Would you select someone into your national cricket team by simply getting him to sit for a written exam that will describe who he is, what he has done before and how much he knows about cricket? Or would you prefer to put him through a series of performance tests where you can see how fit he is, how well he bats, bowls or catches the ball and even better, observe him in a trial game and evaluate him based on what you see? The answer would be the latter option. Yet many organisations are doing precisely the opposite in their recruitment and selection approach and in transfers and promotions, preferring to depend on tests that offer little or irrelevant insights to decide on the suitability and eligibility of applicants. Recent reality shows like The Apprentice, have inspired many organisations to incorporate realistic situational tests into their selection method – preferring to evaluate applicants by watching them in real-life situations. Such is the basic tenet of the hSenid Assessment Centre.
Very often, there is a big gap between what we believe we will do versus what we actually do in life. In the hSenid Assessment Centre, what assessors are interested in are the actual behaviours that assessees are capable of, not what assessees think they should do, ought to do or would do. It is more important to show that you can actually do it. Real, demonstrated behaviours are what hSenid Assessment Centre focuses on. We are looking for leaders, managers and people who can actually do and not simply know what should be done! In other words, theoretical or model answers are not good enough! Seeing is Believing!
Assessment Centre is widely regarded as the most accurate process to help spot future talents and provide valuable developmental analysis. It is by far the most rigorous means to observe managerial competence under simulated conditions. It is like a kind of flight simulator to test drive your executives and managers without having them crash in real life.
The key benefit of using Assessment Centres is that it offers the highest predictive ability regarding a candidate's potential when compared with other available assessment tools. Assessment Centre also helps in providing a systematic and consistent means of evaluation, achieving fairness in promotion/selection decisions by allowing candidates to demonstrate job-related abilities on a level-playing field and helping people better understand future on-the-job requirements.
Going through an Assessment Centre is like taking a fitness test. You either have what they are testing for or you haven’t got it. You cannot fake behaviours in Assessment Centre. You cannot pretend to run 2.4 km within 13 minutes or fake doing 40 sit-ups, even if you know the test is looking for such abilities. If you have it, you can do it. If you do not have it, you cannot fake it. However, you can train for it to ensure that you do what is required. That is the beauty of Assessment Centre where what you see is what you get.
This is what hSenid together with our strategic partner Pacific Century Consulting of Singapore has on offer to all HR professionals in Sri Lanka, a state of the art assessment center manned by accredited assessors, administrators and role-players, HPAC is a purpose-build premise with state of the art assessment facilities and equipment to carry out assessments relating to recruitment or succession planning said Mr Sampath Jayasundara – Director/General Manager of hSenid.
(Dinesh Saparamadu CEO hSenid and Dr Lavin Lum of Pacific Century Consulting Singapore in conversation with Mr Ali Kamil Manager Human Resources of SriLankan Airlines at the launch.)