Assessment Centres Dec 13

8/12/2019 Assessment Centres Dec 13

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UCL CAREERS GRADCLUB

DAY 4: JUMPSTART

YOUR JOB HUNTSUCCEEDING AT ASSESSMENT

CENTRESDiana Omololu & Evan Hancock

UCL Careers




Plan for today….

understand why recruiters use assessment centres

opportunity to practice common activities:Introductions exercise, icebreaker (presentation), e-tray

exercise, situational judgement test, group discussion and a

business case study (NOT interviews)

sit in the recruiter’s shoes

learn how to improve your performance‘permission to fail’

further support and resources

housekeeping




Best Holiday Destination Ice Breaker

What is your favourite holiday destination?

Take 1 minute to prepare

Each person presents for 1 minute only (go clockwise)

The aim is to persuade your group members that yourpreferred destination is the best.

Introductory partner keeps time and then providesfeedback at the END of all the presentations:

what they did well

what they could improve on




The Ice Breaker

Why do employers use ice breakers at the start?

introductions / relax candidatesform initial opinions

Other examples:

present introductions of each other, build

something as a team……




Insights




What is an Assessment Centre?

• commonly used by larger graduate recruiters

– tool of mass recruitment




7

Selection methods




Number of

applications received

by AGR employers pervacancy






• compared to initial selection process, you are now

a probable, not a possible employee (5-10%

candidates)






• compared to initial selection process, you are now

a probable, not a possible employee (5-10%

candidates)

• assessment centres:

– are often longer and held on recruiter premises – more work-related tests and group tasks

– involve more senior organisational staff

– seek evidence of potential




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register/ situational judgement/ online application form online psychometric tests

test centre e-tray includes verbal/ numerical retests assessment centre:

written exercise – policy recommendation

group exercise – role play

briefing exercise

competency-based interview

Fast Stream Job offers

Recruitment report

http://www.faststream.gov.uk/index.asp




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register/ situational judgement/ online application form (15,590) online psychometric tests (13,170)

test centre e-tray (invite 3,194)includes verbal/ numerical retests assessment centre: (586)

written exercise – policy recommendation

group exercise – role play

briefing exercise

competency-based interview

Fast Stream Job offers – 191 (81 per place)

Recruitment report

http://www.faststream.gov.uk/index.asp




Competency assessment

Application

Aptitude

test Interview

Group

Exercise Presentation

Role-

play Informal

Written Communication

Presentation

Interpersonal

Time Management

Commercial awareness

Leadership

Resilience

Analtyical

Initiative

Assessment centre




Assessment centre testing

Aptitude Tests

assess abilities in numerical, verbal

diagrammatic/ reasoning

typically multiple-choice format

right & wrong answers, timed conditions

measure potential not knowledge




Practice materialKenexa online aptitude test

Timed online testing of

graduate recruiter calibre1 hour limit plus practice

questions

Automatic results and

feedback by emailRequire registration emailwww.ucl.ac.uk/careers/gradclub/helpwi

thapplicationsandinterviews/application

sandinterviews/aptitude

Careers library loans

Borrow Self-help and test

banks3 working days

£10 refundable deposit




Assessment centre Testing

Situational Judgement Test (STJ’s)

used for self-assessment or as filtering mechanism

candidates presented with a range of ‘role-relevant’situations

for each situation, usually 4 or 5 potential actions

(most, least relevant)

no special training, knowledge or experience requiredgenerally online, multiple-choice and time limits




You are working as a Graduate Trainee for Sutton & Sykes, a manufacturer of

domestic electrical goods for the UK and European market. You are on a

rotational placement programme spending 6 months in each of 4 different

departments of the company in order to ‘learn the ropes’ before being

assessed for a permanent management position. You have completed yourplacements in Manufacturing and in Facilities Services. You are half-way

through your 6 months in the Human Resources (HR) department.

Your final placement will be with the Finance department and is due to

commence upon completion of your 6 months in HR.

In relation to the following situations, what do you consider to be the most

and least applicable response.

Sample Situational Judgement test




You have had an email from a senior manager in the Finance department, Sally Arkwright, who will be your placement supervisor when you join the team in 3 months’

time. She is keen that you are aware that you will be joining the department at their

busiest time. You are due to start in Finance in January which is the peak financial

planning season. The staff will be working flat out to produce the annual business

plans and budget allocations for each department in Sutton & Sykes and to align this

with the projections of profit & loss for the business. Your supervisor feels that it is

very important you are aware of this so you can ‘hit the ground running’ when you jointhe team. You have never worked in a finance role before.

MOST LEAST

Search the internet for information on business planning, budgeting and profit & loss

calculation.

Email Sally and ask if it would be possible to have a one-to-one meeting with her

before you begin your placement to find out as much as possible about the projects

on which you might be working.

Thank Sally and say that you will contact her in December, a few weeks before your

placement, and ask for specific details of your projects.

Email Sally thanking her for her early warning. Ask her whether she can provide any

information on the projects on which you might be working in January.




You have had an email from a senior manager in the Finance department, Sally Arkwright, who will be your placement supervisor when you join the team in 3 months’

time. She is keen that you are aware that you will be joining the department at their

busiest time. You are due to start in Finance in January which is the peak financial

planning season. The staff will be working flat out to produce the annual business

plans and budget allocations for each department in Sutton & Sykes and to align this

with the projections of profit & loss for the business. Your supervisor feels that it is

very important you are aware of this so you can ‘hit the ground running’ when you jointhe team. You have never worked in a finance role before.

MOST LEAST

Search the internet for information on business planning, budgeting and profit & loss

calculation.

Email Sally and ask if it would be possible to have a one-to-one meeting with her

before you begin your placement to find out as much as possible about the projects

on which you might be working. X

Thank Sally and say that you will contact her in December, a few weeks before your

placement, and ask for specific details of your projects.

Email Sally thanking her for her early warning. Ask her whether she can provide any

information on the projects on which you might be working in January.






Your turn: Some Tests

Situational Judgement Test – 4 minutes

Sutton & Sykes

Feedback






ItemPriorityA/B/C Justification for choice

1 A

1 A/B

Act immediately/ delegate as information potentially required for this afternoon's

meeting.

Act immediately as information potentially required for this afternoon's meeting.

1 A/B

(A) - respond to client this morning stating whether costs can be provided or potentially

forwarded later as currently not part of today’s agenda (assume 5 minutes)

(B) - If agree to provide, delegate immediately as information readily available but will

require significant preparation time (assume 10 minutes briefing time)

Degrees of Justification




E-tray exercise – 12 minutes

Yellow Frog

IMPORTANT: Justify your answers




Feedback

Chat with another partner about your answers and how you found the

tests

what insights have you gained?






BREAK!

Strong backs

required please




Group Exercises

practical

planning and organising a complicated task

analytical, teamwork and leadership skills.

case studies

real life problem facing an organisation

individual roles and briefings on their particular concerns.

discussions

chaired and leaderless

job-related issue or current affairs




Group exercises

Group discussion exercise # 1

Bunker exercise




Feedback

2 mins for assessor / candidate feedback

How was it being observed? What did you learn?

How was it being an assessor?




Tactics in group discussions

participate but don’t dominateget involved early ondon’t talk over others/ make pointless comments

take a role if necessarylistenfollow conversation/ look interestedmake reference to & build on others’ ideas ‘I think it’s interesting what Emmasays….’

facilitate/bring structuresummarise points made/ keep group focusedvolunteer to chair/ keep time/ take notes/ feedback findingsinvolve quieter members

quality of thought/ expression and deliveryintroduce new ideas/ think laterallydefend your viewpoint but recognise others viewpointsconsider body language, speak clearly and succinctly.




Group exercises

Group discussion exercise # 2

Restauranteur







Practice material

Downloads and DVD’s Careers library loans

Borrow self-help and test

banks3 working days

£10 refundable deposit

• watch DVD in the

careers library• downloadable Guide• www.ucl.ac.uk/careers/gradclub/h

elpwithapplicationsandinterviews/

applicationsandinterviews/assess

ment





GradClub

FREE 2 year dedicated careers support for UCLgraduates

automatic enrolment (maintain ‘My Careersservice’ login)

1 to 1 coaching with emphasis on accessibility

workshops designed for those with graduate

statuscontinued access to full UCL careers eventsprogramme

dedicated website/ bulletins/ social mediapresence











GradClub workshops

Jumpstart your job hunt

Mon 2nd to Thu 5th DecemberPlaces still available

Improving your job search

How to improve your CV and Applications

Succeeding at interviews

Succeeding at assessment centres

Mock aptitude testSucceeding at interviews (repeated)





What’s coming up……….

Skills4work ‘Interview’ coaching: Barclays

Friday December 6th

Skills4work ‘CV/ application’ coaching: FactsetFriday December 6th

MBTI personality profiling

Tuesday 10th December

Webinars: Careers in Marketing/ Advertising/ PR

Sector panels: December 10, 11, 12th at 1-2pm

All bookable through ‘UCL My Careers Service’ account





Insights

Documents

Assessment Centres Dec 13