Assessment Centre Exercises

Let me explain about Assessment Centre Exercises which are designed to reveal your employment potential. Trained observers, usually psychologists, at assessment centers measure you against a set of competencies and each exercise is planned to assess one or more of the key skill or competency areas: Group Exercises, Group Interviews, In-Tray, Role Play and Presentation Exercises.

All of these exercises are explained on this page:

• Group Exercises
• Group Interviews
• Written Tests
• In-Tray Exercises
• Role Playing Exercises
• Presentation Exercises
• Job Selection Exercises

Types Of Assessment Centre Exercises

The term "assessment center" is just a catch-all phrase that can mean some or all of a variety of exercises. Assessment centres usually have some sort of in-basket exercise which contains contents similar to those which may be found in the in-basket for the job which is being tested.

Other assessment centre exercises include oral exercises, problem analysis exercises, interview simulations, role play exercises, written report/analysis exercises, and leaderless group exercises, you'll find examples of them on this site.

An assessment center as a rule represents the final round of selection activity, although some employers might ask you back for another discussion or round of interviews. It is common for an organization to let you know when they expect to have made a decision and how you will be notified but don’t be scared to ask if this has not been made clear.

Assessment centre exercises are normally conducted either at the employers’ location or in a hotel and are considered by many organizations to be the fairest and most precise method of selecting staff for employment.

Just Be Yourself...

The most important thing to remember is that you should not try to be anybody but yourself. You don't know exactly what they are looking for in each of the exercise, but they are looking for certain abilities, traits and characteristics and the assessment centre exercises will be comprehensive enough to catch you out, or at least throw up inconsistencies in your behaviour, that mean you rule yourself out if you are not being your real self.

Professional Assessors

Employers themselves usually do not usually have a major presence at these events. Instead they employ professional assessors, usually psychologists, whose job it is to oversee the assessment centres and look for evidence that is pertinent to the job skills required. There will be a number of senior observers and selectors making notes on your performance across the range of activities and assessment centre exercises.

This is because a number of diverse observers get to see what you can do you over a longer period of time, rather than what you claim you can do, as in an interview.

The assessment center usually consists of a number of exercises, which will include a presentation, an individual exercise, possibly an in-tray exercise, group work and a further interview.

Before you go to the assessment center you should research the requirements of the job you are applying for. This is what the assessment panel will be looking for through the exercises you participate in.

Group Exercises

With assessment centre exercises in groups you need to have to the right attitude from the start.

Group exercises are set to test the candidates' teamwork ability and to see who come out as the leaders and who the followers are. You must be positive and enthusiastic and assume that your objective is to 'win' against the other members of the group.

Try to be actively engaged at all times and most importantly, be yourself - not who you think the assessors are looking for, and don't do anything for effect or to get noticed. Because the exercises are intended to be as close to the real thing as is possible in artificial conditions, you need to act as you would in a real situation.

There will usually be between 8 - 12 candidates and you should make a strenuous effort to socialize and get along with the other people there. Whereas you are taking part in a competitive activity, meaning you want to win the job, the assessment centre itself is not a competition.

How you interact with your fellow candidates will be part of the assessment.

Group Interviews

The purpose of the group interview in the assessment centre exercises is to observe candidates' interpersonal skills and personality traits when working with other people. After the group interview, the number of candidates is lowered and usually one-on-one interviews are set up.

Potential employers are keen to see how you interact with other people. This gives them an idea of how you will deal with managers, co-workers and customers or clients. They also want to find out how well you work in a group. Sometimes, the group is asked to work together in order to solve a hypothetical problem. While the group is working, the employer is actively observing several things:

• Do you have a positive attitude?
• Do you encourage participation from other group members?
• Do you demonstrate leadership abilities when working in a group?
• Are you able to help the group focus and work together?

What is being said by individuals during the group interview is not the most important issue. Your observable personal traits and interpersonal skills are of the most importance to the potential employer, so if you are positive, show leadership skills and work well with a group, the employer feels that you will exhibit those same qualities on the job.

Written Tests

Increasingly employers are interested in certain specific capabilities and personal attributes such as verbal reasoning - the ability to understand written or spoken language, numerical reasoning - the ability to work with and comprehend numbers or diagrammatic reasoning ability which involves use of diagrams and spatial awareness. This general page on psychometric tests will explain more about the types of aptitude tests.

In-Tray Exercises

Depending upon the nature of the job you’re after this may involve some paperwork of the type you would encounter. For example in a finance role you may be asked to “read and summarize a set of quarterly figures as if you are going to give a briefing to the regional manager”.

To determine how you cope with pressure, you may be given a variety of written material, or some e-mails and asked what action you would take with each item. You will be given a set time to complete this exercise and sometimes more items may be added while you are doing the exercise.

Try to stay calm and go through all of the material as quickly as you can to prioritize it. After this exercise you will be expected to show an understanding of the contents and respective importance of the material and offer your justification for the decisions you made.

Listen carefully to the briefing and if you are unclear about anything, ask. It may be useful to have a question ready for these sessions but make sure that the answer has not already been covered in the introduction. Asking badly chosen questions just to get noticed will not impress the selectors.

Role Playing Exercises

Imagine that you are called in to the boss’s office to explain your latest ideas for a new project...

In this task individuals will be assigned various roles, each taking turns at being the employee or the boss. There may be a situation with an unhappy customer or other scene from your prospective new role.

The scenario played out will generally be related to either a typical day on the job or a particularly stressful, awkward situation which must be dealt with in a disciplined manner and display quick thinking ability.

Presentation Exercises

Presentation exercises are common as part of assessment centre exercises. Very few people enjoy public speaking but it is a discipline which can be learned and is very useful throughout your career, so please read my tips first. If you can effectively address a room of candidates, your self-assurance cannot fail to impress. You should be provided with sufficient preparation time so make a few notes.

Although not strictly an assessment centre exercise, what is sometimes called "trial by reception" involves social or informal events. You could be asked to meet a variety of people, including other candidates, the selectors, external stakeholders (especially for public appointments) and senior management.

This will be presented as an opportunity for you to find out about the organization and to ask questions in an informal setting. Although these procedures may appear informal and not part of the true assessment process you should remember to behave in a way that reflects well on you.

Job Selection Exercises

The assessment centre exercises are intended to measure the skills and behaviours necessary to be successful, including flexibility, customer focus, team working and focus on outcomes. Don't try to guess what type of person they are looking for; only present yourself in a way that is genuine.

Whilst the Assessment Centre is for the employer to find out more about you, it is also a time for you to learn more about the job and the company. Lighten up and enjoy it, just do your best to learn from the experience.

The reason that Assessment Centres are becoming more widespread is because companies do not want to rely solely on face to face interviews to recruit and select their new employees. Many organizations, particularly the larger ones, now run a series of extended selection procedures, with assessment centre exercises being part of the overall process, lasting between one and two days or sometimes even longer depending on what skills, attributes and personality characteristics they are looking for.

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Whilst assessment centre exercises aim to allow candidates to demonstrate more of their skills through a number of job relevant situations, the issue for candidates is that they must be fully conversant with the criteria for the job.