What is Virtual Assessment Centre (VAC)?
The Human Resource (HR) function has always played a vital role in making key talent decision processes in companies. The entire talent lifecycle of an employee’s career is essentially a roadmap carved by HR. Although not always the end decision makers, one of HR’s key roles is to implement strategies and process to enable decision makers to make accurate judgments.
This had led to the birth of many well-known HR tools often deployed to increase the predictive validity of decision making.
One of the most trusted tools is the Assessment Centre (AC). High in its predictive validity and trusted across the globe, the practice of the Assessment Centre (AC) has now been revolutionized by technology to create the Virtual Assessment Centre (VAC).
The Edge of Virtual Over Physical
This guide takes you along the journey of the Assessment Centre’s virtualization path and shows how to retain proven validity whilst leveraging technological advantages.
The Assessment Centre
From Military Origin
One of the most in-depth books on AC “A Preparation Guide for The Assessment Centre Method” by Tina Lewis Rowe cites that as far back as the mid-1930’s, Dr.Max Simoneit, a German psychologist who worked with the military, wanted to find a way to overcome the disparity between what an Officer candidates said they would do if promoted and what they actually did. He developed a process of observing Officer candidates as they performed various tasks and test, then rating them and using the ratings to make selection decisions.
This system used to select Officers of the High Command before WWII, at the time simply called an “assessment” by the Germans, took two days during which each candidate was interviewed, participated in athletic tests, underwent mental and manual performance test and most importantly of all the Fuehrerprobe, the leadership test.
This system proved to be so good that the British and American’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS) adopted a similar approach.
The British OSS version of the Assessment Centre were called Selection Assessment Boards.
Similar to today’s Group Activities, they introduced the Groupstacle with the aim of determining to what degree each man in a team of six would or could assume leadership within a group, contribute ideas for problem solving, cooperate with others and share in the dirty work.
To Corporate Practice
Eventually, as more psychologists poured their expertise into these selection processes and more scientific rigour added, industries started the practise of today’s AC. The American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) is not only recognized as one of the first implementers of AC but also early on showed how validated AC is through actual career studies.
In the 1950s, Douglas W. Bray as a director of human resources at AT&T directed a study that lasted over 20 years and followed the careers of young business managers as they progressed up the telephone company rankings. This study showed that the assessment center method could successfully predict organizational achievement and was later implemented throughout AT&T and eventually adopted by many other companies.
At the same time, AT&T created a building for recruitment of staff which was called The Assessment Centre, perhaps the most iconic contribution AT&T had on AC practice was the name itself.
Corporate Adoption
Post the AC method being used for selection much like in the case of military scenarios and the early days of AT&T, practitioners realized the results from this method could also be used to identify training needs. Hence, the traditional assessment center process started being used in professional growth and was referred to as Development Centres (DC).
This paved the way for HR to be able to deploy this assessing method across the talent lifecycle. The general rule of thumb is deploying this pre-hire such as hiring and graduate programs were called Assessment Centre’s (AC) and post-hire such as promotions and high potential programs were called Development Centre’s (DC).
Although the effectiveness of AC has been well proven and recognized, the adoption of AC varies across industries. Consulting companies were early adopters by implementing AC into their recruitment process followed by the majority of large private sector companies especially FSI’s whilst the manufacturing sector is slowly embracing the process as of late.
Of course, with adoption growing, companies also started stretching the creativity of the activities they deployed in their AC’s. Some interesting stories include activities that:
- Stretched overnight like a military boot
- Were done blindfolded
- Included Lego (actuarial science role)
- Were done in the dirt (dress code was suits)
-Employment Review; Personnel Today
Clearly Defining AC
To proceed on this guide, we first need to have a common understanding of the Assessment Centre (AC) method. When it comes to making talent decisions, the definitive way to evaluate an employees’ potential for a role is to directly observe their behaviour and capability in their first few months of probation. However, this has a huge risk and cost factor attached to it hence hardly any companies do this.
This is where AC’s come into play as it replicates as close as possible, in a simulated environment, the daily task, culture and expectations of the role.
In essence, an AC is a rigorous process for assessing a candidate’s behaviour and fit to a role. Usually designed and conducted by field experts or trained HR professionals, it can be deployed for any job role at any job level.
Why Assessment Centres
Assessment Centre brings a lot of benefits to hiring and development processes which can be categorized into 3 main areas; Realistic Job Preview, Rigor, Validity & Objectivity, and The Employer Brand.
1. Realistic Job Preview
- Glimpse into potential environment
- Preview into future job
- Preparedness for change of strategy
- Contextualising any environment
2. Rigor, Validity and Objectivity
- Multiple assessors
- Multiple activities
- Set criteria, competencies and behaviors
- Evidence based
3. The Employer Brand
- Slice of life in your company
- Build talent attraction strategy
- Employee retention
- It is a talent market
Limitations
Assessment Centre’s done physically also carry some limitations that have hindered companies from using them across the organization. These limitations are often why companies reserve ACs for only 5%-8% of the organization.
1. Resource and Logistical Hassle
- Man-days on assessment build
- Assessors/Management/Runners during AC
- Location setup and planning
- Cost of setup
2. Commitment by Stakeholders
- Co-design with external/internal parties
- Involvement by multiple businesses
- Securing budgets
3. Scale Limitations
- Geographical limitations
- Cost increase as complexity increase
- Becomes learnt
Move from Physical to Virtual
Due to the limitations of the physical AC, the birth of the Virtual Assessment Centre (VAC) came to place. Leveraging on technology, companies can now enjoy the reliability of assessment centers yet save time and money by deploying virtually. Just like physical assessment centers, virtual assessment centers have multiple tools mapped to behavioral competencies.
VAC’s provide a holistic understanding of a candidate without compromising on the quality and standard set by physical assessment centers. The tools are administered online, followed by automated reports, thus eliminating the hassle of logistics, reducing manual effort, and curbing the overhead costs in conducting an extensive in-person assessment; all this, without hampering the standardization and accuracy of the results.
3 Key Focus Areas in Virtualization
1. Reduce, Reuse & Replace Resource
Just like the famous mantra of waste management, you can optimize your resource and avoid unnecessary spend by following something similar and applying it when moving into a VAC.
Virtualization does not mean you entirely scarp your physical process, rather, look for waste to be reduced, effective resources to be re-used and non-scalable items to be replaced.
Below you will find simple questions to help understand if a resource should be reduced, reused or replaced and some examples as well.
Reduce: Do we need this? How do we get this in a more efficient way?
Resources we want to reduce often go hand in hand with the limitations of having a physical AC. We can reflect on this by looking our process and asking at each item do we need this? And if we do not, it can be removed. If we do however, we then ask how we get it in a more efficient way looking at the fact that the process is to be virtualized.
An example below is if we find we do not need logistics and materials spend, we can do away with it by virtual administration. Yet, if we still need time investment from assessors, we can make it more efficient by on-the-go ratings in which they do not have to be physically present to give their ratings.
Reduce
- Logistic spend
- Material spend
- Time investment
- Assessment Leaks
How?
- Virtual administration
- On the go ratings
- Virtual security features
Reuse: What still works and is efficient? Can easily be taken virtual?
There may be many resources and processes that exist within your physical AC or even in your overall talent practice that can be reused in a VAC. To understand what can be reused reflect on things that still work and is efficient and also can be easily taken into a virtual process. You will find a lot of these if your company is a heavy user of talent assessments.
An example below is if we already collect data via tools such as psychometric assessments, video interviews and 360’s they can be reused by either an integration of the tool itself into your VAC or by integrating the data alone. Leverage also on current resources like your existing online branding which can easily be adopted by a VAC platform.
Reuse
- Business case studies
- Physical group activities
- Face to face interviews
How?
- Business simulations
- Virtual teamwork simulations
- Pivotal experience interviews
2. Create the Right Candidate Experience
Creating the right candidate experience does not have to mean big bold interfaces with over-the-top messaging and loads of free gifts. Often, companies chase these things but forget the essentials of experience and end up spending a lot on flash without no substance, leading to poor candidate experience still.
In getting your VAC candidate experience right, think first about these 4 essential components:
Branding
Research has shown how strong employer branding has a direct impact on talent acquisition. Companies with better reputations have higher-quality and more satisfied employees. In fact, a LinkedIn study found that 69% of candidates say they would not accept a job in a firm with a bad reputation even if they would be jobless.
VAC is one of the best tools to promote employer brand because it gives companies the opportunity to showcase their values, leadership qualities, and style of working all through the VAC platform. VAC’s give room to deliver more interactive types of branding. The entire virtual experience a candidate goes through can be designed to match the desired employer brand the company wants to convey in a much more impactful way.
Integration & Consolidation
As we try and make our talent practices more rigid and valid, we tend to add on processes and often forget about continuity. This means we keep adding tools and forms yet from a candidate experience this becomes frustrating because it seems like repetition and to the admin you start having mountains of data that do not talk to each other. In virtualization, always keep in mind integrate processes, consolidate data.
We look at consumer tech as an example, you can sign into most apps today as long as your Gmail or Facebook is logged on. This means no more new accounts, new passwords, having to input personal information repeatedly etc. Through integrations and consolidation, your VAC can be as continuous as this for both the candidate and the admin.
Candidate Functionality
The easier and more flexible it becomes for candidates to work out functionalities within your VAC the better experience they have. Over merely taking assessments, a good VAC platform should also expand on the interactions the candidate can do. For example, communication features to directly link to recruiters, a self-scheduler that given scheduling freedom back to candidates and removes the hassle from HR, chatbots for quick problem resolution, etc.
The idea here is, the more functions are placed within the VAC, the more interactive the candidate becomes with the platform and at the same time lowers the amount of operational work HR has to do.
Accessibility
- Will the platform require the use of a laptop or is it mobile-ready?
- Will there be a need for a strong Internet connection?
- Will the candidate need to install further plug-ins and software?
Asking these 3 questions can determine how accessible your VAC platform is. Accessibility is especially important to achieve scale when using VAC’s as they can influence important numbers such as error pages, completion rates, and drop-off rates.
Understanding the demographics of your candidate pool will give you a view of how accessible the platform needs to be. The more diverse in age and geo-location your demographics are the more accessibility impacts the overall experience.
3. Leverage on Data
“You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data”
One of the most powerful features that will separate your physical AC from your virtual AC is the ability to leverage data in a whole new way. Whilst the only data taken from physical AC’s are scores used to rate candidates, there is no data that serves to improve the process in itself. In virtualizing, data will be able to improve your AC process as a whole by optimizing 5 key areas as below:
Wallet Friendly
In leveraging on data and achieving speed, accuracy, holistically, and scalability we are able to break the cost limitation of physical AC’s and create a wallet-friendly solution that is highly efficient, effective, and reliable.
10 Steps to Developing a VAC
Job Analysis
– Planning
Whether deploying a VAC for hiring or development, the core principle is finding the right person for the job, and without first understanding thoroughly the job we are trying to fill, it is impossible to know who the right person is. A job analysis goes beyond what is usually printed on a job description.
In doing a job analysis, we need to understand at the least; direct and indirect accountabilities of the job, what the job scope look likes in the lenses of the present and the future, the competencies both leadership and functional required to perform at the job, and the proficiency required amongst those competencies.
Define Competencies
– Planning
Once the job has been analyzed, there should be a clear framework emerging in terms of competencies telling us what a high potential candidate should exhibit. Ensure to clearly define these competencies to avoid confusion. These competencies are then further explained by a set of behaviours that indicate what both positive and negative markers look like.
Further, zoom into the competencies by asking can they be measured by an assessment center. Certain competencies will only be visible on the job or overtime however most leadership and some technical competencies can easily be measured via a VAC.
Exercise Mapping & Design
– Planning
Utilizing the results from the job analysis and identification of the set of competency and criteria, multiple exercises that reflect a simulation of the target job’s key elements and context can now be mapped. The design of using multiple exercises is to have a complete picture of how candidates would respond in different scenarios and validate their performance by measuring each competency more than once.
These exercises can range from psychometric assessments, cognitive tests, business simulations, video interviews and etc.
Candidate Experience
– Planning
Up until now all process-driven portions of planning a VAC are done. Now comes an important step that could lead to a successful or failed execution, thinking of the candidate experience. Planning this requires walking in the candidates’ shoes.
At this step you need to think about the tone of email invitations being sent out, the length of the assessments, the time is given in total to complete the process, and anticipating any problems that may happen along the way. Remember, the level of audience changes the answer to all the above. A VAC can vary between 1-2 hours for graduates to 4-5 hours for C-suites.
Platform Setup
– Execution
Technology is a process catalyst in which if your process is right technology makes it exponentially better but if your process is wrong it becomes detrimental. This is why we get the planning phase right before moving to the virtual platform now. Here, ensure your VAC platform is set up according to your organization needs in terms of branding, scoring, competencies, activities and etc.
Also, ensure to test and receive feedback from all your stakeholders’ views meaning the candidates’ perspective, HR’s perspective, and line manager’s perspective.
Candidate Engagement
– Execution
Candidate engagement is a metric that is essential to any HR initiative and is one way to ensure maximum ROI on VAC’s. The initial excitement during the launch of a program can be high but the real challenge is keeping that constant throughout the time.
Increase candidate engagement in your VAC’s by matching the right type of assessment to the right job level, ensuring purpose is given to the candidate on why and what the VAC is about, ensure to avoid assessment fatigue, and constantly monitor completion and dropout rates to be agile with your communication strategy.
Score Outcomes
– Analysis
An important step to high adaption rates amongst internal stakeholders is the outcomes of the VAC. Many times, off-the-shelf reports or scoring formats that are not contextualized to your organization tend to have low adaption rates as the interpretation of what scores mean to the company is left to the individual.
Instead, think about what reports and language are familiar with stakeholders within your company and how assessment score implications can easily be read. The easier this information is interpreted, the higher internal adaption becomes.
Cut-Off Scores
– Analysis
The benchmark at which you qualify a candidate is another important scoring aspect to look at. Without proper analysis, you could either end up setting the bar too high and have no candidates meeting the threshold or setting the bar too low and qualifying weak candidates as good.
There are various best practice benchmarks available by assessment companies you can use to start as guidance such as industry benchmarks, national benchmarks, and global benchmarks depending on the company and role. Post utilizing this benchmark, do a validation study against future performance scores to understand where your cut-off sweet spot is.
Additional Data
– Analysis
The beauty of using a virtual assessment platform is having the ability to add data that can further contribute to holistically profiling a candidate. Upon collecting assessment scores, data such as performance scores can be added as well.
A strong data point to use is assessment metadata. This refers to data points collected aside from the main measures of an assessment. For example, whilst a business simulation may directly collect scores on “Strategic Thinking” ability, metadata such as speed to made strategic decisions, impulsiveness, aggressive thinking, etc. is also collected and can tell you with greater depth about a candidate.
Bias & Inconsistencies
– Analysis
Lastly, a final step to ensure maximum effectiveness from your VAC in order for your talent decision-making process to be rigid yet fair is to put in place a check for bias & inconsistencies. If your VAC involved human intervention when scoring for things like video interviews, unconscious bias may have played a part. Check on this by exploring rating patterns or many virtual platforms now have algorithms in place to detect if an assessor is potentially being biased in their rating.
Inconsistencies can be seen by irregular assessment completions like time spent and extreme low scores. Inconsistencies may occur from candidates potentially not taking the assessment seriously, guessing too much, not understanding the language or task and etc.
- Think about what competencies are important
- Over-dependence on one tool
- 4-5 tools in whole process
- Lasting at most 3-4 hours
- Who are your candidates?
- What level are they?
- What is the VAC being run for?
- Create the high touch around the online assessments
- Messaging and timing is important
- The larger the candidate pool the more
- Think about the sharing of your assessment
Conclusion - Kick-Off Your VAC
As we have seen, moving from physical to virtual assessment centers not only offers a resource-saving alternative but also has added benefits due to technological advantages. The concepts remain similar, but virtualization brings a whole new advantage to your assessment practice.
To kick-start, your own VAC keep these things in mind: Leverage virtual solutions, host on the right platform, and leverage big data.
With these VAC principles, your talent decisions will be made with the utmost validity whilst being resource-efficient.