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Juliet Love is a freelance learning and development professional. Registered with the British Psychological Society, and certified to use a range of recognised psychometric tools, Love is regularly assigned as an assessment manager, responsible for arranging assessment centres for recruiting companies.
"The day of the assessment centre is often the pinnacle of the process. It's the work that goes into it before and after that is most important," Love says. "An assessment manager needs to understand what the company's objectives are, and what they are trying to measure on the day."
Assessment centres can be costly in terms of resources, with one day likely to require up to eight resourcers for eight candidates. It is therefore vital to ensure objectives are achieved by ensuring everyone involved is fully briefed in advance on what skills are being looked for, and how the assessment day works.
The role of assessment manager is logistical – co-ordinating the various elements and individuals involved in the assessment process. Depending on the size of the organisation, the assessment process may be organised internally or outsourced to a recruitment agency. Choosing a venue is also important. A number of rooms will be required for the different exercises occurring simultaneously – for instance, interviews, psychometric testing and group exercises.
"You get a real buzz from the assessment day," says Love. If everything has been organised well, the candidates arrive confident about what the day entails, and the assessors have been briefed on what they are looking for. You need to allow enough time at the end of the day, or even the next day, to fully debrief."
Good organisation skills are crucial to being a successful assessment manager. "Confidence is also required to challenge the status quo," Love points out. "If a company always uses a particular test but it doesn't help match their requirements, don't be afraid to suggest new ideas or even produce your own test."
To be an assessment manager, you need to ensure that the evidence collected during the day supports the recruitment decision. Ultimately, when a business selects the right people, it will reap the rewards.
