Assessment and Development Centres

There is often some confusion over the difference between development centre and assessment
centre, leading to concern about the use of the former. This is understandable since some of the
assessment techniques are common, to both activities. One of the popular concepts in the
management development field is the assessment centre method of identifying and developing the
management potential.
This method is available to all sizes of organizations and can be used at all levels of
management, from the first level of supervision to top corporate management. In a typical centre, six
first level manager participants are nominated by their immediate supervisors as having potential for
middle level management positions based on their current job performances. For two days, the
participants take part in exercises developed to explore behaviours deemed important in the
particular organization. A participant may play a business role and complete an in-basket exercise or
may participate in two group discussions and in an individual exercise, and be interviewed. Three
line managers - two organizational levels above the participants-act as assessors, observe the
participants' behaviour and take notes on special observation forms.
On completion of the exercise, participants go back to their jobs, and assessors spend two more days
compiling their observations and making a final evaluation of each participant. A summary report is
prepared on each participant, outlining his or her potential and defining the development action
appropriate for both the organization and individual. The levels of candidates to be assessed usually
dictate the duration of the centre. Centres for identifying potential in non-management areas can last
as long as two half days, including evenings.

ORIGIN OF THE ASSESSMENT CENTRE METHOD

There is nothing new about assessment centres; their history in the United Kingdom dates
back to the War Office Selection Boards (WOSB) which were introduced in 1942 to select officers.
Anstey (1989) recounts that the system the boards replaced had clearly broken down: a high
percentage of people it passed, had to be returned to 'UNIT' because of their lack of ability.

In the United States, the pioneering work was undertaken by the Office of Strategic Studies,
which used the method to select spies during the World War II (Mac Kinnon, 1977). This United
States assessment centre was also derived from the War Office Selection Boards, but after the war,
the approaches of United Kingdom and the United States approaches diverged somewhat (Felthan,
1988).
In the United Kingdom, assessment centres were developed in peacetime in which the civil
service and other parts of the public sector were included. They followed the model of the WOSB
and were sometimes labelled extended interviews. In the United States, the post-war development
moved to the private sector. The pioneer was the American Telephone and Telegraph Company
(AT&T), which used assessment centres in its management progress study, which began in 1956
(Bray, 1964). Standard Oil of Ohio took up the method in 1962 and then by IBM, Sears, General
Electric and J.C. Penney (Finkle, 1976). Since 1990, the concept of assessment centres has been
getting high popularity in Indian organizations. The process of designing assessment centres can be
understood better through Fig. Below:
Designing and running an assessment centre is a complex project. It consists of a series of
interlinked stages and sub-stages. It has to be ensured that the external features of the centre are
included in the design. The figure, below, is a general process of designing a centre.
 Page no. 2

Preliminary Study

Plan Project

Choose Participants Job Analysis Choose Assessors

Brief Participants Freeze Dimensions Train Assessors

Exercise Design

Validation of Exercise

Implementation

Post Assessment
Centre Evaluation

[Process of Design for Assessment Centre]

ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF AN ASSESSMENT CENTRE

While the specific objectives for which the assessment centre is set up may vary in making a
promotion decision, diagnosing training needs, developing managerial skills, placement, etc., there
are some essential steps that are common in all assessment centres. The essential features of an
assessment centre are:

Job analysis. The aim of conducting job analysis is to reveal the details of the target job its
illustrative tasks, problems, and situations that a jobholder is likely to face in a given situation.
Through job analysis, the dimensions like the skills, qualities, attributes, knowledge, motivation,
tasks required for effective performance of a target job are systematically identified. These
dimensions provide the framework for developing the instruments to evaluate or assess the
participants and for giving the feedback. .

Multiple assessment techniques. The assessment centre aims at providing multiple opportunities to
observe the complex behaviour of the participants and assess it against the dimensions identified in
the job analysis. A variety of assessment techniques can be used, ensuring that these are the
appropriate ways of observing one or more of the dimensions. These can include - interviews,
psychological tests, questionnaires, situational exercises, etc.
 Page no. 3
Situational exercises. These exercises are simulations that portray the most important aspects of
target jobs. Typically, a situational exercise tries to present the participant with a complex set of
stimuli that he is likely to deal with on the job. For example, an in-basket exercise that captures the
typical sample of tasks one is likely to encounter in a job.

Behavioural responses. Situational exercises provide a lot of opportunity to oversee the behaviour
of participants, which are indicators of complex competences.

Behavioural observations. The assessors are trained to focus on the behaviour of the participants.
These observations give a specific statement of observable actions and even actual words.

Multiple assessors. The basis for using multiple assessors is that this helps in ironing out individual
biases. Different backgrounds and experiences of a group help to provide a rich perspective to the
centre. It is recommended that a line manager, an HR manager, an outside consultant and others,
familiar with the target job, may be included in the assessor panel. There should be at least three
assessors to make observations on each participant's performance.

Trained assessors. It is important that the assessors have thorough training in assessment skills and
also have a common frame of reference regarding the objectives, design and implementation
programme of the centre. Specifically, training should be imparted on observing and recording
behaviours, classifying behaviour into directions, making judgements about the performance levels,
communicating individual judgements and understanding to others, integrating behavioural
observations from different sources, etc. If required, make evaluation an overall success and give
suggestions for future development.

Integration of observations. Regarding integration of observations, there are two schools of

thought on its methodology. Traditionally, the judgemental method has been used in which the
assessors use their pre-knowledge, wisdom and discretion in noting, classifying and integrating
observations to derive an overall rating. The alternative method is found to be especially appropriate
for some assessment situations, for instance, while screening a large number of candidates, for low
level jobs. This is the statistical method. Here predetermined weights are assigned to dimensions and
scores on exercises. These are then combined using a formula.

ACCURACY OF ASSESSMENT CENTRES

Assessment centres are more accurate than supervisionary judgement in predicting the
potentiality because the exercise used provides a niche for observing the behaviour needed at higher
levels before a person is put on the job. The selection of a sales manager is a good example to prove
the superiority of the assessment centre's method. A supervisor, asked to nominate a sales person for
supervision, can judge his people only by their sales performance. Usually, the best sales person is
nominated, however, because many other skills are needed in management, and if the person so
nominated fails, the company loses both a manager and an excellent salesperson. If an assessment
centre was used, the unique abilities needed for management would-have been determined, and their
presence or absence observed through simulation before an individual is promoted. .
Assessment centres are more accurate than personal tastes in predicting potential because they
sample actual behaviours, not what the applicant says he would do or he has done. For years,
managers have observed that the applicants could often tell a story better than they could perform.
The assessment centre checks the actual performance.
 Page No. 4
The greater accuracy of assessment centres compared with management appraisals and tastes
has been proved in a number of well-controlled studies in organizations such as the International
Business Machines Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph, General Electric, Sears, or
Reebok and the US Internal Revenue Service. However, assessment centres are not intended to
replace methods, rather to supplement them by enabling an organization to have a more unbiased
look at its employees. The accuracy of assessment centres results from a number of factors:

1. Candidates are observed by line managers who have been specially trained to perform more tasks
of observing behaviours. They give their full attention to the candidates' functions rather than trying
to observe behaviour while subjected to other on-the-job pressures which often prevent them from
observing accurately.
2. The managers usually come from above the level of the candidates' immediate supervisors and have a
broader perspective of the skills and abilities needed than what an immediate supervisor does while
nominating people for his own level.
3. Line management assessors bring to the task a thorough knowledge of the whole company, its mores
and its idiosyncrasies. They know the skills needed in future currently and those that will be needed
based on projected changes.
4. Group decisions about individuals are constantly being shown to be more accurate than individual
decisions. Perceptions can be compared, biases can be challenged. The use of exercises exactly
consistent for all candidates means that a comparative judgement can be made on large numbers of
candidates working for different bases in vastly different circumstances. .

USE OF ASSESSMENT CENTRES BY SMALL ORGANIZATIONS

The assessment centre method may not be appropriate for many companies, even where the
cost of operation is manageable. Particularly in higher-level positions, most companies do not have
enough candidates to warrant the operation of an assessment centre or cannot staff a centre
internally. For these companies, a possibility may be the participation in multicompany centres
where a number of companies send one or two individuals rather than to a centre operated by - a
consultant.

HOW CAN CENTRES BE USED AS A DEVELOPMENTAL TOOL?

A centre can be an end in itself - for assessment of need, potential and appointability -- or it can
be a means to an end.
These means can be diagnostic tools by which appropriate action can be taken to help an
individual and or group of individuals to upgrade their managerial performance against an agreed set
of criteria. If the criteria have been drawn from the job through job analysis and the current level of
performance assessed against them in job-relevant but unfamiliar situations, good quality
information can be gathered from which one can draw up developmental plans. Developmental
applications of assessment centres represent an emerging exciting area for practitioners interested in
maximizing the benefits of assessment centres. . If the centre has been well designed and closely
related to the needs of the jobs and the organizations, it should generate a follow-up action, which is
acceptable to the individuals and organizations and readily applicable.
While these may seem to be obvious conclusions, they are not necessarily followed. Follow-up
actions do not have to be restricted to traditional training solutions. The environment of line
managers enables them to act as coaches and mentors. The whole process can be used to contribute
to the development of the organization in addition to the intended individual and management
development.
 Page no. 5
Most researches seem to be focused on the validity or the predictability of the technique as a
selection device, rather than on the usefulness of the information gathered for development.

DEVELOPMENT CENTRES
Development centres often depart from the traditional assessment centre design and practice in
several ways; as they often take a more collaborative approach to assessment and decision making,
feedback may be given after each exercise, rather than at the end of the centre. They also involve
much more self - and peer - assessment than is usually used in selection-oriented assessment
centres.
Development centres are workshops, which measure the abilities of participants against the
agreed success criteria for a job or a role. The key characteristics of a development centre are as
follows:

1. Observations in the centre are based on key dimensions or competences, which differentiate
between successful and less successful performances.
2. Development centres measure the abilities of participants by simulating a job or role situation,
which requires them to demonstrate abilities in the relevant competence in them.
3. Rating of performances is undertaken by trained assessors, who have undergone a course of
familiarization and skill training.
4. They involve one-to-one feedback interviews with participants, during which the strengths and
development that have been highlighted by performances are discussed. Subordinates and line
managers may also pool data that have been collected by the trained assessors with those produced
prior to the press.
5. Assessors' assessments are collected and distilled into a written report before the one-to-one
feedback interview. This often involves a plenary discussion in which assessors who have assessed
the same individual in different exercises discuss the overall performance of that individual.
There is often some confusion over the difference between development centres and assessment
centres, leading to concern about the use of the former. This is understandable since some of the
assessment techniques are common to both activities.
The main similarities are seen in the principles of assessment. Both activities, designed to
measure the abilities of those who, take part, use trained people for the assessment.

HR Focus: Assessment and Development Centre (ADC) in Indian Industries:

Assessment and development centre is a panel of senior people from within a company which
identifies and develops skills in the organization at the nine thousand nine hundred crores TATA
MOTORS, which has 34,500 employees. An ADC comprises 6 people - the chief of corporate
human resources, the chief of regional HR, and the chiefs of the various plants involved. The ADC,
christened within the auto-giant as an employee selection centre has already catapulted junior
managers below 30 to higher responsibilities. Every year 180 - 200 managers apply to the ADCs.
After a series of elimination tests, 25 - 30 are taken into the ADC. Of these, only 7-8 is sent for
higher-level training to occupy responsible positions.
Promising employees at TATA MOTORS kicked their heels for years before rising to their
level of competence. ADCs have helped to identify outstanding employees and expand their
responsibilities beyond what they would have otherwise done following a normal performance
appraisal. At TATA MOTORS, each successful assessee, has to move through four functions
different from what he or she performed earlier for three months each.
 Page no. 6
The assessors are also trained through an external organization's help.
The three thousand crores RPG group chose the ADC route as it realized that it was only
recruiting from outside because the senior management did not know what managerial talent was
available within. After successful implementation of ADC, RPG was able to select most of their
senior managers, from within the group.
The twelve hundred crores BlLT has introduced ADC, which was started basically from the
business strategy. Earlier they had a captive market, but as the focus was shifted to more market
driven and customer focussed, they identified and built competencies to change with the time.
Through ADC, they identified the people within the organization, who had competencies to take the
business strategy further. In BILT, ADC is an intensive three-day affair, where panelists or assessors
remain holed up with the assessees. The test included fact-finding, presentations, role-plays,
analysis, group tests and in-basket tests.
The seven thousand crores A V Birla group has two ADCs. One was that, which tracked down
the successes for the 300 odd senior managers, who retired. The other one was for the newly
inducted general management trainees. .
HLL has developed ADC as part of project millennium, which has divided the company into
smaller profit centres, and given promising employees more responsibilities.
The Indian companies like TATA MOTORS, BILT to name a few, have implemented ADCs
for various reasons to identify first rank performers. RPG identified potential general managers
within the group; A V Birla identified high potential general trainees and successors for senior
management.

====