Promoting and developing the right people
What is an Assessment Centre?
Assessment Centres are an important tool as part of the decision making process when companies need to decide who to promote into the next level of leadership or to select for an important assignment/position. They can also help when deciding in whom to invest in terms of development effort and budget.
Trying to predict future job performance based on current performance is a risky business: many promotion and selection decisions are taken on the basis of subjective or intuitive opinion. The Assessment Centre methodology enables Canning consultants to assess accurately and efficiently the potential of the candidate for a particular level of performance: and give you important information about how the candidate needs to develop once in the role.
An Assessment Centre defines the critical competencies needed for a position. We work closely with you to undertake this job analysis and define the critical success factors.
Then, it’s on to the Assessment Centre itself to evaluate objectively the candidates for the job.
What’s in it?
To assess each candidate, a combination of diagnostic methods is used. Typically, an assessment centre will include:
- Saville Wave Professional Styles Personality Questionnaire
- Saville Consulting aptitude tests: Verbal; Numerical; Diagrammatic
- A Competency-Based Interview
- A Strategic Case Study Simulation
- A management interaction simulation
- A group interaction simulation
- Feedback Report
Through these various methods, the Assessment Centre simulates the actual job environment so that our consultants can observe the behaviour, skill and competence of the candidate. This combination means that the method is highly predictive of future job performance. The exact form and content of the simulation exercises varies with the job in question: we choose carefully in collaboration with the client from a large range of different exercises.
During all of the exercises and interviews, we observe and record the candidate’s behaviour. The Assessment Report and recommendation is based on this observation.
Variations
Executive Focus Assessment: 0.5 days
The Executive Focus Assessment is a half-day session using one consultant to assess an individual candidate. Designed for when speed, budget and flexibility are of the essence.
Premium Assessment: 1 day
Longer assessments – usually of about one day – use multiple assessors to increase objectivity; they can also be designed to look at multiple candidates in group simulations. Senior managers from the organisation can also be involved in the assessment, following the appropriate coaching from our consultants.
Assessing for Development Investment: 1 day
Designed to help organisations draw up cohorts for leadership development at each level of the organisation. The aim is to assess individuals who will be ready to move to the next level in 1 – 3 years.
Assessing High Potentials: 2 days
Designed to help organisations identify individuals with high potential and learning agility – who might be expected to move quickly through the organisation and be given high-profile, demanding assignments.
Assessing for Global Readiness 1 or 2 days
Specifically designed for Japanese companies looking to send staff abroad for key international assignments.