Assessment centre trends in 2010
15/07/2010, Author: Donna Conway
Writing up the report from our latest survey looking at assessment centre usage for recruitment in 2010, I was pleasantly surprised that 75% of the HR professionals that responded regularly use this selection method. Granted the majority of these are recruiting to maintain headcount rather than responding to increase business volume, however with all the doom and gloom we have been hearing around company cost cutting one could be forgiven for thinking that assessment centres could be dismissed by some companies altogether.
We embarked on this survey to examine whether the responses matched the trends we ourselves have been observing in the market place. Just over half way through the year and our sales of off the shelf assessment centre materials have already beaten last years total. And as the survey reflects, it is very often for graduate assessment that the exercises have been purchased. Referring to Alan’s blog last week about the increased ratio of graduates per vacancy, employers can help themselves reduce time and costs by using a multitude of sifting tools before reaching the assessment centre stage. The figures show 68% of our survey respondents are using ability tests, and 60% using personality questionnaires. Situational judgement tests are not so popular however, with only 23% making use of these.
As we so often stress to our clients, the impact of the employer brand is paramount to attracting the right candidates at all job levels. Interestingly however only 23% of those using assessment centre exercises reported this usage as being of benefit to their brand. When designing exercises we ensure a highly level of face validity and engagement in order to enhance the candidate experience. Engaging and meaningful exercises are far more likely to result in candidates’ coming away from their assessment with a positive attitude towards the day and the organisation as a whole.
One final observation to mention is that ‘strategic’ focus was regarded as the most difficult competency to measure. With over 40% of organisations using assessment centres for senior management roles, it seems therefore that they may be struggling to find exercises that measure higher level capabilities. Whilst we have always incorporated this competency into our portfolios, maybe we and other providers need to take note of this and listen more closely to clients concerns, as this seems to be a growing requirement across a spectrum of roles.
A summary of the key findings of the survey can be found in our ‘Free Stuff’ page which you can register to access.
Do the trends we describe reflect what you have been noticing in the market place?
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Comments
The difficulty with assessing 'strategic focus' is that it is often poorly articulated in the first place. Until we understand what it means in terms of concrete activities or behaviours in a specific job it's hard to assess.
Maybe the increased use of assessment centre exercises is a reflection of the ever growing usage of simulations in all types of media in modern life. For example as we see TV shows demonstrating the insight to be gained from observing 'real' behaviour in an entertainment context perhaps the wider population are being drawn to this concept as a means of fully understanding people's potential when recruiting.
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