Assessment center technique for senior level executive hiring

HR Program (Staffing

From: Kenny Houston (HR Director)

Alan Ben (Chief Executive Officer).

Dear Sir,

Assessment Center Technique Program Proposal

Fundamental objective of this proposal is to discuss the assessment centre technique and its particular importance to our organization when hiring senior level executive. To enhance greater understanding of the assessment center, the proposal provides its brief description.

Usefulness of Assessment Center Technique in Senior Level Hiring

There is several usefulness of the assessment center in senior level hiring. First, the assessment center provides objective and standardized methodology in hiring top level executive. By using multiple stimulations in observing candidates, the assessor professionals are able to rate each candidate to the managerial competency. Organizations using assessment center are able to select appropriate senior level candidates for the appropriate senior level positions. Avery and Callow (2010) argue that assessment center has direct impact on organizational profitability since the technique is a powerful tool in enhancing the selection of high quality and best candidate for senior level position. Many organizations using assessment center technique are already reaping the benefits of assessment centre to maximize their investment. Through assessment center, organization could readily predict a candidate for job performance. Organizations could also readily place candidate in the right position based on the candidate performances. Thus, an organization would be able to avoid the costly mistake of placing a candidate on a wrong position. Hagan, et al. (2006) point out that competencies are the building block of an organization, and selection of people with right competent is critical to organizational survival. In the present day competitive global market environment where organizations are being pressured to deliver high quality products within the shortest time, selection of high quality people is very critical to achieve organizational performances. The authors further argue that assessment center is very effectively to determine the competent levels of candidates. Typically, assessment center is a legally defensible selection process since it has been able to eliminate bias in the selection process. By using assessment center in the selection of senior level candidate, an organization could be able to predict the work's performances of employees selected. (Hogarty & Bromley 1996).

"A wealth of research demonstrates the validity of assessment centre findings. For example, one of at&T's studies compared 40 employees promoted using assessment centers with 40 who had been selected by other means. They discovered that two-thirds of the former group was rated above satisfactory in their job performance vs. only one-third selected by other means. With research estimating differences in employee performance to be worth 30% of a role's annual salary, this increase in selection quality has substantial implications for profitability." (Avery and Callow 2010 P. 29).

Based on the cost effectiveness of assessment centers, Amen (2010) argues that assessment centers are valid, cost effective and are seen to be effective in the selection of candidates for management positions. Compared to other selection method, assessment centers could provide better predictor of job performances for prospective candidates.

Despite the usefulness of assessment center in hiring senior level executive, there are some drawbacks identified with the use of assessment center.

Shortcomings of Assessment Center Technique in Senior Level Hiring

Major shortcoming of assessment center is the amount of time required for managers to spend in the selection of right candidates. Typically, managers of organizations using in-house assessment center technique for the selection procedure spend huge amount of time in the selection process. Sometimes, a manager will need to leave his or her job for three or four days to observe participants during the stimulation process. Manager will also need to spend additional one or two days with other observers in order to make a final evaluation.

Pynes & Bernardin (1992) argue that the increasing costs of implementing assessment center often deter many organizations in implementing assessment center technique in the selection of senior level candidate. Typically, it often costs an organization between $2,000 and $5,000 to select a senior level candidate. Moreover, the time spent by the a Psychology manager or Human Resources manger in evaluating candidate often serve as additional costs for organizations. Despite the high cost of implementation assessment center, Pynes et al. (1992) argue that long-term gains of assessment center outweigh its shortcomings. Moreover, may organizations have been able to overcome the costs of time spent by in-house managers by using external professional assessor for the assessment center.

In case Chief Executive Officer (CEO) gives go-ahead, the paper discusses the next step in the assessment center implementation. To enjoy the benefits of assessment centers, there is a need to develop a plan for the assessment centers technique.

Implementation of Assessment Center

Amen (2010) provides the following steps in the implementation of assessment centers. First, an organization should define the purpose and objective to derive from the implementation. This includes stating the right caliber of candidates that an organization intends to employ and competent level of the candidates.

Moreover, organizational support is very important. This includes financial and human resources for the implementation. For further implementation, there is a need to determine relevant exercises and critical abilities. More importantly, there is a need to select and train assessors. Selection and training of assessors is very critical for hiring of appropriate candidates.

Further suggestion is the selection of the assessment center site, which should be convenient for the implementation of the assessment center. Next step is to conduct the assessment center. An organization needs to use multiple evaluations in arriving at valid selection of candidate. Simulation methods such as in-basket exercises, analysis exercise, management games and group discussions are the effective methods in the selection process. For the selection of senior level executive, leadership group exercise is an effective technique to assess leadership.

Pooling information and completing the assessment center report is the next step that involves collating the results of all candidates for selection. The results of the assessment center should be able to provide appropriate, reliable and valid inference of each candidate. Using the results, the assessor should be able to select the right candidate for the right position.

The proposal discusses the assessment center and the benefits and the shortcomings of the assessment center. Analysis of the assessment center reveals that its benefits outweigh its shortcomings, and organization will achieve long-term gains using assessment center for senior level hiring.

Based on the benefits of the assessment center that have been discussed in the proposal, the proposal recommends that our organization should implement assessment center for hiring of senior level executive. In the contemporary business environment, senior level executives are the backbone of any organizations. Senior executive are the people making decision that middle and lower level employee will execute, and organizations that are able to maker right and effective decision will enjoy higher profitability in a business environment. The proposal has evaluated the assessment center, and it is revealed that assessment center is very effective for the selection of right candidate for senior level position. Thus, our organization should implement assessment center based on the benefits that our organization will derive from the exercise. By implementing the assessment centre, our organization will be able to boost its revenue and profitability in the next fiscal year.

Additionally, our organization will enjoy good public image ad we will be able to attract qualified and competent candidates for the senior level position since we have demonstrated validity and reliability in our hiring process. By attracting competent people to our organization, we will be able to attract investors to our organization, and this would further boost our profitability.