The days of management assessment centres are over
Many people wonder what it takes to be a great manager. Recruiters care more about what it takes to hire a great manager.
Currently, most companies are relying on interviews and a few are relying on management assessment centres to hire managers. Companies using either of these methods are lucky if a quarter of their new managers turn out to be top performers.
Whether the manager is being promoted from within or hired externally, the fastest and easiest way to consistently identify the best is to use a performance-based micro-assessment.
Before you begin, it’s important to identify the knowledge, skills and abilities that are required for the position. Top performing managers are required to have technical or job-specific knowledge as well as transferable skills.
Transferable skills include staff, program or project management; good written and verbal communication; issue management such as time or meeting management, information gathering, interpersonal, conflict resolution and problem-solving abilities. Administration, operational planning and computer-related skills may also be important.
Here are some procedures to help ensure new managers will possess all of the required knowledge, skills and abilities.
Management assessment centres served a purpose
Management assessment centres, created many years ago, were at one time a popular and progressive approach to assessing managers’ aptitudes as well as their knowledge, skills and abilities for a job.
Some companies still make use of assessment centres, where applicants are given a series of job-related tasks to perform, usually as a group exercise. The performance of the group is observed and each individual participant is evaluated by several job “raters.” Examples of typical tasks or exercises are: group problem solving, business simulations, role playing, and leaderless group discussions.
This form of assessment is an improvement over the more common resume-to-interview hiring, but it has yet to overcome some of its challenges. It is difficult and very time-consuming to develop the group exercises necessary for a complete assessment. In addition, using a group exercise to assess each applicant’s performance is not as effective as individual assessment.
In most actual work settings, employees perform their work and solve their day-to-day problems individually rather than in a team environment. And even when extensive group work is involved, group members often divide up the work and complete each component independently.
Management assessment centres also require several raters in order to properly observe each of the participants. This is very costly and can be unproductive as raters are often away from their regular jobs for one to two days or more, the typical duration of a management assessment centre. For this reason, it is often only large companies, or organizations with big budgets, that can afford to develop and use management assessment centres because they are so labour-intensive and expensive. Another concern then, is the inability of smaller companies to benefit from this type of assessment.
Management assessment centres were designed with the right intentions and have served a valuable purpose. Yet with the arrival of performance-based micro assessments, management assessment centres may no longer be necessary.
Micro assessment: The new era
Micro assessments, sometimes called written interviews, are written, performance-based exercises that quickly and accurately evaluate short-listed job applicants before they proceed to the interview. By identifying the strengths, weaknesses, work habits and organizational, personal and cultural fit of the applicants, a micro assessment will help identify the top performer and eliminate 60 to 75 per cent of interviews, resulting in significant cost and time savings.
Here’s how micro assessments work: the range of activities an incumbent would typically perform on the job over six to 12 months is translated or broken down (thus the term “micro”) into a set of paper-based or computer-based questions and exercises that take applicants approximately one to three hours to complete.
Technical exercises and work-related problems
In addition to technical or job-specific exercises, applicants must also solve a set of work-related problems that demonstrate their ability to perform well within the confines of a specific department or company culture and to think on their feet.
Performance-based exercises and questions are easy to develop as they are derived directly from activities and situations on the job. You can quickly and easily assess knowledge, skill and ability requirements for managers, including staff, program and project management skills, communication skills and interpersonal interactions with staff, co-workers or customers, administrative or operational skills and even teamwork or problem solving.
Fair and fast assessment
This new process is particularly valuable for identifying top performing managers because they put all applicants — internal and external — on a level playing field. The performance of each applicant is easy to assess and document, clearly showing who performed well during the assessment. When a company wants to promote from within, it can identify areas that require improvement, performance management or formal training or development. Furthermore, more than one applicant can perform a micro assessment at the same time and they can also be completed and submitted electronically by applicants, either internally, locally, nationally or internationally.
Fewer applicants to interview
Since many companies move directly to the interview from resume screening, micro assessments provide a valuable opportunity to further refine your applicant pool before proceeding to the time-consuming interview stage.
And since many companies persist in interviewing six to 10 applicants or having several rounds of interviews during their selection process (just to be sure they have enough talent to draw from) the time savings can be significant if these six or 10 applicants first complete a written interview.
This can help the hiring party short-list the applicant pool to one, two or three top performing applicants per vacancy, an ideal number to interview. This extra step ensures that only fully qualified applicants will proceed to the interview.
As a general rule, about 60 per cent of applicants who proceed to an interview following resume screening, probably shouldn’t. After all, it is not uncommon for applicants to exaggerate their skills and abilities on their resume or to sweet talk hiring parties during the interview.
The written interview process means applicants can be assessed anywhere and at any time, even after their workday is over.
The interview can be sent out at the end of the hiring party’s workday, completed and returned by a pre-arranged time and evaluated the next morning. The receiving fax or e-mail will document the time when applicants returned their test.
Rating micro assessments is easy
The micro assessment is simple to score. It requires only a few minutes for the hiring party to rate each applicant and this is less time-consuming than going through an equal number of interviews. Then, only those who have proven their ability during the written interview stage — usually one to three applicants — proceed to the personal interview. And for those who came in ready to embellish or sweet talk, they are free to try their luck elsewhere.
This new way of screening candidates can be used by organizations for any level of position, from entry-level manager to senior vice-president, including single incumbent positions.
In fact, this approach has been used for organizations with more than 100,000 employees worldwide and just as successfully for a small office with fewer than five employees.
Top applicant will exceed expectations
Companies that use a written interview process frequently discover that applicants whose resume looked good did not perform well during the micro assessment, while the candidate that is eventually selected often exceeds their expectations.
If your current selection process relies heavily on expensive management assessment centres, psychological, aptitude or other generic tests, or even multiple rounds of interviews to determine the best candidate for a job, you may wish to consider a written interview.
This is particularly true if you are about to hire for multiple vacancies, conduct a global search or simply try to get through a politically charged internal hiring process with numerous applicants.
Micro assessments quickly, cost-effectively and consistently offer a reliable predictor of each applicant’s knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences as well as greater insight into how well the applicant will perform on the job and fit into your organization.
Stephen Jackson of HR Strategy, a Toronto-based consulting company, is author of Performance-based Selection: a step-by-step guide to saving time, reducing costs and hiring top performers. He can be reached at (416) 363-0480 or at www.hrstrategy.com
Currently, most companies are relying on interviews and a few are relying on management assessment centres to hire managers. Companies using either of these methods are lucky if a quarter of their new managers turn out to be top performers.
Whether the manager is being promoted from within or hired externally, the fastest and easiest way to consistently identify the best is to use a performance-based micro-assessment.
Before you begin, it’s important to identify the knowledge, skills and abilities that are required for the position. Top performing managers are required to have technical or job-specific knowledge as well as transferable skills.
Transferable skills include staff, program or project management; good written and verbal communication; issue management such as time or meeting management, information gathering, interpersonal, conflict resolution and problem-solving abilities. Administration, operational planning and computer-related skills may also be important.
Here are some procedures to help ensure new managers will possess all of the required knowledge, skills and abilities.
Management assessment centres served a purpose
Management assessment centres, created many years ago, were at one time a popular and progressive approach to assessing managers’ aptitudes as well as their knowledge, skills and abilities for a job.
Some companies still make use of assessment centres, where applicants are given a series of job-related tasks to perform, usually as a group exercise. The performance of the group is observed and each individual participant is evaluated by several job “raters.” Examples of typical tasks or exercises are: group problem solving, business simulations, role playing, and leaderless group discussions.
This form of assessment is an improvement over the more common resume-to-interview hiring, but it has yet to overcome some of its challenges. It is difficult and very time-consuming to develop the group exercises necessary for a complete assessment. In addition, using a group exercise to assess each applicant’s performance is not as effective as individual assessment.
In most actual work settings, employees perform their work and solve their day-to-day problems individually rather than in a team environment. And even when extensive group work is involved, group members often divide up the work and complete each component independently.
Management assessment centres also require several raters in order to properly observe each of the participants. This is very costly and can be unproductive as raters are often away from their regular jobs for one to two days or more, the typical duration of a management assessment centre. For this reason, it is often only large companies, or organizations with big budgets, that can afford to develop and use management assessment centres because they are so labour-intensive and expensive. Another concern then, is the inability of smaller companies to benefit from this type of assessment.
Management assessment centres were designed with the right intentions and have served a valuable purpose. Yet with the arrival of performance-based micro assessments, management assessment centres may no longer be necessary.
Micro assessment: The new era
Micro assessments, sometimes called written interviews, are written, performance-based exercises that quickly and accurately evaluate short-listed job applicants before they proceed to the interview. By identifying the strengths, weaknesses, work habits and organizational, personal and cultural fit of the applicants, a micro assessment will help identify the top performer and eliminate 60 to 75 per cent of interviews, resulting in significant cost and time savings.
Here’s how micro assessments work: the range of activities an incumbent would typically perform on the job over six to 12 months is translated or broken down (thus the term “micro”) into a set of paper-based or computer-based questions and exercises that take applicants approximately one to three hours to complete.
Technical exercises and work-related problems
In addition to technical or job-specific exercises, applicants must also solve a set of work-related problems that demonstrate their ability to perform well within the confines of a specific department or company culture and to think on their feet.
Performance-based exercises and questions are easy to develop as they are derived directly from activities and situations on the job. You can quickly and easily assess knowledge, skill and ability requirements for managers, including staff, program and project management skills, communication skills and interpersonal interactions with staff, co-workers or customers, administrative or operational skills and even teamwork or problem solving.
Fair and fast assessment
This new process is particularly valuable for identifying top performing managers because they put all applicants — internal and external — on a level playing field. The performance of each applicant is easy to assess and document, clearly showing who performed well during the assessment. When a company wants to promote from within, it can identify areas that require improvement, performance management or formal training or development. Furthermore, more than one applicant can perform a micro assessment at the same time and they can also be completed and submitted electronically by applicants, either internally, locally, nationally or internationally.
Fewer applicants to interview
Since many companies move directly to the interview from resume screening, micro assessments provide a valuable opportunity to further refine your applicant pool before proceeding to the time-consuming interview stage.
And since many companies persist in interviewing six to 10 applicants or having several rounds of interviews during their selection process (just to be sure they have enough talent to draw from) the time savings can be significant if these six or 10 applicants first complete a written interview.
This can help the hiring party short-list the applicant pool to one, two or three top performing applicants per vacancy, an ideal number to interview. This extra step ensures that only fully qualified applicants will proceed to the interview.
As a general rule, about 60 per cent of applicants who proceed to an interview following resume screening, probably shouldn’t. After all, it is not uncommon for applicants to exaggerate their skills and abilities on their resume or to sweet talk hiring parties during the interview.
The written interview process means applicants can be assessed anywhere and at any time, even after their workday is over.
The interview can be sent out at the end of the hiring party’s workday, completed and returned by a pre-arranged time and evaluated the next morning. The receiving fax or e-mail will document the time when applicants returned their test.
Rating micro assessments is easy
The micro assessment is simple to score. It requires only a few minutes for the hiring party to rate each applicant and this is less time-consuming than going through an equal number of interviews. Then, only those who have proven their ability during the written interview stage — usually one to three applicants — proceed to the personal interview. And for those who came in ready to embellish or sweet talk, they are free to try their luck elsewhere.
This new way of screening candidates can be used by organizations for any level of position, from entry-level manager to senior vice-president, including single incumbent positions.
In fact, this approach has been used for organizations with more than 100,000 employees worldwide and just as successfully for a small office with fewer than five employees.
Top applicant will exceed expectations
Companies that use a written interview process frequently discover that applicants whose resume looked good did not perform well during the micro assessment, while the candidate that is eventually selected often exceeds their expectations.
If your current selection process relies heavily on expensive management assessment centres, psychological, aptitude or other generic tests, or even multiple rounds of interviews to determine the best candidate for a job, you may wish to consider a written interview.
This is particularly true if you are about to hire for multiple vacancies, conduct a global search or simply try to get through a politically charged internal hiring process with numerous applicants.
Micro assessments quickly, cost-effectively and consistently offer a reliable predictor of each applicant’s knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences as well as greater insight into how well the applicant will perform on the job and fit into your organization.
Stephen Jackson of HR Strategy, a Toronto-based consulting company, is author of Performance-based Selection: a step-by-step guide to saving time, reducing costs and hiring top performers. He can be reached at (416) 363-0480 or at www.hrstrategy.com
