Why are businesses designing recruitment centres?
Traditional interviews are still one of the most popular ways in which businesses recruit new employees. However, it is by no means the only way to recruit new talent to your company.
Increasingly, more businesses are turning to alternative methods of finding employees. For example, some companies run assessment centres. According to Chartered Institute of Personal and Development (CIPD), one third of businesses use assessment centres as a selecting method to choose and recruit new employees.
In this guide, you’ll learn more about how to design an assessment centre for your business, and why they can be beneficial.
What are assessment centres?
An assessment centre is a place where businesses can develop a more in-depth understanding of a group of candidates. Assessment centres are designed to test candidate skills, through the means of tasks and activities. These assessments are key to seeing how individual candidates perform, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
The tasks and activities carried out by the candidates can last anywhere from half a day to several full days. The length of the assessment is dependent on the role and the skills the employer is looking to observe.
The tasks and activities that the candidates perform depend on the role. Tasks and activities might include presentations, role play, interviews, or written analysis.
Essentially, assessment centres are a way of identifying the best candidate for recruitment purposes.
What are the benefits of an assessment centre?
Surveys have found that around 60% of businesses use assessment centres in the UK. Which goes to show that it is a trusted and beneficial recruitment process.
Although the process of designing an assessment centre might take more time than generic interviews, it has several benefits for both your business and the applicants.
Hire the very best candidate
Assessment centres are a great way to ensure that you hire the very best candidate for the role. Interviewers have a more objective view of the applicants, and their qualifications and skills.
Assessment centre tasks and activities are designed to predict the job performance of candidates. This helps to ensure only the best candidate is selected. Predicting job performance is particularly useful if the interviewers need to select one candidate. The assessors can narrow down the decision of who the best candidate is by choosing one who is expected to perform well in the company.
Not only does hiring the best candidate through an assessment centre benefit your business, it also benefits the candidates. You receive the most talented candidate and they have an opportunity to showcase more of their skills and competencies.
Fairer process
Standard recruitment processes don’t allow the selection process to be as objective or as fair as an assessment centre. Assessment centres allow businesses to collect more information on candidates to ensure that the selection method is fair.
Assessment centres also rely on a panel of interviewers, as opposed to just one or two interviewers (as is standard for generic interviews). Having more interviewers can ensure that no biased opinions of candidates shape the selection process.
Save money
According to Personnel Today, more than half (53%) of HR practitioners believe that the costs of assessment centres are justified.
Not only is an assessment centre a cost-effective recruitment process, in the long run, but it also increases the probability that your employees will be more loyal and stay at your business for longer.
Hiring the wrong people for the job can cost your business and do more harm than good. Whereas hiring the right people can save you money and increase employee productivity.
An assessment centre provides you with dedicated candidates who are committed to working at your business. This, in turn, means that they are less likely to leave you a few months down the line. Which of course ultimately means that you won’t need to go through the recruitment process for that role again.
Improve your reputation
Another benefit of running an assessment centre is that it improves your company’s reputation. Assessment centres help to build an employer brand and promote a business that people want to work for and with.
Candidates will think highly of your business if you put in a lot of effort during the recruitment process because it shows that you really care about your business and its goals.
Provide candidates with more information
Assessment centres help to provide candidates with a better insight into the role and the company. The candidates can get a taste for the role because of the tasks and activities they perform.
Candidates can also learn more about the business, which will help them to make an informed decision as to whether this position is right for them.
A step-by-step guide: How to design an assessment centre
There are a lot of things to consider when you are designing an assessment centre. You need to be mindful that the assessment centre:
- reflects your brand’s visions and goals
- reflects your brand’s recruitment culture and company culture
- portrays the role and the skills needed to fulfil the role
- provides a fair selection process that allows candidates to showcase a range of their skills.
In order to design an assessment centre, you need to follow these step
Step 1: Identify competencies
The first thing you need to do is identify competencies, which are the abilities, skills, knowledge, and behaviours that are vital for the candidate to successfully take on the role.
Identifying competencies is done by analysing the role you are looking to fill. Some useful questions to ask yourself include:
- What does the role entail?
- What are the requirements, skills, and qualifications that the candidate needs to have?
- What are the essential and the desirable skills for the role?
Using a comparative list of the essential and desirable requirements for the role, you can then narrow down the competencies that you want to evaluate at the assessment centre. You need to narrow these down because otherwise, the process would take too long. So, concentrate on the competencies that really matter.
The amount and level of competencies that you choose to evaluate at the assessment centre will wholly depend on the role’s duties and responsibilities.
Step 2: Design relevant tasks and activities
Once you have established the competencies, you can identify and design relevant tasks and activities that will allow you to measure each candidate’s skills and knowledge.
A great way to assess and predict a candidate’s success in your business, and overall future job performance, is by designing tasks that determine their current job skills, in relation to the role.
There are a whole range of tasks and activities that you can choose from to test your candidate’s competencies. These tasks could include:
- Presentations
- Interviews
- Role play
- Group discussions
- Written tests
- Psychometric tests
- In-tray exercises
- Reference checks
Compare the competencies you are looking for and decide which tasks and activities are best. Not all the tasks are relevant for your assessment, it all depends on the role you are recruiting for.
For example, presentations can help you identify a candidate’s existing knowledge, skills, and capabilities. Whilst psychometric tests help to measure the individual’s mental capabilities and reveal the individual’s behavioural style.
Mix up the activities and tasks you choose. Remember that choosing a range of activities will allow you to identify the most talented candidates.
Step 3: Select interviewers/assessors and provide training
Thirdly, you need to find interviewers/assessors who can measure and monitor the performance of the applicants. And if necessary, provide them with training regarding the assessment centre and its procedures and policies.
A useful exercise is to choose a selection of HR representatives and managers from different departments of the business. Alternatively, you can find external assessors who can help choose the right candidate.
One advantage of choosing employees is that they are familiar with your business and know what the candidate needs to succeed in the business and the role. And one advantage of external assessors is that they will provide a fairer assessment and are less likely to be prejudice or biased.
Both internal and external assessors can have advantages and disadvantages. Which is why some businesses choose to have a mix of internal and external interviewers at their assessment centres.
Providing training for the assessors is critical because then they can make informed decisions on how to evaluate candidates and choose an individual who is the best fit for the role and business.
Step 4: Create a timetable and work out the logistics
In order to design a successful assessment centre, you need to plan the format, work out the timetable and sort out the logistics.
Scheduling a timetable and working out the logistics of your assessment centre is very important. You need to decide:
- where the assessment centre will be held (will it be at your offices, or elsewhere like at a hotel?)
- how long it will take (will it take half a day, a full day, or several days?)
- how many applicants you want to invite
- the date or dates
- upon a timing schedule for the assessment (think about the time the tasks will take, and any breaks, such as lunch)
Once you have the relevant information, make sure you give the details to the applicants who will be attending the assessment centre. It is vital that you follow the schedule because it will ensure you look professional to the candidates and don’t waste time, resources or money.
Step 5: Provide feedback
Finally, you need to devise ways in which you will provide feedback to the applicants. It is good practice to provide feedback to all applicants, including unsuccessful candidates, where possible.
Providing high quality feedback to applicants ensures that your company’s reputation is upheld and offers valuable insight for the unsuccessful candidates in their future employment endeavours.
Aim to create feedback that correlates to the role, and the strengths and weaknesses that the candidate showed during the assessment. Focus on how to produce constructive feedback, as opposed to negative criticisms of their performance.
3 things to avoid at your assessment centre
When you are designing your assessment centre, it can be very easy to overlook some essential details. If you want to run a successful assessment centre, then you need to avoid these common mistakes that businesses make:
1. Failing to clearly define competencies
The first step in designing an assessment centre is very critical to the overall success. Make sure you clearly define the competencies that are essential for the role.
2. Failing to measure the competencies
If your tasks and activities don’t measure the competencies, then you won’t be able to effectively compare a candidate’s skills. Make sure you create tasks which relate to the role and have clear objectives and goals.
3. Unfit candidature
Candidates may feel disappointed if they attend the assessment centre but find that the role or the organisation doesn’t fit their values or expectations. Make sure that you have selected the right candidates for the assessment centre.
Designing a successful assessment centre
If you are looking at more effective recruitment methods, assessment centres are worth considering.
The advantages of running an assessment centre outweigh the disadvantages. Assessment centres ensure that you hire the best candidate and provide a fairer recruitment procedure. They save you money and can help to build or improve your company’s reputation. They also provide candidates with more information about the role and the company.
To implement a successful assessment centre, follow our step-by-step guide. And make sure you avoid the common mistakes that unsuccessful centres make.
Want some help designing your assessment centre?
If you are considering the best way to start and manage your own recruitment process, then we can help.
Contact our team of highly experienced HR consultants on 0330 223 5253 or email us at office@fitzgeraldhr.co.uk to find out how we can help you.
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