Automate Your L&D Programs With Virtual Assessment And Development Centers

An assessment center is a human resource management tool to holistically assess an individual's competencies with the help of various exercises, such as case study simulators, presentations, personality tools, role plays, etc. Assessment centers are used to assess candidates at scale in a hiring drive, or current employees for critical organizational decisions.

A development center is used for organizational planning initiatives, such as identifying training needs, high potential employees, future leaders, etc. While an assessment center is often used during hiring and selection, a development center is used to find and cultivate development opportunities for better organizational decisions.

Virtual assessment centers work as a simulation of real-life workplace situations designed to evaluate participants' skills and behaviors in a controlled environment through a combination of digital tools, to make crucial decisions about hiring, developing and identifying organizational talent.

Some of the tools used in virtual assessment center are:

1. Situational judgment tests to assess a person's judgment to hypothetical and challenging situational questions.

2. Role plays that immerse candidates into likely situations to assess work-related competencies.

3. Case study simulations present a business problem and ask candidates to find a plausible solution based on given insights.

4. Inbox prioritization to assess how an employee tackles the workload of a typical day.

5. Battery of assessments to gauge personality, behavior, and aptitude.

The advantages of assessment centers are that they

1. Are accurate predictors of job performance.

2. Offer realistic preview into the job role and organizational setting.

3. Come with high validity because they are based on real-life work settings.

4. Reduce attrition because the candidate and employer both know what lies ahead.

The disadvantages of assessment centers are that they

1. Are more time-consuming to designs and execute because of their requirement to closely emulate actual work and role challenges.

2. May also incur a slightly greater cost despite guaranteeing a higher ROI.

Assessment centers are used to predict performance, diagnose skill gaps, and groom employees. Assessment centers are specifically used by organizations to evaluate their prospective or current workforce for various workforce planning and management initiatives, such as

1. Recruitment,

2. Training needs identification,

3. High-potential identification, and

4. Succession planning.

Before the assessment and development centre, competencies are identified and mapped to various assessment tools. During an assessment and development centre, participants undergo various tests and exercises. After the assessment and development centre, a comprehensive report is generated to make recommendations about fitment of the participant.