Assessment Centre Training Course Hong Kong & Singapore

Days 1 & 2

Introduction to Assessment and Development Centres

• What is an Assessment Centre?
• What is a Development Centre?
• Vocabulary used at the Centre: Assessor, Observer, Administrator, Wash-up etc.
• Introductory reliability and validity for Assessment & Development Centres.
• The Business Case for Assessment & Development Centres

Experiential Learning: Designing Assessment & Development Centres

Following the above introduction, the workshop will move to look at how Assessment and Development Centres are designed. This will be done in a very practical way, rather than slide lectures.

Job Analysis
Delegates will choose a Job to focus on and the facilitator will work with delegates to introduce and undertake multiple methods of Job Analysis in order to arrive at a list of essential competencies for assessment.

Competency Frameworks
As a result of the Job Analysis section, delegates now have a list of competencies. With the assistance of the facilitator, these will be expanded by way of drawing up objective definitions and a number of general indicators of performance. The group will start to consider what exercises might be useful to assess these competencies.

Designing Exercises
We will move on to consider a range of different exercises commonly used in Assessment & Development Centres. These will include In-tray Exercises, Group Exercises, Presentation Exercises, Focused Interviews, Psychometric Tests, Case Studies, Written Exercises and Role Play. Depending on the competencies chosen previously, some of these exercises will be designed as part of the learning process. Feedback, research evidence and pros and cons of each exercise will be provided by the facilitator at different stages during the design process to reinforce learning.

Rating/Scoring
In this part of the course, the group will put together the Design Matrix and will then move on to consider how exercises will be scored or rated. Delegates will have the opportunity to work with both Graphic Rating Systems and Behaviorally Anchored Rating Systems. We will also consider and design both Positive and Negative Behavioral Indicators. We will then work on an overall scoring system for the entire Centre which will see us discussing how weights can be applied both to exercises and competencies.

Logistics
Now that the Assessment or Development Centre is taking shape, we consider the logistics of the Centre. This will include a look at scheduling and venue, as well as room set-up.

Best Practice Issues
To ensure that everything we do is up to global standards, we will consider issues of Best Practice – this will include discussion of the content of Assessment and Development Centre Policy Documents, Ethics and Fairness Issues, Proper Data Storage and Confidentiality Issues.

Evaluating the Assessment or Development Centre
We don’t want to assume the Centre does what we want it to do, we need to ensure that it does! In this section, the facilitator will demonstrate how to assess for various types of reliability – including intra and inter rater reliability. He will also show how to assess Validity (i.e., does the exercise really assess what it is supposed to assess; and does that assessment predict something worthwhile at work?).

Advanced Practice: Design an entire Assessment or Development Centre from Scratch

The entire afternoon of Day 2 is handed over to course delegates to design their own Assessment or Development Centre under the guidance of the facilitator. This culminates in delegates actually running the prepared Centre on Day 3.

Day 2 Evening Work

Note that on the evening of Day 2, you will need to set aside a few hours so that you and your team can complete the design of an Assessment Centre which you and your team will facilitate on Day 3. This task is started in the afternoon of Day 2, but most delegates need additional time on that day, beyond the official 5pm finish time.

Day 3

The final day of the Assessment and Development Centre Training Course is for delegates to actually run an assessment or development center. On many of our courses we cooperate with local organizations or universities in Singapore or Hong Kong and invite their executives or students to our session to be assessed and receive feedback, all under the supervision and guidance of your expert psychologist facilitator.  This is not possible on every course.  Where this is not possible, we assess ourselves!  In this case, in the morning, half of the group becomes assessors and half becomes assessees. The grouping is then swapped in the afternoon.

By the end of the Assessment and Development Centre Training Course, delegates should:

• Understand the utility and business case of assessment and development centres.
• Understand the various different assessments that are available as part of an assessment centre as well as the relative reliability and validity of these methods for assessing various competencies.
• Understand how to build useful competency frameworks for the center.
• Understand how to write competency definitions as well as positive and negative behavioral indicators.
• Understand how to distinguish an overplayed strength.
• Understand Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales and Graphic Rating Scales and the reliability and validity of these two scoring methods.
• Understand how to weight different competencies based on work needs and different exercises in terms of how well they predict the competency.
• Understand how to implement weightings in an exercise scoring grid.
• Understand the concepts of inter and intra rater reliability and how to maximize and assess these important indicators.
• Understand how to maximize and assess the validity of the assessment or development centre.
• Understand international best practice in assessment and development centres and agree to abide by these standards.
• Have a developing* competence in the design and logistics of assessment and development centres.
• Have a developing* competence as an assessor or observer at an assessment and/or development centre.

*It is not expected that the delegate will be fully competent immediately following the course as this will take some practice. However, our style of experiential training does give delegates a head start in developing competence in the subject matter.

Our Assessment and Development Centre Training Course is suitable for anybody involved in Human Resource Management, Employee Supervision, Line and Executive Management and HR Consulting. Given the logistics and costs of running Assessment and Development Centres, they are typically used for middle to higher-level roles as well as graduate recruitment. In view of this, the course works best for those who work with, understand the work of, and are able to effectively communicate with these groups of people.

The course facilitator may vary from one course to the next but, PsyAsia International will always use Registered (Business) Psychologists who are experts in their field and who possess a minimum of a Masters degree in the specialty of I-O Psychology. Registered Psychologists are required to keep up-to-date in their field and must undertake extensive professional development every year. More often than not, our Assessment and Development Centre Training Course is facilitated by Psychologists with a Doctoral Degree in Psychology. Feel free to ask us for the profile of the psychologist who will be facilitating your specific course.

All delegates who actively participate throughout the entire Assessment and Development Centre Training Course will receive a Certificate of Attendance signed by the Psychologist Facilitator.

For an additional fee, delegates may choose to be assessed for a Certificate of Competence. This will require additional work outside of the course, wherein delegates will design their own Assessment or Development Centre without extensive help from others. All documentation is to be submitted within 1 month after the course. Feedback will be provided in a 15-20 minute Online Meeting with the psychologist assessor and the Certificate of Competence will be issued for work that meets the required standard. This is an excellent and economical way to have a Psychologist check your work without paying a high Consulting Fee!!

Very well structured, comprehensive, and practical. It gives attendees the confidence to design and run assessments that can be sure are valid and fair.
Name & Position Witheld
APM Group (Thailand)

Well thought through and well designed by the expert.
Potchanart Seebungkerd
Executive Faculty and Executive Coach
APMGroup (Thailand)

Dr. Tyler leads us to discover that assessing and recruiting the right person need information and details more than we thought. We never have too much information, normally we have less.
Suree J.
Consultant and Faculty
APMGroup (Thailand)

Great Course!
Evelyn Chue
Manager
Deloitte Consulting (Malaysia)

It was of high standard.
Georgia
Consultant
Thomas International (Malaysia)

I found the exercises on the course to be practical and extremely useful to help me better understand the course.
Senior Consultant
Deloitte Consulting (Malaysia)

The practice helps to bring the concepts together
Anonymous

A very useful and enjoyable course with bundles of practical application.
Anonymous
Principal Consultant (Singapore)

Excellent.
Kenneth Lim
Psychologist
Ministry of Defence (Singapore)

The practical aspect provides a good complement to the theoretical concepts on the subject.
Harish Shah
HR Consultant (Singapore)

Good and really enjoy.
Yun Leong Yu
Manager – Manpower & Salary Admin
Resorts World BHD (Malaysia)

You were a very effective facilitator.
Anonymous
Macau SAR Government

“It is a useful course for setting up an assessment centre.
Anonymous
Macau SAR Government

Excellent, surpassed my expectations.
Anonymous
Macau SAR Government

A very practical course…
Anonymous
Macau SAR Government