but it’s a skill and there are accreditations very few people possess
- Do your centres meet the standards set by the British Psychological Society? - click here to see
- How do you gather evidence (most platforms encourage minimal note taking and generate generalised reports which are a waste of time)?
All the evidence says assessment centres are massively worth the money and effort when recruiting externally or promoting internally, they are simply much better predictors of performance than a subjective interview.
After deciding to go down the assessment centre route, the equally important decision is who to use as, just like everything else, there are plenty of mediocre and poor providers and just a few who do it properly and will help you make the right appointments for the right reasons at the right time - critical for every growing business, especially today.
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By Peter Thorp, a senior coach at alterniq inspired growth.
