Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
“Running an assessment centre allows you to examine candidates more closely in a range of scenarios.”
Assessment centres. Selection centres. Talent centres. Whatever you call them, the crux of the recruitment process remains the same: it can be tough to consistently identify high-calibre candidates.
At a time when we face skills shortages in the utility sector, and other employers are upping their games in a highly competitive jobs market, this is a big issue.
Research has shown that traditional recruitment methods, including initial interviews and potentially biased or ill-informed references, lack the in-depth analysis needed to ensure candidates are the right fit for your organisation.
Finding a prospective employee who meets your criteria, and is also a good fit on a cultural level, needs a certain level of creativity and commitment. Running an assessment centre as part of your ongoing people development plan within your business, allows you to examine candidates more closely in a range of scenarios.
Through this you can allow prospective employees to demonstrate their overall skill set; their ability to interact with stakeholders at all levels; their role-specific technical capabilities; and their knowledge of the industry.
It also offers those applying for the roles a better insight into what to expect from you as an employer.
An assessment centre also fosters mutual appreciation that helps those selected hit the ground running in their first weeks at work.
Many will argue that nothing can replace the instant connection, or lack of it, between an interviewer and candidate. I can’t see how this won’t remain strongly influential during the assessment process. When interviews are coupled with group exercises, role-specific tasks, and panel presentations, employers can rank applicants through a much more thorough, objective measure.
We find assessment centres work well when recruiting high volumes of employees. They give candidates a richer insight into potential career paths, and a sense of achievement when selected. They are just as valuable when selecting for more senior, strategic roles.
More technology is being brought in to underpin recruitment decisions. As part of assessment centres, employers can use psychometric questionnaires and peer evaluations to give further insight into candidates, and predict future performance based on previous behaviours.
Our organisations need to embrace this growing trend, by using assessment centres and multi-dimensional recruitment. You can’t put a price on getting it right the first time.
Please login or Register to leave a comment.