Assesment Centre

The Assessment Centre

Hilary Brown, Human Resource Consultant,
PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Well done. If you have reached the stage of being invited to an Assessment Centre it is likely that you have managed to persuade your organisation of choice that you are a potential employee. They have read your CV, talked to you about your previous experiences and now they want to see how you react in a simulation of their business environment. This is a great opportunity for you to demonstrate how good you really are and this article will help you in preparing for the event.

What do assessment centres entail?

An assessment centre is usually one of the final stages in the selection process, succeeded only by reference checks and a possible medical examination. So, what is an assessment centre? An assessment centre is an event that comprises a number of exercises each designed to gather as much data as possible on how you perform in relation to the organisation's competencies. Essentially competencies describe the key skills, behaviours, attitudes and values required for different organisational roles. Assessment centres are the best way of assessing the potential for an individual to perform and develop in relation to each of these competencies.

One of the main advantages of assessment centres is that they focus on how you can perform and your potential for developing your current level of competency, rather than your previous experience - which may or may not have given you the opportunity to demonstrate the competencies the organisation desires. If you have never worked in a business environment before, then the assessment centre will provide you with as much of an opportunity to excel as a candidate who has had previous business experience.

Most organisations have a list of competencies. You may be given the list prior to the assessment centre, but if you haven't been don't worry. Although competencies are specific to the requirements of an organisation there are a number of behaviours that organisations tend to value. Treat these behaviours as a guide rather than an exhaustive list _ there are likely to be number of differences between this list and the competencies of the organisation to which you are applying.

• Communication - i.e. how you put over your thoughts and ideas and listen to those of others.
• Motivation - i.e. your level of enthusiasm and commitment in achieving results.
• Gathering and analysing information - i.e. your ability to gather and evaluate information in order to draw conclusions.
• Planning and organising - i.e. how you manage your time and the task you have been given.
• Initiative and innovation - i.e. going beyond the obvious and suggesting the unusual.
• Problem solving - i.e. a curiosity about identifying the different ways in which a problem can be resolved.
• Working with others - i.e. the ability to contribute to and support colleagues or a team.

It is from competencies like these that the organisation will design the assessment centre. Exercises will be created that most effectively provide individuals with the opportunity to display the key behaviours, skills, attitudes and values necessary for the role(s) under question. In PricewaterhouseCoopers we have advised clients on the design of assessment centres for graduate recruitment. The precise nature of exercises will vary from organisation to organisation, but they will generally be a mixture of paper based and interactive exercises. The following section describes each of these exercises and gives you some tips on how to approach them.

The rest of this article which covers all major aspects of assessment centres and tips on how to succeed appears in the hard copy of the Everything You Wanted to Know guide. For information on how to obtain your copy click here.

Hilary Brown and PricewaterhouseCoopers
Hilary Brown is a consultant in the Human Resource Consulting group of PricewaterhouseCoopers. She is an occupational psychologist with extensive experience designing and delivering assessment centres within a range of clients and industry sectors.
In the UK alone Human Resource Consulting has over 1,600 consultants, helping clients to maximise the potential of their people. Their specialists include lawyers, taxation experts, pay and reward consultants, human resource consultants and actuaries. They have helped numerous clients in developing recruitment and development strategies in order that they can find and retain the best people for their organisation, including the design of graduate recruitment programmes for FTSE-100 clients.

On Line Recruitment

- a quicker, fairer and better way to your career
Ruth Stokes
National Graduate Recruitment Manager, KPMG

These days pretty much every major recruiter has a comprehensive online application system. And, while they are undoubtedly quicker and easier than the old traditional paper forms, they produce a whole file of electronic conundrums of their own. As technology has advanced, employers have built more intuitive systems which now include tests and selection questionnaires as standard.

On line recruitment has many benefits for both you and the employer.

For you:

• A rapid response to your application - no more waiting weeks for a reply
• They are often quicker and easier to complete
• A more objective, fairer system - no more rejections just because your handwriting is awful or the recruiter can't understand it!
• The better systems give you rapid feedback on your application, your strengths and weaknesses and maybe even some suggestions on how to develop these
• They give you another measure of the organisation - how easy is the system to use, can you save and return, can you track your application, is the feedback helpful?

For recruiters:

• The recruitment process is accelerated - vital in a competitive market
• Less paper, much more efficient
• They give an organisation access to all sorts of information - number of applicants, profiles, their progress through the process, which universities they attend and much more.
• They show applicants that the organisation is technologically advanced

However, for applicants to really understand and accept these benefits recruiters need to help dispel the myths and misconceptions surrounding online application systems. Common concerns I hear are:

"I don't want to send my personal details into cyberspace"
"I don't want to be rejected by a machine"

Professional recruiters will take the security of applications very seriously and use the latest technology to ensure that only you and they have access to your personal details. And don't worry about your form being lost in cyberspace either, it's no more likely to get lost than if you entrusted it to your friendly postie!

As for being rejected by a machine, it's true that parts of your application will be read by a machine, but the decision on whether to invite you to the next stage will be taken by a human. It's not in the interests of any organisation to de-humanise the process in any way.

So, where do you start?? at the very beginning, by preparing yourself!
On Line applications need as much preparation as those quaint old paper things. It may be quicker to complete the form but it's what goes on before that will determine your success or failure.

So, do what you would normally (hopefully!) do, find out as much as you can about the organisation from its website and any brochures you might pick up from careers fairs and the like. If you do nothing else, try and establish what its selection criteria are. All organisations select against criteria - the skills, knowledge and experience they believe to be critical in a particular job and in their organisation. These criteria normally are assessed throughout the whole recruitment process, so knowing these will give you a great head start.

Some organisations have absolute requirements that they won't compromise on - usually A level points, work experience or class of degree. Don't waste your time applying if you don't meet these requirements. Of course, if you have good reason why your results were not what you had expected, then tell them. The best employers will always be sympathetic and flexible to genuine reasons.

So now you know why you want to apply to the organisation and that you meet their entry requirements it's time to complete the form. Download the form if you can, and think about your answers, especially those that require a paragraph or two of your finest prose. Draft it out to your satisfaction (maybe show to a friend or careers advisor?) before returning to the screen.

Rather unhelpfully, most online applications forms don't include grammar and spell checks so be as careful as you would be on a paper form. Poor spelling and poor grammar is a reason to reject in any medium.

Some online application forms will let you write as much as you like. Resist the temptation. Less is more. Give them enough information to make them want to see you but don't bore them to death. And remember, if they do say - in no more than ** words?, abide by it, it's for a reason!

Email is a casual form of communication and has bred a shorthand form of written English that is widely inappropriate for online application forms. You should write online in exactly the same way as you would write on paper forms - direct, meaty, punchy, straight to the reader - and not as you would email your mates. And another point, remember that because you are applying online the recruiter is likely to reply via the same medium - be sure your email address reflects your professionalism and if needs be set up a new account to avoid the employer replying to one of the many fun but inappropriate addresses now available. First impressions count!

The great thing about online applications is that you can mess around with them for ages before sending them off. Make sure that you're happy with the various sections before you submit the whole thing but don't agonise too long. Being able to make endless changes can actually prevent you having the courage to finally hit that button and send it off to the organisation.

Some organisations build in "key word" searches into their systems. If they are particularly keen on leadership and teamwork, the program will spot these words in your application. Warning! Don't let this influence you to pepper your prose with too many power words. It will ruin the flow. It does no harm thought to describe yourself in the positive language that all organisations like.

When you submit your form electronically, and let's assume you have impressed the organisation, you will receive an email inviting you to an interview. Before the interview, make sure that you find out even more about the organisation and don't forget to take a hard copy of your application form with you. Read it carefully as they will be asking you to expand on the information there.

And finally, here are some key tips:

• Always print the form out first
• Never hit the submit button until you are sure
• Get someone to check your spelling and grammar
• Be honest with yourself - if self-assessment show you and the organisation are not a good match, give it up!
• Don't bring any slack email habits to the application from

Technology in recruitment is here to stay so you need to make friends with online application methods. I hope this short guide has given you some helpful guidelines in preparing for and submitting your online applications

Good luck!