"I feel that it is unfair towards any person to place him/her in a post that they are not capable of doing as it put unnecessary stress on that person to perform. This can lead to low morale, absenteeism and high turnover."
How can organisations benefit from Employee Assessments?
The effectiveness of any organisation, no matter how big or small is dependent on the quality of the workforce. In business everything is about return on investment. By placing or developing a suitable candidate, an organisation can save on future costs, for example:
- Training costs (unskilled personnel)
- Legal costs (disciplinary actions or damage caused)
- Medical costs (injury due to incompetence or stress related illness)
- The cost of replacing personnel
- Low productivity leading to a loss of income
When can Employee Assessments be used?
Assessments can be valuable for the following:
- Selection (accurate placement)
- Personal development
- Succession planning
- Career counseling/planning
- Bursary allocation
- Leadership identification
- Team development
What is the difference between an Assessment centre and a Development centre?
An Assessment centre is used to assess the abilities and competencies of a person for immediate placement or placement in the near future. If for example a vacant position needs to be filled within a week and the person must be able to start work immediately, an Assessment centre will be used.
A Development centre is used if a person needs to be developed for future placement in a position (promotion) or as part of succession planning (future replacement of key personnel). Similar activities will be used as in an Assessment centre but the candidate will have a personal development plan in order to develop limitations.
What type of assessment activities can be used?
Various instruments or activities can be used in the assessment process. The following are examples of typical assessment activities:
- Role-play exercises - assessing competencies such as the ability to think on your feet
- In-tray exercises - assessing competencies such as multi tasking, time management
- Interviews - assessing competencies such as determining motivation, verbal communication
- Group exercises - assessing competencies such as team work, problem solving, communication
- Case studies - assessing competencies such as independent thinking, individual problem solving
- Psychometric testing - assessing competencies such as ability, interests, personality
- Computer simulations - assessing competencies such as hand-eye-coordination and the ability to concentrate
The difficulty level and type of assessment activity will be dependent on the Job specific profile.
Employee Assessment Experience
I am a Registered Industrial Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and are allowed to use psychometric instruments and do behavior observation.
My experience include:
- I have done job profiling for highly specialised units within the Military environment as well as in the private sector making use of the Competency Index Job Profiling Inventory (Potential Index Battery), interviews and facilitation sessions.
- I have developed, co-ordinated and implemented assessment centres for highly specialised Military personnel, e.g. Air Traffic Controllers, Pilots, VIP Protectors, Bomb Disposal Experts, Navy Divers, etc. The assessments have been benchmarked nationally and internationally to determine best practices.
- I have developed, administered and implemented assessment centres for various clients on different organisational levels within the private sector, government and local municipalities; ranging from entry level positions to executive levels.
- I have developed simulation exercises including case studies, role-play exercises and analysis presentation exercises. The development included the assessment instruments, assessment guide and scoring sheets.
- I have done assessments for the purpose of selection (accurate placement), personal development, career guidance, bursary allocation, compiling project teams, leadership identification, succession planning and team development, making use of various psychometric instruments and/or simulation exercises.
- I have tested candidates on the Dover Test System (Vienna – computerised simulations) to test foot-hand-eye coordination, concentration, fine motor skills, stress tolerance and anticipation of movement. This was done for Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, Drill Operators (Mining) and specialist Welders (research project).
- I have done assessments of personnel that will be working as expatriates on projects outside of South Africa.
- I have done assessments in Mozambique (supervisors and managers) and in Zimbabwe (specialist positions).
- I have trained Industrial Psychology interns in the development and effective implementation of assessment centres.
- I have been a guest lecturer for the Masters Degree students at the University of Pretoria; talking about the practical application of assessment centres and best practices in assessment.
- I have facilitated behaviour observation training for Psychologists as well as specialist Military personnel that formed part of assessment teams.
- I have done behaviour observation during assessment and development centres.
- I have developed structured competency based interviews for various positions and have trained interviewers in the effective and ethical use of interviews.
- I have interviewed candidates for different positions, ranging from entry level positions to senior management and specialist positions.
- I have chaired meetings between clients and Psychologists in order to determine specific needs and to manage the logistical arrangements of the assessments.
- I have screened CVs for various positions, ranging from administrative positions to Director and Specialist positions. Electronic CVs were scanned on the Neptune online system.
- I have coached Industrial Psychology Interns as well as Supervisors and Specialists for personal development. Psychometrics, simulation exercises and personal interviews were used to determine development areas.