Assessment Centers for Recruitment and Internal Promotion
Assessment centers for recruitment and internal promotion have different outcomes or purposes. Generally speaking, the activities for promotion can include information that is more specific to the organization.
If you are assessing for promotion to management, first decide on the competencies you expect the candidate to demonstrate. For example, let's say one of them is problem-solving. Define the competency specifically and create a list of indicators—behaviors that can be observed.
Let's say one of the indicators is "considers a range of alternatives when suggesting a solution, including new or novel methods or procedures."
Now you can create a case study of a typical problem in your organization. You can include jargon or examples that only an internal employee would know, whereas with an external candidate, your case study would have to be generic in content.
Furthermore, your final assessment matrix is likely to be different.
Assessment Matrix for Internal Candidates
Perhaps your matrix for assessing an internal candidate would include something like this:
- Assessment center activities (e.g., case study, role-play, personality profile) 50%
- Performance reviews for the last 2 years 20%
- Record of continued educational or skills enhancements 20%
- Department head recommendation 10%
Assessment for Recruitment
When assessing for recruitment, you don't have these elements, or you may be using tools (like PRISM brain mapping) to screen out candidates that don't fit, and then do an interview and a role play, for example.
Factors Determining Assessment Procedures
In essence, what you do in assessment is determined by many factors:
- Goal of the assessment
- Budget
- Number of people to be assessed
- Criticality of the role
- Management philosophy toward assessment
Hope that helps you.