EVOLUTION OF ASSESSMENT CENTRES AS A HR TOOL

INTRODUCTION

Assessment Centre (AC):A guiding tool used by HRM to evaluate and develop personnel in terms of attributes or abilities relevant to organizational effectiveness

Uses: 1. Selection 2. Career development3. Potential appraisal4. Succession planning5. Challenging assignments allocations6. Management development7. Identification of a global pool of talented managers

TEST VARIETIES FOR EASY APPLICANT EVALUATION

Personality test IQ test Psychological test Communication skills test Reasoning skill test Technical competencies

ASSESSMENT CENTERS

PROMETRIC PEARSON VUE COMPUTERISED ADAPTIVE

TESTING

GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS USING ACs

COGNIZANT UNILEVER ROLLS ROYCE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGAMENT NARSEE MONGEE INSTITUTE OF

MANAGEMENT STUDIES

THE COGNIZANT STORY

Introduction: • Introduced the concept of assessment centres in 1998• Senior management and middle management professionals assessed• The need to identify future leaders• Making right investments• Professionals trained to take up leadership positions

• Written as well as oral individual/group exercises• Measurement of an individual’s current and future potential in role-related competencies• AC centre – a tool to measure spectrum of purposes ranging from recruitment to promotions to redundancy identification

ASSESSING COMPETENCIES

How has AC helped Cognizant?

• Early identification of potential• Behavioural competency • Data generated used as input for several other subsystems in the organisation• Benchmarked against global standards

CONCLUSION OF THE CASE

• Cognizant is convinced that AC is the most strategic fit for its business and for identifying potential within the organisation for leadership positions• Customers appreciate Cognizant’s efforts to get the right people for the right job• Customer Satisfaction Survey results have been on ascendance with each passing year

ONLINE ASSESSMENT CENTERS

• Third party institutions• Offer a variety of test with accurate scoring

systems• Allow employers to choose the type of test• Simultaneous testing of multiple applicants• Makes hiring convenient• Saves a company hiring cost

HOW TO USE ONLINE ASSESSMENT CENTRES?

Register to the said service provider Company is given a password for an online account Refer applicants about the assessment center’s

website Applicants take the required test to complete the

application Results with reports are sent to the employer through

email

CASE STUDIES

1999 Kargil war Dantewada incident India’s DRDO

1999 KARGIL WAR

IAF Chief Tipnis refused to support the brave Army Jawans and Officers on the mountains of Ladakh.

Hid his Force behind obscure arguments of Strategic Escalation, etc. Finally arm twisted by the Govt. to go into action. The IAF's Tactics were flawed They lost 2 Helicopters and 2 MIG Fighters on the very first day

Mujahedeen sitting on Mountain Tops armed with outdated Stingers purloined from the Afghan - Soviet War.

That ended the IAF's Kargil War effectively. They preferred to fly at great altitude and rain down Bombs on the

Mountains, but hitting nothing. Helicopter Pilots refused to evacuate the Army's wounded from the front

lines The hapless wounded Jawans were carried down on the back of their

comrades and evacuated by the brave Pilots of the Army's own Aviation Helicopters.

THE BIG QUESTION

THE ANSWER IS

COWARDICE AND LACK OF LEADERSHIP

Dantewada incident

CRPF is a law and order force rather than for counter-insurgency operations.

Leadership in CRPF is not praiseworthy.

Unless troops and officers are trained and are in the thick of action together, the leadership will continue to suffer.

The lack of able leadership led to the death of 76 troops.

India’s DRDO

Delays and failures of indigenous defence products

48 of the fighters are set to be inducted into the Air Force

Cost and time overruns of major defence projects like:

The Light Combat Aircraft The Arjun Tank The Kaveri engine The Akash Surface to Air Missile

WHY DID IT HAPPEN?

The inability of the research body to involve the Armed Forces in developmental projects from the start

Poor planning Over-optimistic timelines Lack of coordination Over estimating capabilities Reduces its war-fighting potential.

Assessment centers are

Integral part of Human Resource Management facilitating

Talent acquisitionRecruitmentSuccession planningCandidate selection Still a novelty whose significance

corporate India is trying to understand……