Assessment Center: what is it? Technology of carrying out Assessment center - as a method of personnel assessment What tools are used in the assessment center.

Assessment Center - its own examination committee. Not a single incompetent employee will seep into the walls of the company.

To the accompaniment of talk of a new crisis, this prospect seems all the more tempting. How to organize your own assessment center? How costly is it? Experts shared step-by-step instructions and examples of tasks.

“The assessment center is a method of personnel assessment based on modeling the key moments of the activity of the person being assessed to identify professionally significant qualities that he has”, - gives the definition of the assessment center of the St. Petersburg Center for Psychological Support Ilgiz Valinurov, President of Business Connection Corporation.

For the first time in the foreseeable past, this method of assessment was used by the British army: in the 40s of the 20th century, young officers were offered to demonstrate their management skills in a situation simulating military operations. A few years later, the US Central Intelligence Agency borrowed a new method.

Therefore, perhaps it is to the scouts that we owe the fact that now the assessment center is used to assess personnel in thousands of companies. Who knows: were American Telephone and Telegraph employees retired CIA agents? One way or another, it was AT&T who introduced the "army" method into business practice. For these purposes, the company even built a separate building called "The Assessment Centre". Since then, this phrase has entered the lexicon of personnel specialists.

A Valuable Appraisal Method

“At present, more and more companies are turning to the issue of personnel assessment, as the issue of employee performance is very acute,” says Irina Kandaurova, managing partner of the HR-studio "Time of People". It is the assessment center that allows you to comprehensively evaluate a candidate or employee, that is, to weigh all his skills and abilities necessary to work in this position.

According to experts, the assessment center has a number of advantages over other methods. “For decades, this method has proven to be the most effective,” says Irina Kandaurova.

Moreover, according to Ilgiz Valinurov, the assessment center is a universal method that helps in all aspects of personnel management. The expert gives the following list: “The assessment center can be used to:

1. recruitment;
2. learning and development;
3. promotion of employees;
4. career management and mentoring;
5. motivating employees, getting feedback from them.

Proving the value of an assessment center, President of Business Connection Corporation refers to scientific studies: “How valid are the results of the assessment? Researchers from the British Psychological Society provide data on the validity of personnel assessment methods. They argue that the personnel assessment center (relevance of results 65-70%) allows you to evaluate the candidate with greater accuracy than the behavioral interview (48-61%), job simulation (54%) and even more so the traditional interview (5-19%) ".

The effectiveness of the assessment center in the practice of talent management and motivation is confirmed by Irina Kandaurova. According to her, the use of this technology makes it possible to form an individual development plan for each employee, taking into account his strengths and weaknesses.

“The developmental assessment center contributes to the formation of employee motivation for self-development and learning, which significantly increases the effectiveness of further training and development activities for company employees,” the expert continues.

Dear Commission

Who should be on the examination committee? According to Ilgiz Valinurova As a rule, assessments are carried out by external experts: HR consultants. Their qualifications and experience increase the speed of preparing, conducting and processing the results of the assessment. Also, managers of the customer company are necessarily involved in the assessment.

Thus, the corporate "examination committee" includes: HR consultants, a representative of the company's management team and the direct supervisor of the examinees or a leading specialist in this field.

Irina Kandaurova offers the following algorithm of actions for those who plan to create an assessment center based on their company:

1. Preparation of materials for the workshop on the development of competencies. Formation of a portfolio of competencies to determine the ideal profile of an employee.
2. Development of a profile of key competencies of an employee (at a certain position) in a group with the customer's experts and consultants (working session). In time, this stage can last from 2 weeks to 3 months.
3. Formation of an ideal profile, a description of the behavioral manifestations of a successful employee.
4. Development of evaluation procedures (it is desirable to develop evaluation procedures based on the actual activities of employees). Options.
5. Selection and training of observers (observers must have experience in similar work. 3-4 observers are required for a group of 7 people).
6. Development of evaluation sheets.
7. Development of a schedule and coordination of the time of the assessment center. In a group of up to 10 participants, 2 observers are assigned to each.
8. Conducting an assessment center (assessment takes from 1 to 2 days, depending on the category of employees).
9. Processing and analysis of the evaluation results (processing of the results is the most time-consuming stage of work. It can take from 2 weeks to 1 month).
10. Preparation of the final report and individual expert assessments of the participants of the assessment center and presentation of the report to the head.
11. Individual feedback for participants based on the results of the assessment center. This stage is necessary to develop an employee development plan, as well as to form motivation for development and training.
12. Development of a training program for employees.
13. Development of individual development plans for employees.

What assessment methods should be chosen? “Each company forms its own set of components for conducting assessment centers, depending on its needs, as well as time and financial resources,” says Ilgiz Valinurov. The expert offers the following options:

1. An interview with an expert, during which data is collected about the knowledge and experience of the employee.
2. Tests (psychological, professional, general).
3. Brief presentation of the participant to experts and other participants (sometimes audio and video recording is used).
4. Business game: under the guidance of an observer, a group of employees or candidates plays out a business situation according to a pre-prepared scenario.
5. Biographical survey.
6. Description of professional achievements.
7. Individual analysis of specific situations (case-study). The participant is invited to choose a specific strategy and tactics of action in the proposed situation.
8. Expert observation: based on its results, recommendations are made for each employee.

Initially, it was the business game that was the essence of the assessment. As we can see, now HR managers have much more opportunities at their disposal. There are other assessment methods - many of them are covered in the materials on our portal.

Visual material

The experts told what a typical check looks like in an assessment center. Irina Kandaurova shared with us the cases that are used in this procedure.

1. Task for the leader

You are the leader. A specialist Alexander works for you. He is an ambitious young man. He has been with the company for 3 years, started from scratch, but quickly grew up and is now a qualified specialist who knows the company's product well and shows consistently high results in his work. Today Alexander brought you a letter of resignation. You absolutely do not want to lose a qualified specialist. You decide to talk to Alexander. You have 5 minutes to think about what you will tell Alexander to prevent him from being fired from the company.

2. Task for the employee

You got a job at XXX 3 years ago when you were a marketing student at a prestigious university in Moscow. You graduated 2 years ago and hoped that your higher education would serve as a green signal for your career growth. You have been working as a specialist for 3 years already and show good results. But you would like career growth. You have decided to start looking for a job. You have job offers as a senior specialist with the prospect of moving to a managerial position after a probationary period. But the salary in the new place will be slightly lower than the one you have now. In addition, the corporate culture of the new company is more rigid than in XXX, and you doubt whether you will fit into it, but nevertheless decided to write a letter of resignation. Your manager wants to talk to you about your future.

Ilgiz Valinurov told what is included in the timing of the assessment procedure:

“A properly prepared assessment can be done in 3 hours:

Gathering of participants, tea/coffee - 15 minutes;
- welcome speech of the organizers or host about the procedure - 5 minutes;
- filling in professional or personal questionnaires - 30-60 minutes;
- presentations of participants - 30-60 minutes depending on the number of participants;
- conducting a business game: 3 minutes to explain the task, 15 minutes - individual work, 20 minutes - group work, 10 minutes for the presentation of the results, that is, approximately 50-60 minutes;
- summing up the results of the assessment and informing about further actions - 10 minutes.

That is, only 2.5-4 hours, depending on the number of participants and assessment procedures.”

long and expensive

It is obvious that the organization of an assessment center is a waste of time and resources.

Therefore, it is unlikely that it will be possible to evaluate each candidate in this way. “It is advisable to apply this method to assess the most significant category of employees for the company. More often it is used to evaluate sales managers, purchasing managers, service personnel, management staff, ”says Irina Kandaurova. Sometimes, in order to save time, a mass assessment is used for candidates applying for the most demanded positions in the company.

Another difficulty in organizing your own assessment center is the high requirements for those who conduct it. “The assessment center is one of the most labor-intensive methods of assessment, requiring a high level of competence of the experts who conduct it,” says Irina Kandaurova

1 -1

Companies do not run smoothly. At one “perfect” moment, the result suddenly turns out to be lower than expected. And not always people can understand why the efficiency of their work has decreased. What happened?

The reasons for failures in the work of companies sometimes cannot be explained even by competent managers. Often in such cases management decisions are applied, which then give rise to a tangle of new problems that need to be unraveled.

Seven times measure cut once. Before making a decision, you need to collect the necessary information. Information about the state of material resources is relatively easy to obtain. But exhaustive information about human resources is more difficult.

In fact, the human resource can be measured. Managers know such ways of assessing the potential of their subordinates as psychological tests, various types of interviews, and an assessment center.

We present data on the accuracy of various methods of personnel research, taken from foreign sources.

The most accurate methods of personnel assessment are structured interviews and assessment centers. The last one is the most difficult.

The assessment center method originated in the West during the Second World War. In the UK it was used to recruit junior officers, and in the US it was used to recruit scouts. Subsequently, it was adopted by business organizations, and at present in the West, almost every large company uses this method to evaluate personnel.

The assessment center came to Russia in the early 1990s. Now this way of studying human resources has received a new impetus. And if the heads of enterprises more often resorted to the assessment center, then, perhaps, at the crisis stages of the development of firms, the heads of middle managers and other workers would be less likely to “fly”.

Indeed, as a result of the correct assessment of the personnel, each team member will find a worthy application, and the leader will strengthen his authority thanks to the ability to take care of human resources. Such a synergistic effect contributes to the increasing popularity of this method of personnel assessment.

Competence is in vogue. Competence is a set of behavioral characteristics, necessary for an employee to successfully complete a particular job. In other words, from the point of view of personnel assessment, this is not a profession, not an area of human awareness of anything, but desired set of qualities .

It is customary to single out two factors that determine successful work. The first is knowledge, skills and abilities that can be acquired in the learning process and confirmed with diplomas and certificates. The second relates to personality. In English, it is called performance. These are qualities that allow us to use knowledge, make decisions, cope with complex tasks, mobilize, communicate with people, etc. Before the assessment of the company's personnel using the "assessment center" method, competencies are determined. The identification of competencies required for a position is based on an analysis of the activities in this position.

Competences are as varied as life itself, the world around. Examples of competencies: leadership, ability to work in a team, courage and perseverance, customer orientation, decision making, ability to consider the human factor, communication skills.

Here we want to warn the reader against hasty conclusions. After all, you might think that every company needs some standard set of competencies. Naturally, everyone needs leaders and people who can work in a team, etc. But not every good quality is suitable for all occasions.

For example, one company sets itself the task of capturing a new market. Another company is striving to retain the already won positions. Obviously, when selecting sales specialists for the first company, you will need people who are assertive and aggressive in the good sense of the word, that is, sellers of the “hunter” type. The second company will need sellers of the “farmer” type - people who are able to carefully “cultivate the existing plot of land”, “hill up the cultivated fruits”. When evaluating candidates for the positions of sales representatives using the assessment center method, the competencies for the first and second business structures will differ.

The concept of competence used in the assessment center method can sometimes contradict the commonly used meaning of this word. For example, for the competence "ability to work in a team", one of the main qualities will be adaptability, the ability of a person to "fit" into a certain team. At the same time, people who are competent in their professional field may be considered unsuitable if they could not work well with other team members.

The choice of competence is of great importance for the entire process of personnel assessment. An error made at this stage of work is automatically transferred to all its other stages. The standard procedure for an assessment center usually includes a study of company employees or job candidates in five to ten competencies.

Down and Out trouble started. An assessment center should be held after careful preparation. We have already spoken about one component of the preparatory process - the identification of competencies. At the same time, the evaluation parameters are determined. Within each competence, several behavioral manifestations are distinguished.

The next steps in preparing for the study are the definition of assessment criteria, the development of a program for a specific assessment center and the preparation of tasks for the assessed personnel, the training of assessors.

What can we measure. As people work on a task, they are monitored. At this stage of the assessment center, information about the assessed personnel is collected. The action or behavioral manifestation of a person is exactly what should be measured. With regard to competence, each action can be assessed as positive and negative. Evaluators record the actions of the observed and qualify them, that is, they attribute them to manifestations of one or another competence.

As a result, these positive and negative manifestations are compared, and the person receives a final assessment for the entire competence.

In the assessment center, five-point and nine-point scales are most common.

For example, in a five-point scale, the highest score - "five" - is considered 80% of positive manifestations and the absence of negative ones; the lowest score ("one") is called, on the contrary, 80% of negative manifestations of behavior and the absence of positive ones. The acceptable level of competence development reflects the average score ("three") - this is 60% of positive patterns of behavior and the presence of some negative patterns.

Thus, people's behavior is reflected in numbers, which give the results a form that is convenient for analysis.

The procedure of "live" work with people lasts a total of at least four hours, otherwise it will not be effective enough.

The results of observations in the "assessment center" method are carefully processed. This stage is the longest in the whole process. The report on the work done, in addition to quantitative assessments, may include a detailed conclusion about the people subjected to the assessment, which reflects the qualitative characteristics of the personnel.

Do not confuse assessment with diagnosis. First, evaluators never try to "diagnose". Secondly, no conclusions are drawn during the observation. This happens later, at the end of work with the assessed people. Thirdly, assessors do their best to get away from subjective perception, changing each other during the assessment center. The worker under study is first observed by one, then by another, then by a third, and so on. The conclusion about the competence of the employee is made on the basis of an assessment of his behavior by all the researchers who took part in the work.

Fourthly, the same algorithm of actions has been developed for all evaluators, which each of them strictly follows.

As for the “diagnosis” or psychological type, its definition is not included in the task of the assessment center. Also, evaluators are not asked to identify the reasons for this or that behavior of people. These are completely different tasks.

How to organize work. There are two approaches to working with a customer. First, the customer provides his own set of competencies, according to which the staff should be evaluated. In the second approach, the researchers themselves identify and describe the necessary competencies, based on the analysis of the position. After the tasks are specified, the assessment methodology is prepared, "live" work with the customer's personnel begins. It can be carried out not only by appraisers of a specialized company, but also by the customer's own resources or jointly. We believe that it is possible to evaluate your own personnel using the “assessment center” method if there are trained appraisers in the personnel department of the enterprise, a clear methodology for observing people in the process of performing tasks and an evaluation system has been developed. In our opinion, any person, if he is sufficiently insightful, observant, has high intellectual and communication skills, can become a good staff appraiser. Our experience shows that the joint work of HR managers and appraisers, attracted from specialized firms, is extremely effective.

What is the assessment for? Our agency conducted several campaigns to assess the personnel of various firms using the "assessment center" method. This led to a number of interesting conclusions. What are the objectives of the evaluation campaign?

First, an individual approach to people is developed. The potential of employees, which has not yet been fully realized, can be identified and assessed. It becomes clear to the management in which direction this or that subordinate should develop. It turns out that one needs to be taught time management, the other - the art of communication, the third - the ability to make decisions. Secondly, the system of personnel selection criteria is determined. After the evaluation activities, new employees are selected more carefully, the probability of error when choosing a suitable candidate is sharply reduced. Thirdly, of course, various shortcomings in the work of management with personnel are revealed and ways to eliminate them are determined.

On tight turns. Experience shows that the study of the professional qualities of company employees using the “assessment center” method is effective when hiring new people for work, during the audit and certification of personnel, when developing employee training and development programs, before making serious management decisions. Of course, personnel assessment can also provide significant assistance in overcoming crisis situations.

An assessment center (assessment center) is an organized technology for assessing the knowledge, skills, and business qualities of employees. This is a universal, most accurate group assessment diagnostic for selecting a candidate for a vacant position. The assessment center helps HR departments to analyze the competencies of employees, to adequately assess whether they correspond to their position. The assessment is carried out by our own personnel department or external consultants, consulting companies.

Tasks and goals of the assessment center

Evaluating the performance of an employee is a necessity for successful business.

Conducting helps to assess the potential success of an employee in professional activities in real time. This can be both compliance with the position held, and the ability to solve tasks. Experts do not evaluate past achievements and current work. They pay attention to the possibility of effective work in other conditions than the current ones.

Evaluative diagnostics helps to realize a number of tasks.

Reliable assessment of the level of personnel competence.
Identification of the potential of specialists and employees for further development and career advancement.
Efficient selection of personnel, accurate placement of personnel within the company in order to form a personnel reserve.
Career guidance, drawing up a plan for the individual development of staff.
Formation of the management team, corporate training.
Optimization of personnel management (selection of participants for vacant and managerial positions).

Each company identifies its own tasks, and the results of the assessment center are needed to solve them. Managers use them for further staff development.

Additional advantages of the assessment center are the high reliability of the method and the reliability of the assessment result, since it is carried out by specially trained experts according to a clear algorithm, in accordance with the specified criteria.

Conditions for the effectiveness of assessment center methods

There are clear requirements for the methodology for conducting an assessment center. These are standardized methods, correct training of observers, organization of feedback. A professional approach to the assessment procedure will help to avoid mistakes, as it pursues a specific goal, taking into account the characteristics of the company and its corporate values.

A necessary condition for efficiency is the interest of employees in personal and professional development, the desire to expand competence, understanding the significance of the results of the assessment center.

In turn, managers should not turn the test into an exam. Salary should not depend on the result of the appraisal. It is used solely as a basis for the career growth of specialists.

The assessment center is held separately for managers and subordinates, employees with similar responsibilities can be combined. The results are not defined as low or high, are not submitted for public discussion. Mistakes, inaccuracies, and the transition to personalities are unacceptable, as this provokes conflicts and stress, and demotivates employees. The real effect is observed with strict observance of the conditions and organizational rules for conducting an assessment center.

Conducting an assessment

The assessment center procedure is carried out by trained specialists or one specialist who can combine all tasks.

Expert Observer

The specialist, who had received training and a number of trainings, participated in the assessment center under the guidance of an instructor. The observer-expert has information about the assessment methodology, the content of the exercises, is familiar with the characteristics of the company, the objectives of the test. He must have the skills to describe behavior, the ability to summarize assessments and organize feedback.

Leading

Responsible for the maintenance of diagnostic technology. The facilitator must have some training and experience as an observer. He manages the activity of the participants, instructs and organizes them, supervises the work of the experts.

Administrator

A position that does not require special training. The administrator is responsible for the technical base, prepares the premises, issues the materials and paraphernalia necessary to complete the tasks.

Role player

It can be an expert observer, any person who has information about the assessment technique. The player acts as a partner for the participants.

Program designer

Develops the concept of the program, selects exercises depending on the goals, schedules the assessment.

Exercise developer

Is subordinate to the designer and develops specific exercises. The developer has a degree in social psychology or management.

The assessment center is conducted by its own staff or external consultants. The use of external companies with experience gives an undeniable advantage: it guarantees the independence of the result, the absence of subjectivity, errors, as well as high speed and impeccable quality of the assessment.

Key competency assessment methods and their main principles

Methods of conducting an assessment center are different. They depend on the parameters being evaluated and what is being investigated. The choice is most often determined by the financial resources of the company.

Main personnel assessment methods are the following.

Certification. The procedure for its implementation is set out in official documents approved by the company's management. The evaluation criterion is the professional standard of the specialty and position. In the course of certification, the qualifications of the employee, the level of his theoretical knowledge and practical skills, business and personal qualities are assessed. Certification, as an effective method of the assessment center, is carried out periodically, from one to three times a year.
Interview. Personnel assessment method based on questions and answers. It can be carried out in a free form or in accordance with a pre-designed scheme. The most effective interview is a situational-behavioral one, when an employee is asked to recall a work situation, evaluate his participation in it and reproduce a behavior model. Questions should be specific, without ambiguous interpretation.
Business games. Personnel assessment is carried out using situations that simulate business activity. This assessment center method helps to simulate the actions of personnel in a given situation, assess their stress resistance, behavior, ability to respond quickly and make decisions, and interact with colleagues.
Modeling situations. This is an assessment center method in which situations that arise in real work are reproduced. Participants make an individual or collective decision, look for a way out of the situation, show originality in order to achieve the goal as quickly as possible. Experts observe the discussion, draw conclusions about the competence of employees, their organizational abilities.

Stages of the assessment center

Proper organization is the key to a successful evaluation centre. Lack of attention to at least one stage can affect the effectiveness of the methodology and the attitude of participants to the process. In addition, the principle of equality of conditions for all must be respected.

1. Preparatory

It defines the purpose of the assessment and the professional competence that should be emphasized. An organizational schedule is drawn up, tasks are formed. Observers are selected from the customer's side. They receive special training. At the preparatory stage, all issues related to the choice of premises, working conditions, and preparation of materials are resolved. Participants are informed about the goals, methods of the assessment center and possible decisions based on the results of the tests. In conclusion, the participants give written consent to the processing of personal data.

2. Analysis of activities and formulation of evaluation criteria

This is the stage of researching the characteristics of the assessed employees, the specifics of the organization, and the patterns of interaction in the company. A list of evaluation criteria is formed.

3. Designing evaluation procedures

An organizational plan for the implementation of the program is created, relevant procedures and evaluation methods are determined.

4. Training of experts (observers)

To work as experts, interviewers, observers, employees are selected who undergo special training within the framework of a specific program of the assessment center.

5. Program implementation, evaluation

The stage includes the implementation of a program of evaluation procedures for the collection of personal personnel information. This is the conduct of business games, exercises (both team and individual), testing, interviews - in accordance with the scheduled schedule. The presenter and observers-experts participate. They evaluate the actions of the participants according to a certain scheme: observation, description, classification and evaluation of behavior. During the stage, an understanding of the specifics of the activities of the participants and the structure of the organization is achieved.

6. Analysis of the results and preparation of materials for transfer to the customer

At this stage, all information and results obtained according to a special scheme (qualitative and quantitative analysis) are collected together. Each observer justifies his assessment. The result of the employee is discussed, the results are summed up. A report on the work done is compiled, in which the points are noted, the individual characteristics of the participants are prescribed, their strengths and weaknesses are analyzed. The result is presented to the head of the company. Based on the results of the test, a conclusion is made about compliance with business requirements and the position held.

7. The final stage - feedback

At this stage, personnel decisions are made, a training and development program is built, personnel reserves are prepared and other organizational changes are introduced, adopted and approved at the first stage of the assessment.

The number of stages and their fundamental content can be changed (reduced, supplemented) depending on the set managerial and psychological tasks.

The result of the evaluation center

The results of the assessment center are not the only basis for making a personnel decision on individual employees. They only suggest how to improve the work of the staff and the company as a whole. A personal conversation is also held with the employee, in which his strengths and weaknesses, possible resources for improving professional competence are noted.

The advantage of the assessment center is that it allows not only to assess the skills and abilities, but also to draw up an individual development program for an individual employee. At the same time, technologies are universal: they are suitable for large enterprises and small firms. The results of the personnel audit are also used to motivate employees and increase labor productivity.

An assessment center is an assessment method that is based on the observation of specially trained assessors (appraisers) of the behavior of assessed employees in real work situations or when they perform various tasks. The content of tasks reflects the main aspects and problems of activity within the framework of a particular position.

Each specific assessment center includes a number of procedures and is developed taking into account the requirements for employees. An important component of this method is measurement.

The assessment center is close to tests, since it involves standardization, that is, the existence of certain standards for conducting procedures and an assessment system (criteria and assessment scales). Sometimes, in addition to special tasks, the assessment center includes a structured interview and testing.

At the first stage of using the assessment center, the competencies necessary to perform the work are determined. Competence is a set of behavioral characteristics that an employee needs to successfully perform a particular job. In other words, from the point of view of personnel assessment, this is not a profession, not an area of human awareness in anything, but a necessary set of qualities.

It is customary to single out two factors that determine successful work. The first is knowledge, skills and abilities that can be acquired in the learning process and confirmed with diplomas and certificates. The second relates to personality. In English, it is called performance. These are qualities that allow us to use knowledge, make decisions, cope with complex tasks, mobilize, communicate with people, etc. The identification of competencies required for a position is based on an analysis of the activities in this position.

Examples of competencies: leadership, ability to work in a team, courage and perseverance, customer orientation, decision making, ability to consider the human factor, communication skills.

For example, the ability to work in a team could be described as follows:

offers own ideas about solving the problem;

shows interest in the point of view of team members;

helps the group achieve results;

appreciates the contributions of others;

seeks to reach consensus;

in the event of a conflict, seeks to resolve it, etc.

An assessment center should be held after careful preparation. Simultaneously with the identification of competencies, the parameters of the assessment are determined. Within each competence, several behavioral manifestations are distinguished.

As people work on a task, they are monitored. At this stage of the assessment center, information about the assessed personnel is collected. The action or behavioral manifestation of a person is exactly what should be measured. With regard to competence, each action can be assessed as positive and negative. Evaluators record the actions of the observed and qualify them, that is, they attribute them to manifestations of one or another competence.

As a result, these positive and negative manifestations are compared, and the person receives a final assessment for the entire competence.

There are two approaches to working with a customer. First, the customer provides his own set of competencies, according to which the staff should be evaluated. In the second approach, the researchers themselves identify and describe the necessary competencies, based on the analysis of the position. After the tasks are specified, the assessment methodology is prepared, "live" work with the customer's personnel begins. It can be carried out not only by appraisers of a specialized company, but also by the customer's own resources or jointly. It is possible to evaluate your own personnel using the “assessment center” method if the personnel department of the enterprise has trained appraisers, a clear methodology for observing people in the process of performing tasks and an evaluation system has been developed. If a person is sufficiently insightful, observant, has high intellectual and communication skills, he can become a good staff appraiser. Experience shows that the joint work of personnel managers and appraisers, attracted from specialized firms, is extremely effective.

It is possible to single out the main goals of the assessment using the “assessment center” method.

First, an individual approach to people is developed. The potential of employees, which has not yet been fully realized, can be identified and assessed. It becomes clear to the management in which direction this or that subordinate should develop. It turns out that one needs to be taught time management, the other - the art of communication, the third - the ability to make decisions. Secondly, the system of personnel selection criteria is determined. After the evaluation activities, new employees are selected more carefully, the probability of error when choosing a suitable candidate is sharply reduced. Thirdly, various shortcomings in the work of management with personnel are revealed and ways to eliminate them are determined.

Experience shows that the study of the professional qualities of company employees using the “assessment center” method is effective when hiring new people for work, during the audit and certification of personnel, when developing employee training and development programs, before making serious management decisions.

The assessment center as a method of personnel assessment is successfully used in large companies around the world. The technology of the method allows for a deep assessment of the professional abilities, skills and personal qualities of employees and predicts their effectiveness in labor activity. This assessment technique is the key to the successful functioning of the enterprise.

From the article you will learn:

Principles and tasks of the Assessment Center

Applying Assessment Center, you can successfully make the right arrangement among the company's personnel. As a rule, the main tasks of the method include:

providing the enterprise with well-coordinated and competent personnel;

diagnosing employees in terms of their development needs;

encouragement of personnel to self-development;

an accurate assessment of the professional qualities of managers and other specialists;

optimization of the management function of the enterprise;

formation of a personnel reserve;

identification of employees capable of becoming leaders, and clarification of a program for their further promotion and development.

Principles of the Assessment Center as a method of personnel assessment

The assessment center as a way of assessing personnel has its own rules and principles. For a competent analysis using this method, first of all, it is necessary to eliminate as much as possible the factors that can affect the outcome of the test. To do this, minimize the ability of employees to behave in a way that pleases the expert.

All exercises and tests must contain clear instructions with predetermined rules of conduct and procedures. When conducting an assessment using the Assessment Center method, it is impossible to stop the subjects in the process of completing the task and change it to another. All employees undergoing assessment must be given the same conditions and equal opportunities to demonstrate their skills and abilities.

Read also related articles:

Conducting an Assessment Center

Before carrying out personnel assessment using the Assessment Center method, it is necessary to draw up a successful profile for each position. To do this, experts, together with management, determine what competencies, that is, the ability to solve professional problems, an employee should have.

For example, for a middle management position, the key competencies would be:

ability to make decisions;

positive impact on staff;

self-organization.

Any position has a whole set of competencies that an employee must have in order to successfully work in this place. Each competency in the assessment is a scale with a detailed description. The Assessment Center method allows you to clarify at what phase of development each of the given abilities is in the subject.

Usually, the Assessment Center takes several days. It is advisable to divide the assessment into several stages in order to obtain more complete and reliable information.

In the process of the Assessment Center several methods are used:

business game;
testing;
interview.

A business game is a simulated situation, which is the basis of the AC method. The game is played in front of specially trained observers. The conditions for analysis here can be, for example, negotiations, work to attract customers, etc.

Interviewing and testing after playing out business cases will help to unite the assessments of the experts, and the final result will be as accurate as possible.

Assessment by the Assessment Center method

During the Assessment Center, experts assess the apparent behavior of the subjects: how the employee behaves in a particular situation at work and how effective his actions are.

In this case, the assessment of experts should be:

independent;
complex;
unambiguous and understandable.

For each position, the so-called success profile with its own scale is predetermined, in most cases for analysis a 5-point scale is used. The most commonly used criteria are:

emotionality;
intellectuality;
self-esteem;
communication;
leadership skills.

On a 5-point scale, the indicators will be as follows:

score- absolute incompetence – the employee is irresponsible, does not feel the desire to develop and change;

points- temporary incompetence – the necessary ability can be developed;

points- the specialist is reliable in normal working situations;

points- high competence – the employee demonstrates successful work in non-standard cases;

points- point to the leader – the employee demonstrates calmness in case of force majeure, can successfully solve complex problems, manage a large number of subordinates in crisis situations.

The results of the analysis are provided in the form of a report for each tested employee. The report reflects integrated assessments of competencies from observers with comments and a description of the level of ability shown. Recommendations for the development of an employee can also be given here. Based on the results of the evaluation program of the Assessment Center, it is possible to determine the prospects for career growth of the company's personnel.

Analysis of the assessment results of the Assessment Center

After receiving all the results of the personnel assessment, the stage of their analysis begins. At the same time, data from different procedures are compared and reduced to a single system.

First of all, the test results are processed, and on their basis a profile of the development of certain competencies is compiled. The results of the role-plays are discussed among the experts, who agree on the observed results and come up with an overall score.

The results of the tests are compared with the evaluation of the observations of experts, all this is reduced to a single indicator, which includes the level of expression of each competence, the features of its manifestation in specific conditions, restrictions and with a given complexity.

At the end, the dynamics of the employee's work throughout the test is analyzed. Based on the results, management, together with experts, builds hypotheses about the specialist’s learning ability, his stress resistance and ability to work effectively in new conditions.

Creating a report based on the results of the Assessment Center

Bringing together all the assessment data by the AC method ends with a single report. An enterprise can choose any form of reporting, but the following options are most often used:

Ranking the list of employees for each competence with the derivation of the average rank.

Evaluation of the severity of skills and professional qualities according to the point system with recommendations for development and training.

The results of the assessment, indicating specific shortcomings and recommendations for improving skills, should be made available to staff for review. This increases the motivation of specialists for self-development.

In conclusion, it is worth emphasizing that the Assessment Center today offers the most effective way to assess the human resources potential of an enterprise. The results of this method not only make it possible to identify a successful manager and a highly qualified specialist, but also give an idea of the direction in which the company's personnel policy should be developed.