Assessment Centre

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"Assessment centres", also known as "assessment centers" (American spelling) or "assessment days", are an extended period of interviews, assessed tasks and assessment exercises, organised and held by recruiters for small groups of graduate level candidates (usually between six and 20 people).

Recruiters use assessment centres to find out how candidates perform in various situations, in particular group situations, which are often modelled on real life work-based scenarios. They are most frequently used by large graduate employers who want to hire a relatively large number of people for a similar job role, such as a graduate scheme.

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Why is it called an assessment centre?

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The term "assessment centre" is used because employers usually conduct these extended assessments in a single centre, either an office of the employer themselves or at a third party venue, such as a hotel or function room. The term "assessment day" is used because most of the time, these extended periods of assessment last for the best part of a day. Many last for 24 hours, and some even last longer (up to three days).

When do assessment centres take place?

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If used, assessment centres are usually the final, or penultimate stage of the interview process for graduate jobs. This is because they can be expensive (they take up a lot of space and a lot of employees time to organise and run) and it is in an employer's interests to invite only job applicants most likely to be hired for the job applied for. Most job applicants have usually been rejected before the assessment centre stage of a firm's interview process, having been screened out using single phase assessment techniques such as telephone interviews, online aptitude tests and/or short face-to-face interviews.

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What are the assessments?

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Assessment centres are commonly made up of a mixture of (but not all of) the following individual and group assessments:

Typical interviews used at an assessment centre

Typical individual assessments used at an assessment centre

Typical group assessments used at an assessment centre

For more information regarding your "assessment centre", visit the forum or see the article How to Prepare for Assessment Centres.

Expenses

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Candidates are invited to assessment centres by the firm they have applied to. As guests, attendance is always free, even if perks such as lunch, dinner or hotel rooms are provided. Most graduate employers will also be willing to cover each candidate's travel expenses, usually up to a maximum of £100. However, for international applicants PwC has an allowed expense of up to 300 GBP.

A minority of firms (usually small-sized firms with smaller graduate recruitment budgets) will not offer to cover travel expenses. If you have been invited to attend an assessment centre, you should contact the HR team of the company in question to find out their policy on expenses. It is not rude to do this; graduate employers are fully aware that most students and graduates do not have much money and that travel is expensive.

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Assessment centre etiquette

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It is important to be professional at an assessment centre. Candidates should behave like the employees of the company they are being assessed by. You must wear smart business dress throughout; men should wear ties and polish their shoes; women should dress appropriately. If in doubt, dress conservatively.

Be polite, look people in the eye and shake hands. Make an effort to say hello to your fellow candidates and assessors. Everything you do during an assessment centre will be noted.

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Why do employers use assessment centres?

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Assessment centres are routinely used by larger graduate recruiters to assess candidates. Smaller graduate recruiters may not be able to organise and orchestrate entire assessment centres due to the expense involved, but are starting to introduce elements of assessment centres into their interview processes, such as psychometric testing and in-tray exercises.

The cost of putting a candidate through an assessment centre varies depending on the length, tasks involved and amount of employees required to assess candidates. Employers could be spending as much as £3,000 on each candidate at an assessment centre.

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Why spend so much money assessing graduates?

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Employers are prepared to spend money on assessment centres because they believe them to be the most accurate means of recruiting the right people for their vacant jobs. Research carried out by business psychologists into various methods of recruitment has demonstrated that traditional job interviews are not a particularly accurate way to predict a candidate's future performance. Interviews may also be affected by an interviewer's pre-conceptions or bias.

At an assessment centre candidates are usually marked objectively, in terms of highly structured competencies. The tasks they are asked to perform usually reflect the work they will be doing if hired, and consequently their ability to perform at assessment is thought to be a direct indication of their potential ability to perform the job in question. The group aspect also allows assessors to find out about candidate's key personality traits, such as how well-suited candidates are at working with other people.

Consequently it is thought that assessment centres are the fairest and most accurate way to recruit staff.

Job Test Prep offer a comprehensive online practice for candidates interested in improving their performance at Assessment Centres which is available to all WikiJob users - click here to find out more now

Assessment panels

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An assessment centre is usually conducted by a group of assessors made up of members of an employer's HR team, departmental managers and partners at the firm. In theory this makes the process more objective, because the final decision on each candidate must be agreed on by a team of assessors, using a range of structured assessment methods, rather than one person. Competitive sports, such as ice-skating and boxing, and even celebrity talent shows such as X-Factor, also use panels for the very same reason.

Assessment centres are not a competition

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You will not be in direct competition with other candidates at an assessment centre. It is normal for large organisations to recruit to a standard. All, several, one or none of your assessment group may be hired. You need to perform to a very high standard at an assessment centre, but you do not need to challenge, compete or disagree with other candidates. In fact, it may harm your assessors opinion of you if you do.

Selectors want to see how you react to and get on with other people during your assessments. Although it is good to show that you are competitive, your assessors are just as interested to see evidence of teamwork, communication and leadership skills, all things that are essential for a good employee to possess.

Example assessment centre

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Assessment centres vary a great deal from firm to firm. A typical assessment centre at an investment bank will be as follows:

Take a practice assessment centre course from JobTestPrep
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Day one

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  • 5pm: Arrive at Hotel / Registration
  • 6.30pm: Drinks reception with company representatives
  • 7.30pm: Dinner with company representatives
  • 9.00pm: Company presentation

Day two

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The drink and dinner receptions with company representatives will almost certainly be with the assessment centre organisers (who will also be your assessors) and current graduate trainees working at the firm.

Take every opportunity to talk to current trainees as they will not be directly assessing you and can offer great advice about the assessment centre, interviews and the job itself.

Take a practice assessment centre course from JobTestPrep
  • Click here for more info.
Job Test Prep offer a comprehensive online practice for candidates interested in improving their performance at Assessment Centres which is available to all WikiJob users - click here to find out more now

Further Information

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Literature covering how to ace your assessment centres is available here

For further information also see:

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