Assessment center exercises are used to assess different sorts of job related competencies. These include written and oral communication, problem solving abilities, reasoning, planning and evaluating. Ready to find out more? Then read on…

These tests may include giving a new employee a role-playing situation as close to a real life situation as possible and watch how they react and evaluate their skill set.

Assessment center exercises provides information that would otherwise be hard to get. Most often employers cannot judge these things without seeing and evaluating someone ‘on the job’.

This is just one element of an assessment center exercise. Another option is where a potential employee may be put in an informal social event, to judge their social skills and how they use this time to ask important questions, in a casual situation.

Prepare Well For Your Assessment Center

You should never drink alcohol at these events even if pressured to. Information sessions are the time to shut up and listen unless you have timely well thought out questions (which are really important, so don’t miss the opportunity).

Don’t just speak so someone will notice you, because it will probably have the opposite effects on the assessment center exercise.

As we discussed earlier, assessment center exercises usually include tests and like the name says, exercises. This is all done to gauge the skills and real world work potential of prospective employees. Assessment center exercises will also include group work and an interview.

All designed to measure the skillset most likely to be successful actually in the job, such as, customer focus, flexibility, challenge and results focus.

Be Yourself - Don’t Waste Time Trying To Beat The System

There is really no fooling the test. You should just put your best foot forward and be yourself. Assessment center exercises are designed so you can’t really cheat or act like someone else. They are comprehensive enough that if you are acting like a phony it will show.

This does not mean you can’t do a little preparation though…

You can prepare yourself for assessment center exercises by first reminding yourself that these are results oriented experiences. They will be watching - and scoring you - for how well you can produce results in a group dynamic.

If you have worked with groups in your academic or previous work life, that will help you prepare for any assessment center exercise.

Watch And Evaluate Others - And Learn

Evaluate how you did in those situations, what you would have done different and if there was someone in your group who really got things done in a positive way examine how they did it. Try to fill a role in the group that is not being filled and offer ideas and suggestions.

That shows the assessors that you are flexible and willing to take reasonable risk which is impressive.

Don’t try to get noticed, just get into it and you will get noticed for the right reasons. An assessment center exercise is real world experience and if you don’t do so well on one portion, don’t sweat it, you have other portions to make up for it.

It’s important that you don’t try to be someone you are not. Show them the true you and all you have to offer. Follow the instructions, keep the nerves in check and go for it.

And remember, even if you do not do well this time, it is good practice for the next time, as long as you take the opportunity to learn and progress.

An assessment center is a hiring process that consists of a variety of different evaluations.  It’s not at all like the more traditional one on one interview and has quite a bit of controversy surrounding its evaluation process.

Let us help by looking at various aspects involved in the process and explain them.

Many employers are taking steps away from the traditional one on one interview.  More and more employers are favoring a potential employee evaluation process called the Assessment Center.

The Assessment Center is sort of like a group interview, except instead of one person leading the discussion there isn’t any real leader.  Instead a group of trained observers silently evaluate each potential employee and how they react to situations they encounter while at the Assessment Center.

Common situations involve Group Discussions, Role Playing, and sometimes smaller “group interviews.”

Assessment Center Activities You Might Experience

Group Discussions are often leaderless.  In this situation, a group of potential employees meet and discuss issues related to the job for which they are applying.  As they talk, they are observed and evaluated by behavioral experts.

They are evaluated in terms of inter personal communication and whether or not they display any leadership skills.  Sitting back during a group discussion is usually not evaluated well.

During Role Playing, job applicants act out scenarios they might encounter if hired as an employee of the company.  There is one person who is a trained scene player and they interact with employees in an improvised scene.

The potential employees are evaluated on how they react during these improvised sessions and what kind of skills they project.

Pitfalls Of The Assessment Center Recruitment Method

Assessment Centers are sometimes frowned upon because of the time and money a company has to put forth for their hiring practices.  Instead of standard questions with key phrases each applicant is expected to say in response (if those buzz phrases aren’t said the applicant is usually rejected), these are largely not standardized scenarios.

And because each group evaluated is made up of different members, often the process could be said to imply a bias toward one group’s dynamic over another’s.

An individual who gets run over in a group exercise might shine in a one-on one or smaller group interview.  It is also given to a large amount of play acting.  Someone who plays confident during the interview might not actually be confident as an employee; they might just be good at the games put forth during the assessment center.

Benefits Of This Type Of Recruiting Tool

The hiring process is open to much scrutiny and many different methods are used when companies choose new employees.  An assessment center is certainly a far cry from the traditional interview process, but it could be good when a large number of employees need to be hired.

An assessment center could be helpful when starting a company or opening a new branch of a company, whereas a one on one interview process would be more productive when only one or two employees need to be hired to fill certain, specialized gaps within a company.

Regardless of what hiring practice a company chooses, care must be taken to ensure that all evaluated applicants feel that the process was unbiased and fair.