Assessment day
[1] Most large organisations like banks, audit and IT firms use assessment days to recruit the fresh talent in their graduate programmes.
[2] There are several examples throughout history, but the term "Assessment" for recruiting employees was firstly used in World War II by German Army in early 1930s.
[6] The purpose of having an assessment day is to see how candidates actually behave when they will be put in real work life situations, for example performing an exercise with a group of people under timed conditions.
Larger organisations sometimes also hire or invite their occupational psychologists on the panel to provide professional reviews on the candidate's behaviour.
Ultimately, the purpose of employers having an assessment day is to measure how well candidates will deal with a situation that they might encounter in the job.
The idea behind these activities is to judge whether the candidate will overpower the group or fade in the background when they have to work with people with different skills set.
Most in-tray exercises are designed according to the job specification and they test a set of key competencies based on the values of the organization.
Some companies even hire professional actors for role play exercise so the situation will be more close to real life and also they can assess the candidate accurately.
[16] This is usually the last stage of assessment day, If candidates have completed all other tasks, this is an ideal opportunity for individuals to ask questions from hiring managers and showcase them their talent and impress them with the research that they have done about the company and its products and services.
This is one of the most important aspects of an assessment day as assessors get to know a candidate individually and it has a great impact on the selection process.
[17] Assessors on the assessment day only give credit for the knowledge skills and attitudes (KSA's) candidates exhibit during these exercises.
A person may have a first class degree but he may not be able to make critical decisions under pressure or lack skills to delegate work to his team.
[19] Exercises and Activities involve at an assessment day are highly adaptable for all types of job roles and for all sorts of organizations.
Furthermore, with an increase in technology people who have been to an assessment day of a company write about their experiences and nature of exercises involved on social websites and student forums which in result give all the answers to future candidates and they prepare themselves in advance which is sometimes not fair for selection process.
[22] Sometimes, candidates complain that they feel uncomfortable on an assessment day as they are just "role playing" and assessors don't get to know "the real me".
Moreover, sometimes its hard for an organization to gather all their assessors and managers on the same day as the assessment process is very time-consuming as it can lasts from 4 to 7 hours.
