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 development 3. Potential appraisal 4. Succession planning 5. Challenging assignments allocations 6. Management development 7. 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

ASSESSING COMPETENCIES
Written as well as oral individual/group exercises Measurement of an individuals 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

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 Cognizants 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 er a variety o test ith accurate scoring systems llo employers to choose the type o test imultaneous testing o multiple applicants akes hiring convenient aves 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 centers

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  Indias 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 acquisition  Recruitment  Succession planning  Candidate selection  Still a novelty whose significance corporate India is trying to understand