Why assessment centres are an important part of a recruitment process

In case of special intake programs or senior roles, assessment centres have an important role to play. These centres go on to assume various roles that once again would boil down to the question and role in a company culture. But they are going to bring forth a group of pre-screened and pre-interviewed candidates together. You have to write them down in the final stage of a recruitment process. Now the question is why recruitment and assessment centre is so much valued by recruiters.

Accuracy

The core benefit of accuracy is provided by an assessment centre, as compared to the normal methods that are used during a standard recruitment procedure. When a basic interview exists different yardsticks are put to place to a candidate assessment. The syndrome of interview basis, clone effect, halo effect lead to subjective opinion of various candidates in various ways. But with an assessment centre a greater degree of objectivity is applied to the process of an interview because of the rigorous and broad way of assessing opportunities, exercises etc.

Live performance can be analysed and interpreted

Being part of an assessment centre, it is easy to figure out how a candidate performs in a given situation. An example is stimulated business module and not relies on their self-assessment during the course of an interview. This makes it easy to compare and evaluate candidate who might be equally on paper but in real world situation might be faring very differently.

In these centres the employees are also allowed to stimulate various scenarios in line to the roles and how the applicants are going to fare. For example a group might be forced to work on a posed business issue and determine what roles they are going to take in a team. Here the qualities of problem solving negotiate and communication comes to the fore.

In order to assess literacy and numerical ability there are various tests involved to test technical abilities in a job. For an IT role, you might be focussing on specific technical skills, but a creative exercise might be suggested to formulate a curve ball. This outlines on how a candidate performs in a stress related situation.

Branding of employer

The assessment centre also has the added benefit of promoting an employee brand. The candidates who turn up at these centres and feels that it reflects the role and organization are really impressed by the hiring company and go on to maintain that positive impression. This is in spite of the fact that they are not able to secure the job. The employee is provided with an opportunity to create a positive image in all the candidates who have gone on to attend the interview. In due course of time they are able to develop a set of future hires.

Cost benefits

The costs associated with an assessment centre are relatively high in the form of accommodation hire, staff and equipment assessor time. This approach is more cost effective than an outright process of recruitment and an important aspect is to take into consideration the cost of poor hires.

Reciprocal experience

The protocol of assessment centre is a transparent one and provides vital insights to a candidate about the values and culture of a company. This poses to be of importance as it is really difficult in providing perception of a brand in an interview alone. When the assessment centre is widened, candidates can establish contact with key managers and informal interaction with other people. This would provide them with an insight on how it would be to work with the company. This works wonders for the attrition rate of the company.

Fairness

An assessment centre is of importance because it is fair. The diverse agenda and equality of an employee helps to ensure that the right candidates are selected based on merit. Evidence in combination with valuation is outlined and normalized by a set of curves and finally recorded. Rather than a single interview this procedure is robust where notes can be subjective if you go on to record them fully. The position of the employer company is strengthened the entire more so if the assessment centre is linked up with a specialist recruitment set up.

Suitability across all levels

The assessment centres are rated to be diverse from an application perspective and helps to deal with diverse situations. This can vary from hiring of a senior executive to a specialist or even a technical hire, where positions are in bulk or even a large project. The contract or seasonal contract requirements may call for a sudden influx of quality staff. You can design the assessment centre in a manner so as to suit the role in question with a selected group of candidates.

Last but one of the important pointers in the choice of an assessment centre is that you need to get it right. Considering the importance of assessment centre it is of vital importance that you run them well and that too without errors. The common issues that might spring up are lack of clarity to define objectives, failure to outline key competencies or measurable skills before followed by a clear defined measurement process. Without the aid of this an assessment test goes on to become a subjective process like a traditional recruitment procedure.

This you can avoid by availing the services of a specialized recruitment agency that does possess relevant experience in the domain of assessment centre. The best part of such agencies is that they can render valuable advice, come up with blend of exercises, form an agenda or even evaluation of the day and figure out that it performs as per quality standards. The costs along with outcome objectives where you go on to figure out the right set of candidates for a given job while the other candidates speak favourable about the reputation of the company are important. They could engage for potential job hires in the future.

Originally published at Trending Us.