Front Page Outside Cover · Abstract Selection Process: The submission format, review process and the acceptance of abstracts were handled by the ACSG committee. All abstracts submitted

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40th Annual ACSG Conference

Assessment Centres: 2020 – Gearing for the Future

With thanks to our Sponsors:

CHC Consulting Delegate Bags

Distell Wine for Delegates

Evalex Whova Event App & Breakaway Rooms

LEMASA Printing & Marketing

Lancaster & Kunguane Attorneys Legal Support

Pinsight Entertainment for Conference Dinner

Gifts for Presenters

Thomas International Breakaway Rooms

TTS-Talent Breakaway Rooms & Lanyards

University of Johannesburg Virtual Reality Tournament

University of Pretoria Contribution in Memory of Deon Meiring

Network Partners

SIOPSA

SABPP

Abstract Selection Process:

The submission format, review process and the acceptance of abstracts were handled by the ACSG

committee.

All abstracts submitted were subjected to a blind peer review process. The reviewers were Anne

Buckett, George Coetzee, Eugene de Bruin, Ute-Christine Klehe, Martin Kleinmann, Petrus Nel,

Sandra Schlebusch, Marius Stander and George Thornton.

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CONTENTS

Page

ACSG information 5

Financial year ending 31 May 2019 6

List of acronyms used 7

Programme 8

AC Academy training workshop abstracts 12

Pre-conference workshop abstracts 18

Conference abstracts 28

Alphabetical presenters’ index 74

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Assessment Centre Study Group (ACSG)

ACSG Committee (2017 – 2018)

Chairman Jaco de Jager

Treasurer Petrus Nel

Carl Herman

Stacy Isaacs

Sandra Schlebusch

Support & Compliance Manager Judith Williamson

ACSG Honorary Members

George Coetzee

Eugene de Bruin

Hennie Kriek

Deon Meiring (IM)

Sandra Schlebusch

Herman Spangenberg

Past Chairpersons

1981 – 1984 Hermann Spangenberg (SBW)

1985 – 1985 Albert van der Merwe (Sasol)

1986 – 1987 Hermann Spangenberg (SBW)

1988 – 1995 George Coetzee (Naspers)

1996 – 2001 Hennie Kriek (SHL)

2002 – 2003 Willie Marais (Old Mutual)

2004 – 2005 Charmaine Swanevelder (SHL)

2006 – 2007 Deon Meiring (SAPS)

2008 – 2009 Anne Buckett (Precision HR)

2010 – 2011 Sandra Schlebusch (LEMASA)

2012 – 2013 Lydia Cillié-Schmidt (The Talent Hub)

2014 – 2015 David Bischof (Deloitte)

2016 – 2017 Petrus Nel (University of the Free State)

2018 – 2019 Jaco de Jager (TTS-Talent)

Contact Details:

Mobile: +27 (0)83 304 6068 Fax: +27 (0)86 548 5674

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

www.acsg.co.za

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.acsg.co.za/

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SA ASSESSMENT CENTRE STUDY GROUP NPC

Statement of comprehensive income for the year ended 31 May 2019

(Figures in Rand)

2019 2018

Revenue 752 371 468 474

Cost of sales (507 862) (303 706)

Gross profit 244 509 164 768

Overhead expenses (236 730) (143 487)

Total profit for the year as per audited statements 7 779 21 281

The full annual financial statement is available on the ACSG website.

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List of Acronyms

AC Assessment Centre(s)

AC/DC Assessment and Development Centre(s)

ACSG SA Assessment Centre Study Group NPC (South Africa)

ASSA Assessment Standards South Africa

DC Development Centre(s)

DAC Development Assessment Centre

HPCSA Health Professions Council of South Africa

IACCP International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology

I/O Industrial and Organisational (Psychology)

IPM Institute for People Management

IR Industrial Revolution

NWU North West University

SA South Africa

SABPP South African Board for People Practices

SARS South African Revenue Services

SIOPSA Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology of South Africa

SIOP Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology

SJT Situational Judgement Test

SSA State Security Agency

TAT Trait Activation Theory

UCT University of Cape Town

UJ University of Johannesburg

UP University of Pretoria

UNISA University of South Africa

US University of Stellenbosch

UWC University of Western Cape

VR Virtual Reality

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Programme

AC Academy Training Workshops

Monday, 9 and Tuesday 10 March 2020

07:00 – 08:00 Registration and Refreshments Foyer @ Impala

08:00 – 17:00

Impala

Introduction to Behaviour Observation During an Assessment

Centre (Observer 101)

Christine de Wet (LEMASA, South Africa)

10:00 – 10:30 Refreshment Break 12:30 – 13:30 Lunch 15:00 – 15:30 Refreshment Break

Abstract on

page – 12

08:00 – 17:00

Thema

The Design and Development of an Assessment Centre

(Designing Centres 101)

Sandra Schlebusch (LEMASA, South Africa)


Abstract on

page – 14

08:00 – 17:00

Boardroom

Designing Simulations (Designing Simulations ACs 101)

Lydia Cillié-Schmidt (The Talent Hub International, South Africa)


Abstract on

page – 16

https://acsg.co.za/purpose-academy

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Programme

Pre-Conference Workshops

Wednesday, 11 March 2020

07:00 – 08:00 Arrival and Refreshments Between Kwena & Impala

08:00 – 12:30

Impala

Introduction to Assessment Centres

Petrus Nel (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)

10:00 – 10:30 Refreshment Break

Abstract on

page – 18

08:00 – 12:30

Kwena 1

Improving Decision Making with Decision Aids and Improved

Research Communication

Nathan Kuncel (University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA)


Abstract on

page – 19

08:00 – 12:30

Kwena 2

Designing and Developing Task-based Assessment Centres

Lydia Cillié-Schmidt (The Talent Hub International, South Africa)


Abstract on

page – 20

12:30 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 17:30

Impala 1

Introduction to Development Centres

Petrus Nel (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)


Abstract on

page – 23

13:00 – 17:30

Kwena 1

How to Make Ethical Decisions: Ethics Decision-making

Heuristics and Social Contexts

Paul Vorster (The Ethics Institute, South Africa)


Abstract on

page – 24

13:00 – 17:30

Kwena 2

Competency Profiling Workshop

Jennie Browning (Trideco, South Africa)


Abstract on

page – 26

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Programme

Conference Day One

Thursday, 12 March 2020

07:00 – 08:00 Registration and Refreshments Foyer

08:00 – 08:30

Ballroom 2

Welcome, official opening

Jaco de Jager (Chairman, ACSG)

08:30 – 09:30

Ballroom 2

Predictors and Process in Selection Decision Making

Nathan Kuncel (University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA)

Abstract on

page – 28

09:30 – 10:00 Refreshment Break Terrace

Venue Ballroom 2 Kwena 1 Kwena 2

10:00 – 11:00

How assessment centres can

help organisations prepare for

and execute on digital

transformation strategy

Martin Lanik

(Pinsight, USA)

(Abstract on page - 30)

What predicts leadership

potential best - assessment

centres, cognitive tests or

personality tests

Pieter Bronkhorst

(Evalex, South Africa)


Introducing employee

experience concepts to

assessment centres

Lydia Cillié-Schmidt

(The Talent Hub International,

South Africa)


11:00 – 12:00

Where’s the fire! Assessment

centre application in the

American fire service

David Slivinski

(Illinois Fire Chiefs Association,

USA)


Personality and competencies

across age

Anna Baczyńska

(Kozminski University, Poland)

(Abstract on page – 39)

Getting digital: Combining

video interview and

assessments as a solution for

online assessment centres

Clayton Donnelly

(CHC Consulting,

South Africa & Israel)


12:00 – 13:00

The use of algorithms in

assessment centres – for

better or worse

Kevin Distiller

(Odyssey Talent Management,

South Africa)


Predicting in-tray performance:

The effect of cognitive ability

vs personality

Kim Dowdeswell

& Sebastian Clifton

(TTS-Talent, South Africa)


Virtual vs traditional ACs: A

view from participants’

perspective

Vina Pendit

(Daya Dimensi, Indonesia)


13:00 – 13:45 Lunch Restaurant

13:45 – 15:00

Ballroom 2

Ignite – Facets of Leadership: 2020+

Gaylin Jee (33 Emeralds, South Africa), Rudashni Peters (South Africa), John Raddall (Quanta Consulting, South Africa), Sandra Schlebusch (LEMASA, South Africa) and Cynthia Schoeman (Ethics Monitoring & Management Services, South Africa) Convenor – Terry Meyer (Leadership SA, South Africa)

Abstract on

page – 49

15:00 – 16:00

Camphor 1 – 3

ACs and ACSG – Past, Present and Future: ACSG Celebrating 40

Years

Pieter Bronkhorst (Evalex, South Africa), Michelle Brown (Pinsight, USA) and Jason Manson-Kullin (Evalex, South Africa) Convenor: Sandra Schlebusch (LEMASA, South Africa)

Abstract on

page – 54

16:00 – 18:00

Patio

Virtual Reality Tournament: Game of Heroes

Insight Online, South Africa

Abstract on

page – 57

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Programme

Conference Day Two

Friday, 13 March 2020

07:30 – 08:30 Registration and Refreshments Foyer

08:30 – 09:30

Ballroom 2

Is it for real? A neuroscientific perspective on virtual reality

Dirk Geldenhuys (UNISA, South Africa)

Abstract on

page – 58

09:30 – 10:30

Ballroom 2

Learning possibilities and dilemmas in a 4IR Africa

Thokozile Lewanika Mpupuni (ABSA, South Africa)

Abstract on

page – 59

10:30 – 11:00 Refreshment Break Foyer

Venue Ballroom 2 Kwena 1 Kwena 2

11:00 – 12:00

Technological advances in

assessments & the changing

role of assessment

practitioners

David Bischof

(ASSA / PAI, South Africa)


The game of developing

successors: a case study

Mia Bunn

(Vitatalent Consulting, South

Africa)


The changing nature of

leadership over time

Maharani Kertapiti

(Daya Dimensi, Indonesia)


12:00 – 13:00

Do assessment centres really

work in selecting the high

potential applicant or are we

wasting our time? Empirical

research showing the effect

the algorithms and assessment

type have on the return on

investment of assessments

Hendrik Bronkhorst

(Evalex, South Africa)


The enhancement of key

leadership competencies of

middle managers of a public

enterprise

Marita Becker (Consultant,

South Africa), Gerda van der

Merwe & Sabrina Dixon (JvR,

South Africa)


Reflection on the 2019

International Congress on

Assessment Centre Methods

Pieter Bronkhorst (Evalex,

South Africa), Martin Lanik

(Pinsight USA) & Sandra

Schlebusch (LEMASA, South

Africa)

(Abstract on page – 68)

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Terrace

14:00 – 15:00

Assessment Centres and the South African Law

Sonette Lancaster (Lancaster and Kunguane Attorneys, South

Africa)

Abstract on

page – 70

15:00 – 16:00 Cultivating ethical culture in organisations

Deon Rossouw (The Ethics Institute, South Africa)

Abstract on

page – 72

16:00 – 16:30 Conclusion of the 2020 ACSG Conference

Jaco de Jager (Chairman, ACSG)

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AC Academy Training Workshops: 9 & 10 March 2020

Introduction to Behaviour Observation during an Assessment Centre (Observer 101)

Track: AC Academy Training Workshop

Presenter: Christine de Wet (LEMASA, South Africa)

Venue: Impala

When: Monday, 9 and Tuesday, 10 March 2020 from 08:00 – 17:00

Purpose

Part of the reliability and validity of an Assessment Centre depends on using competent observers –

people who have proven their competence in Observing behaviour, Noting behaviour, Classifying

behaviour and Evaluating behaviour (ONCE). However, these are skills that need to be learned and

continuously practised to ensure competence.

The purpose of Observer 101 is to introduce the potential observer to ONCE and to lay the

foundation for eventually becoming a competent observer.

Course Outcomes

We follow a behavioural approach to assessing behaviour displayed during simulations by centre

participants. Observer 101 will therefore focus on training potential observers on ONCE. At the end

of the course, the delegates will have an understanding how to:

Accurately identify behaviour

Correctly Observing behaviour during an interactive simulation

Accurately Noting behaviour during an interactive simulation

Objectively Classifying behaviour according to focal constructs; and

Fairly Evaluating behaviour according to norms.

Being knowledgeable about ethics when Observing, Noting, Classifying and Evaluating behaviour

Target Groups

IO Psychologists

Psychometrists

People working in Human Resources or Training and Development

Anyone with a solid background in Human Behaviour

Christine de Wet completed her BA Honours in Industrial Psychology at UNISA

and registered as a Psychometrist with the Health Professions Council of South

Africa. She is also a certified Consciousness Coach and holds a certificate in

Interior Decorating. She reads and travels extensively discovering other countries

and their cultures. Christine has significant experience in human resource

activities with special interest in recruitment and selection and training and

development during her 20-year career at a local government. Christine, while in

full-time employment, was also responsible for the planning, development, control and

implementation of climate studies and attitude surveys.

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She developed and facilitated training programmes to satisfy the needs of both employees and the

organisation, determined management development needs and implemented various interventions

in the area of organisational development. She was also involved with job analysis.

From 2002 Christine became involved in Development Assessment Centres as a facilitator during the

Centre itself. Her involvement in Development Assessment Centres also includes the facilitation of

feedback discussions after the Development Centres. During these discussions with participants and

their managers, personal development plans, based on the Centre results and work life

requirements, are compiled. In addition, Christine conducts follow-up discussions to facilitate the

tracking of development progress. She is also a regular mentor to facilitators in training.

https://acsg.co.za/purpose-academy

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The Design and Development of an Assessment Centre (Designing Centres 101)


Presenter: Sandra Schlebusch (LEMASA, South Africa)

Venue: Thema


Purpose

The purpose of Designing Assessment Centres 101 is to lay the foundation for delegates to design an

AC that will meet the important research components required for AC validity and practitioners will

have a solid platform to support practical initiatives with their clients.

Although a short training programme is not enough to ensure competence, the aim of this training

programme is to transfer sufficient skill so that, with practice, the delegates are on the road to

competence.

Course Outcomes

Being able to build a business case for an AC

Being able to identify competencies and simulations for use during the AC

Being able to compile an AC Blue Print that can be followed for AC design

Knowing how to involve the appropriate stakeholders during the design of the AC

Having a basic understanding of designing simulations and simulation documentation

Being able to design the simulation sequence during the AC

Knowing how to compile an AC Administration Manual and AC Technical Manual

Being able to deliver a fully functional AC ready for implementation

Being able to design and develop an AC with ethics in mind

Target Groups

Participants attending Designing Centres 101 should at least have attended an Assessment Centre

and have a basic understanding of what an Assessment Centre entails.

IO Psychologists

Psychometrists

People working in Human Resources or Training and Development

SETA registered assessors


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Sandra Schlebusch is the managing director of LEMASA (Pty) Ltd. She obtained a

BCom Honours degree in Industrial Psychology at the Potchefstroom University

for Christian Higher Education. She continued her studies in business and

management-leadership and obtained an MBA during May 2004 at the University

of the Northwest, Potchefstroom Campus. Her current studies include a

comparison of learning during centres with a development purpose.

She has extensive work experience across industries. Her experience covers the

whole spectrum of human and organisational development. Sandra’s passion is using simulations

and Assessment Centres for developmental purposes. She received an Award of Recognition for

Continuous Contribution to the field of Assessment Centres in South Africa for the year 2007 from the

Assessment Centre Study Group (ACSG).

Sandra is co-editor of the book Assessment Centres: Unlocking People Potential for Growth 2nd

Edition (2020), and a previous chairman of the ACSG. She was awarded Honorary Membership of

the ACSG in 2012. Her additional Assessment Centre related involvement, apart from numerous

presentations at conferences, includes being a member of the task group that updated the 2007

Guidelines for Assessment and Development Centres in South Africa (4th Ed), as well as the task group

that updated the current Guidelines for Best Practice in the use of the Assessment Centre Method in

South Africa (5th Ed), 2016. She was one of the few international people requested to comment and

provide input on the Russian Assessment Centre Standards as part of the establishment of the

standards towards the end of 2013, and she was part of the International Taskforce on Assessment

Center Guidelines to update the Guidelines and Ethical Considerations for Assessment Center

Operations (6th Ed). She co-established the ACSG Academy, a part of the ACSG, in 2012 with the aim

to educate and skill potential Assessment Centre users.

https://www.lemasa.co.za/

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Designing Simulations (Designing Simulations 101)


Presenter: Lydia Cillié-Schmidt (The Talent Hub International, South Africa)

Venue: Boardroom


Purpose

Simulations are used during Assessment Centres, Diagnostic Centres and Development Assessment

Centres. In addition, simulations are used during various training and development interventions.

Irrespective of the context in which simulations are used, the simulations must be designed in such a

way that they elicit visible behaviour linked to the focal constructs of the simulations. Effective

simulation design directly affects the validity of the results obtained from using simulations.

The purpose of this module is to introduce potential simulation designers to the process, vigour and

skill of designing simulations that will deliver cost-effective, reliable and valid results.

Course Outcomes

Being able to understand the legal framework that simulations need to adhere to

Being able to determine the focal constructs of the simulation

Being able to determine the most appropriate simulation type to design

Being able to design the simulation content

Being able to design the simulation documents

Being able to compile the administration and technical simulation manuals

Being able to design the simulation user(s) training

Being able to design simulations with ethics in mind

Target Groups

Participants attending Designing Simulations 101 should already have attended Observer 101 and

Designing Centres 101. In addition, participants are:

IO Psychologists

HR Professionals

Psychometrists


Lydia Cillié-Schmidt is an independent consultant and owner of “The Talent

Hub.” She is also a director at The Talent Hub International. She is a registered

Industrial Psychologist and completed a doctorate in Industrial Psychology,

focusing on the use of narrative technique in management development.

Lydia has more than 25 years experience as an industrial psychologist and leader,

working for major corporate companies in South Africa. She worked at Vodacom

for 11 years and for the last 7 years of her tenure; Lydia was the head of human

resources development, taking responsibility for the total function and implementation of the

company’s human capital development strategy.

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Before this, she worked at companies like the Department of Post-and Telecommunications, Sasol

and the SABC. In all these roles, she was always involved with assessment centres, performance

management, talent management, training, mentorship, leadership-management development,

succession development and career counselling.

As an independent consultant, Lydia has experience in organisation design, including business

process mapping and role profiling. Lydia is also the co-designer of the HR professionals centre,

other centres and has worked on centres at numerous organisations.

Lydia has published “The Workforce Plan Toolkit” and numerous articles on talent related topics. She is a previous chairman of the ACSG and was a board member of the South African ASTD.

https://www.up.ac.za/faculty-of-economic-and-management-sciences

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Pre-Conference Workshops: 11 March 2020

Introduction to Assessment Centres

Track: Workshop

Presenter: Petrus Nel (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)

Venue: Impala

When: Wednesday, 11 March 2020 from 08:00 – 12:30

The purpose of this workshop is to provide delegates with basic knowledge on the use of assessment

centre technology. The aim is to provide delegates with an understanding of assessment centre

methods so that they can make informed decisions on how and where assessment centres can be

used in their organisations. Delegates will not become assessment centre practitioners after

attending this half-day workshop, but will at least have a good source of reference on which

informed decisions can be based.

The topics that will be discussed are:

What is an assessment and development centre?

Uses of assessment centres;

Why are competency models important in assessment centres?

Types of assessment centre exercises;

Compiling an assessment matrix and the selection of appropriate exercises;

The role of the observer;

The process of data integration and report writing;

Feedback principles;

Assessment centre ethics; and

Steps in designing an assessment centre.

Given that this is an introductory type of workshop, information will mainly be shared through

presentations and questions and answers.

Petrus Nel, PhD, has been in the higher education sector for the past 18 years.

He is the co-editor of four books in Industrial Psychology and People

Management. He has published before and regularly presents papers at both

national and international conferences. His areas of expertise are mainly

psychometrics, applied psychological and performance assessment and

personnel psychology. Petrus is currently interested in the influence of

technology on employee well-being. He is registered as an industrial psychologist with the HPCSA.

He holds a PhD from the University of Stellenbosch and a Master’s degree from the University of

Pretoria.

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Improving Decision Making with Decision Aids and Improved Research Communication

Track: Workshop

Presenter: Nathan Kuncel (University Minnesota Twin Cities, USA)

Venue: Kwena 1

When: Wednesday, 131 March 2020 from 08:00 - 12:30

The tools that people use and the process they use to combine data influence hiring decision-making

and feedback. This workshop will be broken into two parts. The first part will focus on how to best

communicate research findings to general audiences (Kuncel & Rigdon, 2013). Prior research has

demonstrated that traditional validity metrics are not as well received by either human resource

specialists or the general audience (e.g., Kuncel, Cooper, & Rigdon, 2009). Non-specialists are more

likely to adopt decision tools and aids that they believe are effective. For many, saying the

correlation is .40 only creates confusion. We will discuss and work with multiple formats for

describing in words and visualising with graphs data to communicate common psychological

research results and multiple audiences (Kuncel & Rigdon, 2013) rate these methods as more

persuasive. In the second part, we will discuss some methods for helping organisations arrive at a

consensus for how to combine data for decision making. These include an informal discussion

process that can approximate a regression analysis, modelling the decisions of prior judges to get

buy-in, and survey methods for demonstrating inconsistency (sometimes extreme) in how

information is used to make hiring/admissions decisions.

Nathan Kuncel is the Marvin D Dunnette Distinguished Professor of Industrial-

Organizational Psychology and a McKnight Presidential Fellow at the University

of Minnesota where he also earned his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational

Psychology. Nathan’s research generally focuses on how individual

characteristics (intelligence, personality, interests) influence subsequent work,

academic, and life success as well as efforts to model and measure success.

Recently his research has examined the effects of judgment and decision making

on the utility of admissions and hiring decisions. Nathan has published in Science, Harvard Business

Review, Psychological Bulletin, Review of Educational Research, The Wall Street Journal,

Psychological Science, Perspectives on Psychological Science, among others. Nathan is a Fellow of

the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Society

for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He received the Anne Anastasi Award from the

American Psychological Association – Div. 5, the Cattell Research Award from the Society of

Multivariate Experimental Psychology, and the Jeanneret Award from the Society for Industrial and

Organizational Psychology. Nathan is an enthusiastic triathlete, which barely lets him keep up with

his kids.

Nathan is a highly engaging speaker who is able to deliver complex ideas and concepts in a practical

and appealing way. You can watch his TEDx Talks presentation on the strength of standardised

testing as predictor of success at: Do standardized tests matter? | Nathan Kuncel | TEDxUMN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_Cr1a6rj4

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Designing and Developing Task Based Assessment Centres

Track: Workshop


Venue: Kwena 2


During the previous 30 years, several published research articles questioned whether assessment

centres measure dimensions. Questions were asked about assessment centres’ construct validity

when the focal constructs were dimensions / competencies (Sackett, & Dreher, 1982; Lance, 2008a;

Lance, 2008b; Jackson, Michaelides, & Dewberry, 2016). Task Based Assessment Centres (TBACs)

have been suggested as an alternative to Dimension Based Assessment Centres (DBACs) (Jackson,

Stillman, & Englert, 2010; Jackson, Ahmed, Grace & Yoon, 2011; Jackson, 2012). TBACs measure

participants’ abilities to perform certain tasks or roles that are important for effective job

performance. The focus is therefore on the actual activities required for job performance (work

focused) rather than the underlying knowledge and abilities the job performer requires for

successful performance (worker focused) (Thornton, Rupp & Hoffman, 2015). Proponents of the

TBAC approach argue that the TBAC’s construct validity is increased and development feedback is

enhanced (Jackson, 2012), having an immediate impact on job performance of the target job.

However, proponents of the DBACs argue that DBACs predict job-related criteria and promote

“changes in behaviour, attitudes, motivation” (Thornton, Rupp & Hoffman, 2015, p165), having a

longer-term impact on job performance of the target job as well as related jobs.

In light of this debate, it would be worthwhile to explore:

how TBACs differ from DBACs and mixed model approach

when the use of a TBAC is appropriate; and

whether TBACs require an entirely new design approach and how it should be designed.

During this four-hour workshop these issues will be explored and a step-by-step approach to

designing a TBAC will be shared (Jackson, Stillman, & Atkins, 2005; Jackson, Barney, Stillman, &

Kirkley, 2007; Jackson, & Englert, 2011; Jackson, 2012; Lance, 2012; Thoresen & Thoresen, 2012;

Lievens, 2008). A third approach to centre design, namely a mixed model approach, will also be

briefly presented as alternative and perhaps desirable supplement (Thornton, Rupp & Hoffman,

2015).




focusing on the use of narrative technique in management development.



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for 11 years and for the last 7 years of her tenure, Lydia was the head of human resources

development, taking responsibility for the total function and implementation of the company’s

human capital development strategy.

Before this, she worked at companies like the Department of Post-and Telecommunications, Sasol

and the SABC. In all these roles, she was always involved with assessment centres, performance



As an independent consultant Lydia has experience in organisation design, including business

process mapping and role profiling. Lydia is also the co-designer of the HR professionals centre,

other centres and has worked on centres at numerous organisations.

Lydia has published “The Workforce Plan Toolkit” and numerous articles on talent related topics.

She is a previous chairman of the ACSG and was a board member of the South African ASTD.

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Introduction to Development Centres

Track: Workshop

Presenter: Petrus Nel (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)

Venue: Impala


Assessment Centres (ACs) can be used for two purposes: assessment and development. Most

people are familiar with using ACs for selection purposes; only some will use ACs for development

purposes. The objective of the workshop is to open up the possibility of using an AC for

developmental purposes.

Development interventions can be expensive. In addition, line managers are hesitant to send their

subordinates for training if they do not see the results of the training in the work

environment. Employees themselves are also reluctant to attend training since it does not address

development needs as perceived by them. Therefore chances are that training and development

interventions may not be successful. Development Assessment Centres (DACs) may positively

impact this situation.

The purpose of a (DAC) is to identify the participant’s current areas of strength and current areas

needing further development so that future development can be aligned with real needs, and to

train delegates on the AC focal constructs while at the centre. When development interventions are

truly needs-driven the organisation can include these interventions as part of its Workplace Skills

Plan and eventually claim some of the levies back. When DAC participants buy into their individual

development needs they will probably be more committed to address these particular needs. The

subsequent training and development interventions will therefore be more effective.

This workshop introduces DACs and how to successfully implement a DAC within an organisation so

that the organisation can reap the benefits of needs-driven training and development interventions.

During the workshop theoretical input will be delivered along with practical hints. The differences

between an Assessment Centre used for selection purposes and an Assessment Centre used for

developmental purposes, as well as the different variations of a DAC will be discussed. After

attending the workshop, the delegates will be able to implement a DAC effectively within their

organisation.

Petrus Nel, PhD, has been in the higher education sector for the past 18 years.

He is the co-editor of four books in Industrial Psychology and People

Management. He has published before and regularly presents papers at both

national and international conferences. His areas of expertise are mainly

psychometrics, applied psychological and performance assessment and

personnel psychology. Petrus is currently interested in the influence of

technology on employee well-being. He is registered as an industrial psychologist with the HPCSA.

He holds a PhD from the University of Stellenbosch and a Master’s degree from the University of

Pretoria.

24


How to Make Ethical Decisions: Ethics Decision-making Heuristics and Social Contexts

Track: Workshop

Presenter: Paul Vorster (The Ethics Institute, South Africa)

Venue: Kwena 1


AC Practitioners often find themselves faced with the dilemma of choosing to do something that

best practice requires, or adhering to organisational demands. Taking an ethical decision in such a

situation is a difficult prospect for individuals that lack a frame of reference regarding ethics.

This workshop aims to introduce ethics decision-making frameworks (heuristics) to help individuals

improve their ethics decision-making and provide a frame of reference regarding ethics. The impact

of social forces on ethical decision-making are also presented and methods are introduced to

inoculate individuals against them.

Unethical behaviour has the potential to harm the reputation of organisations and may affect their

licence to operate in the long-term. It is thus an imperative that organisations prioritise ethics and

assist their incumbents to make better, more ethical decisions. By being sensitised to the effect of

social forces and their impact on moral/ethical decision-making, and using ethics decision-making

frameworks; the ethics decision-making capacity of individuals can be improved. This has direct

implications for ethical behaviour and decision-making of individuals both personally and

professionally, and for the organisations in which they operate.

In this workshop, we will:

Briefly define what ethics is, and is not.

Identify why ‘ethical standards’ may be difficult for individuals to understand and apply.

Evaluate and present the common sources of ethical standards.

Consider how to put these sources together when making ethical decisions.

Provide an integrated decision-making framework for ethical decision-making and its

evaluation.

Identify social forces and their influence on followers in the organisational context.

Provide practical methods for combating the influence of these social forces.

Take Note:

Literature from social psychology, cognitive heuristics, judgement and decision-making was used to

construct a practical ethics decision-making intervention to improve ethical decision-making of

individuals

25

.Pre-Conference Workshops: 11 March 2020

Paul Vorster, PhD, earned a doctorate of philosophy in industrial/organisational

psychology at the University of Johannesburg in 2016. He has specialised in

psychometric assessment and research and has worked in areas of applied

research, psychometrics, test-development, safety, employee selection, and

assessment. From 2011-2015 Paul worked at JvR Psychometrics where he focused

on applied organisational research, test construction, psychometric modelling and

psychometric assessment. Paul recently completed his PhD at the University of Johannesburg

specialising in the development of a computer adaptive assessment model of personality.

Paul joined The Ethics Institute in 2006 as an internal research specialist focusing on quantitative

research design, survey construction, statistical behavioural modelling and the identification of

behavioural predictors of ethical behaviour. His primary areas of interest include quantitative

research, statistics, computer adaptive testing, personality psychology, item response theory, and

applied research. Paul also holds a strong interest in the areas of leadership profiling and selection

and often gives advice to organisations on leader selection and development. He currently holds an

academic affiliation with the University of Johannesburg's Department of Industrial Psychology and

People Management and is a member of the International Test Commission (ITC), as well as a

founding member of the World Congress of Personality. In 2016, Paul was presented with the

Johann Schepers Award for outstanding and pioneering work in the field of psychometric research.

26


Competency Profiling Workshop

Track: Workshop

Presenter: Jennie Browning (Trideco, South Africa)

Venue: Kwena 2


Effective assessment centres are based on a process of thorough job analysis, resulting in amongst

other outcomes, accurate and comprehensive competencies for use during the design and execution

of the Assessment Centre. A thorough job analysis will produce information such as what the AC’s

focal constructs should be, what level of proficiency is required, what type of simulations to design,

how difficult each simulation should be, as well as the context and content of the simulations. In

addition, information is gathered during a job analysis that can be used during the AC’s observer

training. An AC designed based on a thorough and systematic analysis of the target organisation and

job is legally defensible and probably faces valid (Thornton, Rupp, & Hoffman, 2015). Despite the

importance of proper job analysis, inadequate job analysis is indicated as one of the ten classic

Assessment Centre errors (Caldwell, Thornton, & Gruys, 2003) resulting in the use of competencies

during Assessment Centres that have not been identified by effective job analysis (Dewberry &

Jackson, 2016).

The aim of this four-hour workshop is to transfer the knowledge and skill to conduct an effective job

analysis that combines traditional job analysis techniques with competency profiling techniques.

At the end of the workshop, delegates will be able to:

Understand the basic elements of competency profiling;

Use basic job analysis techniques such as interviewing, observation, behaviour

categorisation, etc;

Follow a competency profiling process and avoid the pitfalls;

Develop job competencies that will probably withstand legal challenges.

The workshop content and structure are as follows:

An introduction to competency profiling – what it is and is not;

Differentiating between competency and competencies;

A practical competency profiling process;

Pitfalls to avoid;

Practice session – profiling the competencies of a fellow delegate

The workshop methodology is a combination of high involvement, interactive inputs,

presentation and practical “how to ..” sessions.

Delegates will experience the following benefits:

A pragmatic approach;

Practical techniques; and

Hands-on practice.

27


The competency profiling process that will be shared with delegates is not based on any propriety

knowledge and can be freely used by the workshop delegates.

Over the years, Jennie Browning has developed a wide and varied expertise

in the areas of business needs analyses, competency profiling, design and

development of learning interventions, strategic human resources

management, training and development, leadership development, team

consulting and development, and organisational development consulting. In

order to expand her array of skills, she studied NLP and qualified as both a

practitioner and a master practitioner with an internationally accredited

company. Aware of the importance of self-insight as a development tool, she qualified as a Myers-

Briggs Step II practitioner and is accredited as a DISC profiler and agent. She also studied and applied

Arnold Mindell’s techniques and meta skills for process work with Myrna Wajsman one of the

founders of POP in South Africa.

Her passion for designing interventions to meet the specific needs of her clients moved her to start

up her own company and create her own methodologies for learning and development and in 1991

Jennie, founded her own company. Since then, she has worked across a wide variety of industries,

from micro enterprises to large corporations. All of her product ranges have been designed and

developed by herself to transfer researched and benchmarked best practices and meet specific

client requirements. She spends considerable time researching and designing new and exciting ways

to facilitate learning and inspire growth, and co-creates with clients to meet company-specific and

targeted needs. Jennie is committed to revolutionising the design of learning interventions at all

levels and has incorporated game methodology into many of her processes.

Jennie's current specialty areas include Talent Management, Performance Management,

Performance Consulting, skills building for Mentors and Coaches, One-on-One Executive Coaching,

Intervention Design and Development and the development of team and leadership practices. In

addition, she has focused on developing HR and L & D practitioners to master skills such as

facilitation, design, delivery, consulting, competency profiling and HR practice.

https://www.up.ac.za/faculty-of-economic-and-management-sciences

28

Conference Day One: 12 March 2020

Predictors and Process in Selection Decision Making

Track: Keynote Address

Speaker: Nathan Kuncel (University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA)

Venue: Ballroom 2

When: Thursday, 12 March 2020 at 08:30

Organisations have realised that success is both multi-dimensional and multiply determined. As a

result, enormous research has gone into developing and refining individual differences measures for

predicting subsequent work and academic performance. Great advances have been made

identifying new constructs, improving measurement, and reducing bias. However, comparatively

little attention has been given to how all of that information is combined. A large body of evidence

indicates that experts do not make optimal use of information when making hiring decisions (Kuncel,

Klieger, Connelly, & Ones, 2013). This has been demonstrated across a wide range of decisions and

appears to be especially problematic when individual pieces of information have relatively low

predictive power and experts have distant and poor-quality feedback. This precisely describes hiring

and admissions judgments. Our work has revealed several alarming findings about expert judgment

in hiring scenarios largely due to inconsistent use of data (Yu & Kuncel, in press). Unfortunately,

simple mechanical data combination methods, although effective, are not always well accepted by

users (Dietvorst, Simmons, & Massey, 2015).

In this keynote, I will describe the evidence for why we should be concerned about expert judgment

and why it seems to lead to less than optimal results. But this is not the end of the issue. Many

organisations are understandably loath to remove human judgment from the data combination

process. So, what should be done? My colleagues and I have adopted a strategy for trying to

improve expert judgments by harnessing, instead of fighting, human decision-making tendencies

(Kuncel & Shu, 2018; Kuncel & Dahlke, 2019). Both anchoring effects and preference reversals can

be used to nudge expert judgment and reduce inconsistency.

Nathan Kuncel is the Marvin D Dunnette Distinguished Professor of Industrial-

Organizational Psychology and a McKnight Presidential Fellow at the University

of Minnesota where he also earned his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational

Psychology. Nathan’s research generally focuses on how individual

characteristics (intelligence, personality, interests) influence subsequent work,

academic, and life success as well as efforts to model and measure success.

Recently his research has examined the effects of judgment and decision making

on the utility of admissions and hiring decisions. Nathan has published in Science, Harvard Business

Review, Psychological Bulletin, Review of Educational Research, The Wall Street Journal,

Psychological Science, Perspectives on Psychological Science, among others. Nathan is a Fellow of

the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Society

for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He received the Anne Anastasi Award from the

American Psychological Association – Div. 5, the Cattell Research Award from the Society of

Multivariate Experimental Psychology, and the Jeanneret Award from the Society for Industrial and

29

Organizational Psychology. Nathan is an enthusiastic triathlete, which barely lets him keep up with

his kids.

Nathan is a highly engaging speaker who is able to deliver complex ideas and concepts in a practical

and appealing way. You can watch his TEDx Talks presentation on the strength of standardised

testing as predictor of success at: Do standardized tests matter? | Nathan Kuncel | TEDxUMN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_Cr1a6rj4

30


How Assessments Centres can Help Organisations Prepare for and Execute on Digital

Transformation Strategy

Track: Open Space

Presenter: Martin Lanik (Pinsight, USA)

Venue: Ballroom 2


In the next six years, more than half of labour hours will be done by machines (World Economic

Forum, 2018). This digital transformation of work is now in full swing with 70 percent of

organisations worldwide having an active digital transformation strategy in place (PTC, 2018). The

implications of digital transformation for Human Resources are twofold: On the hiring side,

practitioners must hire for jobs that will no longer exist in 3-4 years. On the talent management side,

the WEF predicts that more than 54 percent of all employees will require significant reskilling. As a

result, SHRM (2019) now recommends that organisations hire for potential rather than current skill

set.

Our 2019 research study shows that 90% of organisations still evaluate employees via managerial

ratings despite the high levels of unconscious bias inherent in the process. For instance, we found

that managers are 3 times more likely to identify men as having leadership potential than women,

and they are twice more likely to choose White men over Black men as high-potential employees.

Although scientific evidence points to cognitive ability as the single best predictor of future success

(e.g., Herrnstein & Murray, 1994), intelligence testing is known to produce significant racial

differences and results in discrimination (Roth et al, 2001). For this reason, many practitioners have

turned to alternate methods, such as assessment centres. Meriac’s et al (2008) meta-analysis has

demonstrated the incremental validity of assessment centres above and beyond cognitive ability and

personality tests.

In this talk, I will describe a case study of how a healthcare organisation is utilising a virtual

assessment centre to drive its digital transformation. The organisation is a U.S. based $2.3 billion

dollar company with 4,600 employees. As the company is experiencing disruption of the healthcare

market, digitalisation of processes, and changing demographics, the board put in place ambitious

operational goals and HR was tasked to rapidly change the leading behaviour of 700 managers

across the company.

To do this, we first partnered with HR on building a future-focused competency model to identify the

critical leadership competencies leaders would need for the future. We than built a virtual

assessment centre that consisted of a combination of psychometric tests, a case study, a role-play,

and in-basket activities. The assessment centre simulation focused on topics in digital

transformation and measured the future competencies identified in the previous step. Upon

completion of the assessment, employees received feedback report, were debriefed, and started on

a development journey using a mobile app. Group-level analytics were used by the company to

support personnel decision-making, such as promotions, high-potential identification, succession

planning, and further development.

31


Martin Lanik is author of the business bestseller The Leader Habit and CEO of

Pinsight. His habit-forming leadership development focuses on 5-minute practice

sessions woven throughout the day. Martin’s research-based formula has helped

thousands of high-potentials, managers, directors, and executives in 30 countries

build stronger leadership skills. More than 100 companies - including AIG and

CenturyLink – have implemented his programs, which received awards from Chief

Learning Officer and Brandon Hall.

Martin’s work has been featured in Forbes and Fast Company, and he has contributed articles to

outlets like Chief Executive, Business Management Daily, HR People + Strategy, and HR.com. His

recent book, The Leader Habit became an instant bestseller, and it is transforming how organisations

and individuals approach leadership development. Martin holds a PhD in industrial/organisational

psychology from Colorado State University.

https://www.pinsight.com/

32


What Predicts Leadership Potential Best - Assessment Centres, Cognitive Tests or Personality

Tests? The Latest Research on the Topic form an African Continent Perspective

Track: Open Space

Presenter: Pieter Bronkhorst (Evalex, South Africa)

Venue: Kwena 1


Introduction: There exists a large historical body of research indicating the effectiveness of the AC

method in leadership identification and development. The trend shows a declining correlation

between AC results and job performance. This has implications for the AC method, one of which is

the competitiveness of the AC method versus other forms of leadership assessments, such as

Interviews, Cognitive and Personality tests.

Fresh research to restore the dominant position of the AC method is always welcome and

particularly when it assesses effectiveness in one of the largest continents in the world, namely

Africa.

Learning Objective (300): The presentation proposed will address three critical questions:

Scarcity of talent: In searching for leadership potential in Africa, how easy or difficult is it to find candidates that meet the talent benchmarks required for the job.

How effective are Assessment Centres in identifying this talent within the socio-economic context of Africa and how does the AC method stack up to other assessment instruments? Should we accept a modified approach to identification of talent in Africa versus other developed economies? How can we extrapolate the findings of this study to other developing economies?

An emerging leadership framework for Southern Africa.

Submission Details (10,000): Leadership must be one of the most critical challenges in Africa in all

spheres but particularly commerce and industry. The business organisation will be the main driver in

creating employment and eradicating poverty.

In developing business leadership, it is crucial to use the correct assessment approaches to identify

talent in order to reap the best return on subsequent development efforts. Using a less than optimal

solution in assessing candidates for managerial and leadership roles can waste valuable time and

resources.

Unfortunately, many business organisations are not using optimally structured leadership

assessment programs due to an incomplete appreciation of which tools to use.

Research will be presented that will shed light on three of the burning questions with regard to

leadership in Africa:

Scarcity of talent: In searching for leadership potential in Africa, how easy or difficult is it to find candidates that meet the talent benchmarks required for the job.

How effective is the Assessment Centre in identifying this talent within the socio-economic context of Africa and how does the AC method stack up to other assessment instruments?

33


Should we accept a modified approach to identification of talent in Africa versus other developed economies? How can we extrapolate the findings of this study to other developing economies?

An emerging leadership framework for Southern Africa.

In answering the question on scarcity, the empirical data from over 2,000 shortlisted applicants

assessed for middle management positions across multiple companies were analysed in terms of the

percentage of applicants that met the required benchmark for the position and how the assessment

results correlated in a longitudinal study with job performance post appointment.

All these leaders completed a set of behavioural assessments (personality, styles, values, interests) a

cognitive battery (abstract, deductive, numeric, judgment) and a simulation battery (5 leadership

simulations/exercises, e.g. inbox).

As to the power of different assessment methodologies in identifying the high-performance

candidates, the assessment results of 900 managers who completed an Assessment centre (5

simulations), as well as Cognitive and Personality tests were analysed. The sample included

managers across all levels of management, 179 companies and 10 Industries.

Three regression models were used to determine the contribution that each of the assessment

instruments made in predicting leadership potential.

The objective of this part of the research was to define the relative contribution of three popular

constructs in identifying leadership potential in a Southern African context:

Leadership competencies assessed through AC simulations,

Cognitive abilities assessed through more traditional cognitive tests as well as “Levels of Work tests” and finally ,

Personality as assessed through personality questionnaires.

Based on a 1998 research publication that advocated the superior power of cognitive tests, many

talent assessment practitioners used cognitive tests as the bedrock of an assessment battery

augmented with personality and other tests. However, studies since then found that leadership

competencies (AC simulations) have higher predictive validities than cognitive test.

Two major findings resulted from the research. Firstly, the correlation of the various constructs with

the criterion scores and secondly the relative contribution of the different assessment approaches to

defining potential to function at ever increasing levels of complexity.

Two criterion scores were used namely position level and career velocity. For each candidate the

level of work was defined using a “level of work” calculator (SST). Career velocity was calculated by

moderating position level with age.

Stratifying the sample into seven groups according to Level of Work, T-tests showed significant

differences in how the 7 groups performed in the Assessment centre, Cognitive and Personality

tests. The seven groups were achieved as a result of breaking a level, for instance 3 into an upper

and lower category. (1,5/2,0/2,5/3,0/3,5/4,0/4,5 upward)

When the assessment data of the two most senior position levels were analysed and compared with

the lower levels, a distinct leadership capability and style emerged.

34


Correlation with both position level and career velocity showed that the Assessment centre had the

highest predictive validity, followed by Cognitive then Personality and “level of work test.”

Using multivariate, hierarchical and stepwise regression analysis, assessment centres came out tops

in all three models followed by personality and then only cognitive. The assessment data was

independently analysed by an academic with a PhD in statistics from a well-known South African

University using SSPS and Mplus.

Two major research studies namely Sackett, Shewach and Keiser (University of Minnesota 2015) and

Woehr, Matthew and Fleisher (University of Tennessee 2008) support the findings.

A concluding statement indicating the contribution or value-add of the study in addressing gaps or

contradictions in the literature (no more than 100 words or 600 characters)

Given the strong Southern African context of the sample used, the research set out in this

presentation will provide a more holistic framework in assessment solution design avoiding the over

reliance on one tool at the exclusion of others.

In 1998 Hunter and Schmidt published research that lead assessment practitioners to believe that

Cognition is the most powerful determinant of potential and in the process devalued other

constructs such as Personality and AC Competencies.

This research, with a strong Southern African sample of 900 leaders debunks those findings.

What will be presented during the congress will be as follows:

Research supporting the relative power of three main methods in assessing leadership potential, namely assessment centres, cognitive tests and personality questionnaires.

Research supporting the conclusions regarding the availability of leadership talent in Southern Africa.

An emerging leadership model or framework based on the research findings.

The implications of the above for choice of leadership assessment tools.

Pieter Bronkhorst is a registered I/O Psychologist, holds a PhD (UCT) and is the

founder of Organisation and Management Technologies (OMT), Evalex Talent

Solutions and Odyssey Talent Management. He has developed numerous

psychological tests in the domains of cognition, personality, styles, values and

interests. In addition, he has developed the EvaleX Business Simulation, a cloud

based virtual Assessment Centre as well as a system for assessing technical

competencies. Pieter has also published a book titled “The Architecture of High Performance

Companies”. Evalex and OMT is in the business of building high performance teams and companies

and Pieter has been involved in more than 30 corporate turn-around and growth cases.

https://www.evalex.com/

35


Introducing Employee Experience Concepts to Assessment Centres

Track: Open Space


Venue: Kwena 2


Many leading organisations now put the employee experience at the centre of their people

management strategies. Assessment Centre methods remain an important tool to inform decisions

about people, but it is questionable whether the methodology put the employee experience at the

centre. The “People First” strategies followed by leading organisations stem from research on the

“The Service Profit Chain”1 that established relationships between profitability, customer loyalty,

and employee satisfaction and productivity. IBM2 for example found that employee engagement

explains two-thirds of their client experience scores, and if they were able to increase client

satisfaction by five points on an account, they saw an extra 20% in revenue, on average. One of the

outputs of an optimal employee experience is better employee engagement.

Maylett and Wride3 define the employee experience as the sum of the various perceptions

employees have about their interactions with the organisation in which they work. One of the

subsets of the employee experience is the candidate experience. This is defined as the perception of

a job seeker about an employer, based on the interaction during the complete recruitment process4.

Just like in the customer experience, these perceptions include the rational, physical, emotional,

subconscious, and psychological interaction at any point of interaction with a specific process5.

Optimising the employee/candidate experience usually entails mapping all the people processes in

the organisation to identify the various points touching employees/candidates directly and

indirectly, assessing the perception of employees/candidates at that interaction and then using

various techniques, e.g. design thinking, to create an optimal experience at the various touch points.

An assessment centre is a touch point in the employee life cycle and could potentially have a positive

or negative impact on the employee- and candidate experience. Research has shown that

employee/candidate reactions to assessment centres could influence the employee/candidate

experience negatively, for example McCarthy et. al.6, Anderson & Goltsi7 and Dewberry and

Jackson8.

The aim of this presentation is to introduce concepts that are used in optimising the

employee/candidate experience to assessment centres, focusing on mapping the experience to

identify moments that matter, expectation management, personalisation, Net Promotor Score (NPS)

and design thinking. Mapping the assessment centre journey from invitation to feedback (or other

outcomes) provides a lens through which organisations can look at the process through the eyes of

the employee/candidate and understand how it influences their experience and ultimately their

engagement. Expectation Management is an important aspect of the employee experience and in

assessment centres it would therefore be informative to know what the candidate’s/employees’

expectations for the assessment centres are to ensure expectation alignment. The presentation will

explore to what extent assessment centres could be personalised and whether the Net Promoter

36


Score (NPS) could be helpful. The presentation will conclude with a brief exploration of how design

thinking principles could be applied in the assessment centre context.




focusing on the Use of Narrative Technique in Management Development.



for 11 years and for the last 7 years of her tenure, Lydia was the Head of Human

Resources Development, taking responsibility for the total function and implementation of the

company’s Human Capital development strategy.

Before this she worked at companies like the Department of Post-and Telecommunications, Sasol

and the SABC. In all these roles, she was always involved with Assessment Centres, performance



As an independent consultant Lydia has experience in organisation design, including business

process mapping and Role Profiling. Lydia is also the co-designer of the HR Professionals Centre,

other Centres and has worked on Centres at numerous organisations.

Lydia has published “The Workforce Plan Toolkit” and numerous articles on talent related topics.

She is a previous chairman of the ACSG and was a board member of the South African ASTD.

__________________________________________________________________________________

1 James L. Heskett, Thomas O. Jones, Gary W. Loveman, W. Earl Sasser, Jr., Leonard A. Schlesinger. Putting the Service-Profit Chain to

Work. Harvard Business Review. July – August 2008.

2 https://hbr.org/2018/03/the-new-rules-of-talent-management#co-creating-the-employee-experience

3 Tracy Maylett and Matthew Wride. The Employee Experience: How to Attract Talent, Retain Top Performers and Drive Results. 2017.

Wiley.

4 Sushman Biswas. What is Candidate Experience? Definition, Key Components, and Strategies. HR Technology. Jun 10, 2019.

https://www.hrtechnologist.com/articles/recruitment-onboarding/what-is-candidate-experience-definition-components-technology/

5 chttps://beyondphilosophy.com/customer-experience/

6 McCarthy, Julie; Van Iddekinge, Chad H.; Lievens, Filip; KUNG, Mavis Mei-Chuan; Sinar, Evan F.; and Campion, Michael A.. Do candidate

reactions relate to job performance or affect criterion-related validity? A multistudy investigation of relations among reactions, selection

test scores, and job performance. (2013). Journal of Applied Psychology. 98, (5), 701-719. Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of

Business.

7 Anderson, Neil and Goltsi, Vicky. Negative Psychological Effects of Selection Methods: Construct Formulation and an Empirical

Investigation into an Assessment Center. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 236-255, September 2006.

8 Dewberry, Chris and Jackson, Duncan, J.R. The Perceived Nature and Incidence of Dysfunctional Assessment Center Features and

Processes. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, Vol. 24, Issue 2, pp. 189-196, 2016

37


Where’s the Fire! Assessment Centre Application in the American Fire Service

Track: Open Space

Presenter: David Slivinski (Illinois Fire Chiefs Association, USA)

Venue: Ballroom 2


Thousands of times throughout a single day throughout the world, people count on their fire

departments and rescue departments to provide fire suppression and life-saving emergency medical

assistance. It takes specialised training to become a part of this elite community of fire fighting

professionals.

Men and women in the fire fighter ranks are extremely vital – they are the “boots on the ground”;

they are the ones that “get things done.” However, without proper leadership in place, the

paramilitary structure would falter and struggle to be efficient. Selecting the right leadership is

essential in any business, company, or group. It is equally crucial where groups of people are dealing

with life and death situations, making snap decisions, imposing judgments that affect the lives of

those whom they are protecting AND those who are providing the protection.

The American fire service is undergoing unprecedented challenges – demand for expansion of

services outside of delivering fire fighting and emergency medicine, i.e., community risk reduction

programs, home health care services; unfunded mandates by governmental bodies; and, a record

number of officer retirements among all rank levels. This situation is creating a great need for

identifying new and capable leadership within the organisations to handle the transition of the fire

service. The responsibility of selecting new leaders has never been more important. A greater focus

of this responsibility is accompanied by formal succession planning, the deployment of validated

promotional assessment centres (using subject matter experts linking assessments to job demands

and competencies), process transparency, and communication of the process from inception

through feedback. The selection of leadership is a high-stakes event. Organisations demonstrating

their program is well grounded in evidence-based practices and developed with transparency can

reduce the possibility of any legal challenges by participants.

Formal and recognised promotional processes are critical in identifying the best candidates for

leadership positions. Without a process in place, many organisations often identify the most senior

fire fighter to be promoted or perhaps a political influence may drive selection without regard to

ability, knowledge or performance. The fire service is slowly adopting the idea of the formal

assessment centre to identify candidates with traits that will embrace not only the delivery of new

solutions for today’s modern fire and emergency medical challenges but also those who will

effectively lead multi-generational and culturally diverse response forces in an industry where

tradition is deep.

The American fire service promotional assessment service is not unlike a US public government or

private sector leadership selection procedure. We find the difference within the snap decision-

making ability in high-stress environments, the skill and ability to make life and death decisions and

understand the differences in the application of several leadership styles as defined by the situation.

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A fire officer can move from democratic to autocratic and conclude with a servant leadership style

all within several minutes.

This presentation will provide an overview of the purpose of our work, the unique differences of

promotional simulations designed for fire and emergency services. We will discuss specific exercises

that elicit behaviour from candidates linked to the necessary competencies and performance

dimensions that are necessary to be a successful emergency services supervisor. A demonstration of

a digital fire ground simulation will be shared to underscore the importance of the quick-thinking

decision-making process required of fire ground leaders. Finally, the presentation will provide

recommendations to enhance leadership selection in the fire service.

David Slivinski is the Program Director of Assessment and Consulting Services for

the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association (IFCA). Before filling this full-time role, he was

an active consultant and assessor with the IFCA for 16 years. Early in his career,

David worked as a paramedic for the Wheaton Fire Department before accepting

a full-time position with the Lemont Fire Protection District. He retired as an

Administrative Battalion Chief in 2016, where he served over 30 years. His tenure

with the Lemont Fire Department included the creation of many administrative

policies and procedures, assisting with expanding the organisation's footprint which included

strategic planning, accreditation, leadership development, training initiatives, fire station

construction and long-range organisational design supporting the District’s effort for change to

achieve a higher level of service delivery.

David holds numerous fire and emergency medical certifications, including several Chief Fire Officer

accreditations and designations. He is a trained and certified Assessor. He received an

undergraduate degree in Fire Service Administration, a graduate certificate in Public Administration,

obtained a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management and a second Master’s degree in

Organisational Development.

In his current role, he is responsible for a variety of services that assist fire and rescue organisations

across the Midwest region of the US. The IFCA offers an extensive menu of consulting and

promotional assessment services to its clients. The IFCA is changing the philosophy and approach

from a traditional promotional framework to one that concentrates on custom developed

assessment processes built upon a foundation of specific leadership requirements of an emergency

scene commander and administrator. The IFCA assists agencies in selecting the very best individuals

through a detailed analysis of job function, and an evaluation of performance and behaviours

associated with a variety of leadership levels within the emergency services industry.


39


Personality and Competencies across Age

Track: Open Space

Presenter: Anna Baczyńska (Kozminski University, Poland)

Venue: Kwena 1


Research problem and theoretical foundation: Diagnosing the potential of managers is important

for organisations when they are making selection decisions whether for appointment or inclusion in

development programmes. Organisations spent approximately $50 billion a year on leadership

development (Raelin, 2004). A crucial question to ask is what should be measured during the

selection process for appointment and development?

The trait approach still plays an important part in human resource management practices when

selecting, developing and planning the career paths of managers (Amstrong, 2009). In addition,

Schippmann et al. (2000) state that the “practice of competency modelling has exploded onto the

field of human resources over the past several years” (p. 704) and estimate that between 75% and

80% of surveyed companies use some form of competency-based application.

Dimensions/competencies and traits both play an important role in selection and development

processes. Assessment Centres (ACs) very often combine these measures

(competencies/dimensions and personality tests). ACs have become an important tool for

organisations to make decisions about hiring and developing people at various levels of their work-

life through methods that align well with the role and business objectives (we understand

competencies and behavioural dimensions in a similar way).

Traits, or predispositions (also referred to as “personality)”, i.e. relatively permanent features of

"Self-patterns" based on experience and knowledge of ourselves, help us understand, explain, and

predict our own behaviour (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, 2012). According to numerous psychological

theories, they are an important basis for effective action, making them predictable. Competencies,

on the other hand, are more changeable and could be developed. The questions that organisations

should ask are competencies or personality: what are the more important factors in the selection

process? How do competencies correlate with personality? Does age have any influence on these

correlations?

There is a substantial body of research showing the importance of leadership development to

organisational success (Charan, Drotter, and Noel (2001), Fullmer and Goldsmith (2001), McCall and

Hollenbeck (2002), McCauley, Moxley and Van Velsor (1998), Viceri and Fulmer (1997, Whetton and

Cameron (2005)). These studies focus on changing and developing competencies. Although

competencies can be developed, personality traits are more stable factors. Competencies and

personality traits together form an individual pattern for each manager. Is there a different pattern

for people at different ages? Schultz Jr, N. R., & Moore, D. (1988) showed that competencies

developed and that age-related changes in social demands will influence the relationships among

measures of adjustment, and personal and social competency.

40


The purpose of this research was to determine the age differences in terms of the personality

traits and performance on the competencies.

H.1 The personality traits are more correlated with performance during an AC and competencies /

dimensions in younger groups of managers than in older groups.

Research methodology: 327 managers took part in this study. 42 Assessment centre sessions were

conducted during which five competencies were assessed. All participants completed the personality

test Circumplex of Personality Metatraits Portrait. The Circumplex Metatraits Model is based on the

big five model, but could be considered as the psychological lens which allows us to identify more

general basic personality dimensions (Strus, Cieciuch, Rowiński, 2014; Strus & Cieciuch, 2017).

Competencies measured during the AC were:

1. Management and striving for goals (msg) 2. Social skills (ss) 3. Openness to change (och) 4. Problem solving (ps) 5. Employee development (ed)

The simulations used during the AC were:

Group Discussion (assigned leader)

Leaderless Group Discussion

One-to-One Roleplay with a subordinate

One-to-One Roleplay with a colleague

A rating scale of 1 – 10 was used during the AC.

Personality survey - Circumplex of Personality Metatraits Portrait

In order to measure personality a scale which investigates the personality dimension in the

Circumplex Model were used. This is a reliable (Cronbach’s alpha for all scales is above .70) and

validated 54 items questionnaire, which is scored on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not

similar to me at all) to 7 (very similar to me) (Strus, Cieciuch and Rowiński, 2014).

The model encompasses eight dimensions:

1. Stability 2. Disinhibition 3. Plasticity 4. Passiveness 5. Integration 6. Disharmony 7. Self-Restraint 8. Sensation-Seeking

Research Results: After the AC the participants were divided into three groups: (1); N=50, age 25-29

years; (2); N=209, age 30-35 years; (3); N=68, age 36-51 years.

A higher competence score correlated positively with personality traits in younger age groups as

opposed to the older age groups of the manager participants. As the mangers in the research got

older, the positive relationship between competencies and personality traits was weaker.

41


Table 1: Correlations between competencies and different personality traits for the three age

groups.

AC Competency

Social Skills Problem Solving

Management and

Striving for Goals

Openness to

Change

Employee

Development

Group 1

N=50

Age 25-29

xxxx xxxx x x

Group 2

N=209

Age 30-35

xxx xxxx x

Group 3

N=68

Age 36-51

x xx

Note: One x means one personality trait.

Summary: The current statistical results show more correlations and stronger correlations between

high scores on competencies and personality traits in the younger group of manager-participants in

comparison to the older groups. However, the reason for these results needs to be explored.

A critique levelled at this research is that a regression analysis with age (continuous variable) as a

moderator of the relationship of personality and competencies should be done. This analysis is still

outstanding.

Anna Baczyńska is assistant professor at Kozminski University in Poland. She is an

expert in human resource management and is a practitioner with 18 years’

experience in work and cooperation with varied companies. Anna has worked in

managerial roles in Orange, T.P.S.A. and as senior consultant where she conducted

consultancy projects in personnel management for MAKRO, PKO BP, ABB, TP S.A,

Orange, PZU S.A., SONY Poland, NASK, Idea 25, Getin Noble Bank, Skoda, ROCHE,

Rzeczpospolita and many others. She is an expert in diagnosis of managerial competencies and

designs and carries out Assessment and Development Centre and career path processes.

Anna is the author of competency tests and varied diagnostic tools for business. Her publications

include: Baczynska A, Thornton G. C. (2017) Relationships of analytical, practical, and emotional

intelligence with behavioural dimensions of performance of top managers. International Journal of

Selection and Assessment. 25:171–182. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa. 1217. Baczynska A., Korzyński

P, (2017) Leadership competencies. Management and Business Administration. Central Europe;

25(2):6-22

https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.%201217

42


Getting Digital, Combining Video Interview and Assessments as a Solution for Online Assessment

Centres

Track: Open Space

Presenter: Clayton Donnelly (CHC Consulting, South Africa)

Venue: Kwena 2


Candidate experience is becoming an increasingly important variable in hiring practices globally.

Based on a theoretical review of candidate experience research; candidate experience was identified

as the highest ranking factor in determining cost benefits, as well as improved candidate quality, in

hiring practices. In response to these benefits, corporations have embarked on digitising and

automating their assessment practices by adopting video interviewing and “mobile friendly”

psychometric assessments to their hiring practices and assessment centre approaches.

The researcher has aimed to review, in a case study method, whether candidates (graduates in this

case) have candidate experiences that validate the findings seen in global studies. 66 graduate

applicants were required to complete video interviewing and mobile psychometric assessments for

an international oil and gas organisation. The applicants were required to complete a questionnaire

providing feedback on their candidate experience as a result of the digital and automated method.

The central research question for this study was to determine candidate attitudes and impressions

of digital and mobile enabled selection methods as an assessment approach. The study showed that

57% candidates in the study prefer conducting videos in a digital online format, 82% of candidates

reporting a preference for mobile friendly psychometric assessment format.

While cost and candidate quality benefits are a likely motivator for selecting the digital method,

ethical considerations would need to be considered by assessment centre practitioners in adopting

these practices in their assessment centre design. Of particular importance is access to technology.

The researcher will provide practical ways of managing these potential barriers to digital assessment

adoption.

Clayton Donnelly is a qualified Industrial/Organisational psychologist with

extensive experience in developing human capital interventions for sustainable

performance. He is able to blend business and psychology to design, develop and

implement solutions to organisational needs that are practical yet deeply

meaningful. Clayton has experience in the retail, fintech, banking, resources (oil &

gas) and mining industries both locally and internationally.

Clayton has a MCom (Psychology) Stellenbosch and has been registered and practicing as a

psychologist and assessment specialist for ten years. He has been managing director of his own

company for five years.

https://www.chcap.co.za/

43


The Use of Algorithms in Assessment Centres – For Better or Worse?

Track: Open Space

Presenter: Kevin Distiller (Odyssey Talent Management, South Africa)

Venue: Ballroom 2


Much has been written about the 4th industrial revolution and how technology is going to replace

even cognitive tasks that experienced, qualified humans currently perform.

In the AC and assessment context, there is a tendency to believe that automating elements of the

assessment process has the potential to enhance objectivity and standardisation, and to shorten the

overall timeframe of assessment processes and application. With the proliferation of AI, machine

learning and automation, many applications in the AC space have begun to be automated, including

using algorithms to assist with decision making, especially in high volume contexts where turn-

around times are short.

Whilst there can be no doubt that algorithms can enhance any AC application (allowing practitioners

to assess more candidates, quicker, in an objective and standardised manner), relying solely on the

algorithm to make the final selection decision or to categorise a candidate for development or

succession purposes is fraught with serious risks.

This presentation will outline some of the prominent literature on the use of algorithms in AC

contexts, including the advantages and risks of adopting such approaches. The presentation will then

demonstrate some of the practical weaknesses and risks that can be associated with poor

application, or overreliance on algorithms for decision-making.

This will be achieved by discussing a large graduate recruitment project that was undertaken by our

core team, where we debated the value of using automated algorithms, versus using the consensus

of the expert judgment and interpretation of eight psychologists.

Using anonymised candidate data, the presentation will demonstrate how decisions made using

algorithms only might miss nuanced differences between candidates, thus leading to incorrect

decisions being made.

This presentation will raise some important and relevant questions around how the algorithms that

the audience use in their work are built, the assumptions these algorithms make, and the impact

that poorly designed algorithms can have on the overall integrity and fairness of the AC applications

in which they occur.

A framework to guide the ethical and fair use of algorithms in future AC applications will be

presented.

44


Kevin Distiller has worked in the assessment centre industry for over 15 years. He is

a registered industrial psychologist, and holds an MBA. Having served as SIOPSA

Treasurer for a term, Kevin is currently a member of the People Assessment in

Industry (PAI) committee. After completing his internship at Bioss SA, Kevin

founded and ran a successful assessment consulting business called Latitude 26 for

10 years, before returning to Bioss as a Director. He worked in this capacity from

March 2013 until October 2017. Since November 2017, he has worked as the Managing Director of

Odyssey, a company which focuses on assessing skills required to successfully enter the working

world. Kevin has presented several papers at various conferences over the years.


https://www.chcap.co.za/

45


Prediction In-tray Performance: The Effect of Cognitive Ability vs Personality

Track: Open Space

Presenter(s): Kim Dowdeswell & Sebastian Clifton (TTS-Talent, South Africa)

Venue: Kwena 1


The assessment centre (AC) methodology is a popular approach to gathering insights for personnel

selection, development and promotion decisions due to the richness of information they provide,

their typical high fidelity, and their considerable face validity with candidates. From a predictive

validity point of view, a range of meta-analytic coefficients have been reported over the years, from

the original ‘gold standard’ study of 0.37 for overall assessment ratings (Gaugler, Rosenthal,

Thornton, & Bentson, 1987) to coefficients ranging between 0.25 to 0.39 for overall dimension

ratings (Arthur, Day, McNelly, & Edens, 2003). More recently, Sackett and colleagues (2017)

reported a corrected mean validity coefficient of 0.44 for ACs predicting broad performance criteria.

Despite the wealth of evidence concerning the criterion-related validity of ACs, due to issues relating

to the construct validity of ACs there has been substantial debate for decades over why they work

(Mulder, 2014; Thornton & Gibbons, 2009). More recently, researchers have argued that the AC

construct validity issue may be resolved by shifting attention to the overall dimensions ratings that

are typically the focus of decision-making and away from the historical focus on exercise-specific

dimensions that are only stepping stones to aggregated scores (Rupp, Thornton, & Gibbons, 2008),

with Kuncel and Sackett (2014) presenting compelling evidence in this regard.

However, the majority of research evidence concerning the AC method originates from outside of

South Africa. Since conducting a criterion-related validation study was unfortunately not possible

due to the absence of job performance data, we sought to answer the question of “what’s the best

predictor of overall in-basket performance”. International research has illustrated that performance

in in-basket exercises are typically more cognitively loaded. For example, Furnham et al. (2008)

found that while a measure of openness correlated with some assessment centre scores, a measure

of ability was found to be the best predictor of AC performance. Similarly, specifically when looking

at in-baskets, Hoffman and colleagues (2015) found cognitive ability to be most strongly related to

candidate AC performance in relation to measures of personality.

To gain a view of the local picture, we identified a sample of 113 South African candidates who had

completed an online in-basket, an ability test, and a personality questionnaire. Prior to the analysis,

the researchers compiled a priori hypotheses, identifying the personality questionnaire’s dimensions

anticipated to be most relevant to performance on the in-tray, given the competencies the in-tray

was designed to measure. In order to determine which was the best predictor of overall in-tray

performance, two stepwise regression analyses were conducted, first entering cognitive ability in the

first step with the subset of personality dimensions entered in the second step, and vice versa.

46


Interestingly, in contrast to previous international findings, in the current study we found that

personality was the better predictor of performance. The incremental validity of the personality set

of dimensions over the cognitive ability results was substantially larger than the incremental validity

of the ability over the personality dimensions. In the session, we will explore possible reasons for the

discrepant findings and conclude with a discussion of the implications thereof for assessment centre

research and practice, particularly pertaining to the use of in-tray exercises.

Kim Dowdeswell is a registered industrial/organisational psychologist, talent

advisor and research analyst with over 15 years of experience in the assessment

and advisory field. She has wide-ranging experience consulting to organisations in

South Africa and Africa, empowering executives to make better-informed people

decisions using credible data-driven insights and quantifying the return on talent

initiatives through evidence-based business outcome studies. She is particularly

interested in the use of psychological and other similar assessment in the South

African context, upholding best practice in assessment in a global economy, and building inclusive

and fair working environments. She is a past president of SIOPSA, a former chair of the People

Assessment in Industry (PAI) interest group, as well as a former chair of the SIOPSA Pretoria Regional

Chapter.

Sebastian Clifton is a Research Consultant at TTS – Top Talent Solutions. He holds

a PhD in Industrial Psychology from the University of Johannesburg, which

focussed on personality assessment in the South African context. He is a

registered Industrial Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South

Africa (HPCSA) and a Committee Member of the Society for Industrial and

Organisational Psychology of South Africa (SIOPSA) Johannesburg Regional

Branch. He is a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society and

International Test Commission (ITC). He has presented at national and international conferences on

the topics of personality, measurement validation, and cross-cultural assessment.

https://www.tts-talent.com/

47

48


Virtual vs Traditional ACs: A view from Participants’ Perspective

Track: Open Space

Presenter: Vina Ganakin Pendit (PT. Daya Dimensi, Indonesia)

Venue: Kwena 2


Digital disruption has marked its presence on the assessment center (AC) process in which providers

are driven to develop virtual-based ACs. Along with the providers, ACs’ participants are also

expected to adapt to this shift, hence the virtual assessment centre is introduced. This study aims to

gain insight of participant’s perception towards assessment content and mode of delivery in virtual

and traditional ACs.

A data set of 2723 data cases was analysed, comparing cases using z-scores. The data set consisted of participant feedback about their experience of the assessment centre. The participants attended a virtual AC (N=1244) and a traditional AC (N=1488). The data set was analysed using a Mann-Whitney U-test. Result shows that overall, there is no significant difference in participants’ experience who attended traditional or virtual assessment centres (p = .478). Therefore, additional analysis on five identical items between the two types of ACs was performed. Findings show that participants who went through a virtual AC gave significantly higher feedback scores on four items: task instruction clarity (p < .001), briefing clarify (p < .001), job relatedness of content (p = .022), and assessment fairness (p < .001). On the other hand, no significant difference was found on assessor credibility.

Further research will be conducted to analyse potential differences between ACs’ score in a

traditional and virtual process; the potential effect of age range; and organisation characteristics in

using virtual assessment centre.

As one of the leading experts in assessment centres and talent management in

Indonesia, Vina Ganakin Pendit now serves as Principal Consultant in Daya

Dimensi Indonesia. She has led the consulting team in various talent

management and assessment centre initiatives at strategic and complex projects

within large corporations and/or government institutions.

Since founding Daya Dimensi Indonesia in 1998, Vina has held multiple roles

including General Manager, Principal Consultant, and Directorship positions in

Daya Dimensi Indonesia. She is instrumental in leading, managing, and overseeing both project

delivery and consulting content in various strategic projects in Indonesia. She also played significant

role in ensuring Assessment Centre (AC) standards in Indonesia by serving as Secretary General of

Indonesian Task Force of AC Code of Conduct from 2001 – 2005 and Vice Chairman of PASSTI

(Perkumpulan Assessment Centre Indonesia - Indonesia Association on Assessment Centres) from

2015 – present. Vina is a certified psychologist and executive coach.


49


IGNITE – Facets of Leadership 2020+

Track: Plenary Session

Convenor: Terry Meyer (Leadership SA, South Africa)

Presenters: Gaylin Jee (33 Emeralds, South Africa), Rudashni Peters (South Africa), John

Raddall (Quanta Consulting, South Africa) and Cynthia Schoeman (Ethics Monitor,

South Africa)

Venue: Boardroom 2


Yesterday’s leaders may not be the leaders needed to solve tomorrow’s challenges.

While many tenets of leadership have remained constant over decades and even centuries, the

context of leadership continues to change, and the art of leadership needs to continue to change

accordingly.

In an environment of 4IR with the new business and societal models that it brings, increased

diversity in every respect, the growth of social divergence and the need for sustainable solutions to

ensure the very existence of society and the planet, leaders of tomorrow face unprecedented

challenges and will be expected to take advantage of the unique opportunities of the unfolding 21st

century.

The mindset, skills and practices of leaders in the future will need to adapt to changing

organisational designs and social structures in which the courage to unleash and harness the

potential of multiple stakeholders - society, organisations and individuals - through collaboration,

innovation and agility will be the key to making a difference for a better world.

This ignite session will touch on the multiple facets of leadership in this new world and lay the

groundwork for further in-depth analysis of what it will take to successfully lead in the next decade

and beyond.

Terry Meyer is an independent consultant, academic, author and keynote speaker.

His areas of expertise include the following:

Strategy facilitation

Organisational design

Leadership strategy and transformational leadership development

Human capital and talent strategy

Sustainability strategy

Terry has the ability to blend extensive academic thought leadership with his practical experience in

corporate roles and as a consultant. He is considered a leading thinker and advisor in his various

fields of expertise. His primary theoretical basis is grounded in systems thinking and he has the

ability to approach complex organisational problem solving from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

50


Terry assists organisations, at Executive levels, to improve performance in all of the above areas of

expertise. His consulting focus is on facilitating the development of those few critical decisions that

have a profound impact on the future of the organisation, including strategy, organisational

structure, leadership strategy and succession amongst others.

His strength includes the ability to facilitate solution building in almost any sector or discipline in the

private, public or development sectors. He invests considerable time in keeping up to date with

latest thinking in all his areas of expertise.

Terry was a full time academic at Wits Business School from 1994 – 2001 where he taught on most

programmes and was responsible for the Masters in Management (HR) Programme. He ran a

programme for senior HR leaders involving visits to top global companies in the USA and Europe to

engage with them on their talent and leadership strategies. His areas of academic speciality include

leadership, organisational design, sustainability and human capital strategy.

Until recently, he ran the HR Executive Programme at USB-Ed and has taught on various

programmes at USB-Ed, Henley Business School and the UNISA SBL where he ran a course on

leadership and transformation for the Executive Development Programme.

Terry has received a number of professional awards, including the IPM Presidential Award in 2008,

an award at the International HRD Congress in Mumbai in 2009 and a Lifetime Achievement Award

from the SABPP in 2012.

Gaylin Jee uses new thinking and practical tools to shift comfort zones and drive

more innovative and purposeful business results. She has worked with leaders

and teams from FNB, Discovery Vitality Group, MINT Group (Microsoft Global

Country Partner 2019), Massmart, Tiger Brands and Tiger Brands Foundation,

Kimberly-Clark South Africa, a range of professional bodies and many smaller

organisations.

Gaylin spent over 10 years in the UK working as a business manager across

various commercial service areas for CIPD, Europe’s largest people management and development

body. She set up and ran a programme office to manage research, consulting and engagement

programmes on employee engagement, leadership and organisation development for sustaining

organisational performance in a post-recession economy. This work with a range of public and

private sector organisations, surfaced a leadership framework and development programme to

equip leaders to tackle strategic people management issues. She also led a relationship with

organisations in Romania, delivering workshops on sustainable performance and talent

management. Prior to this, Gaylin designed and managed new services and products in the

organisational psychology learning and development space, including project managing the launch

of the new journal title ‘Coaching at Work’.

During her time in London, Gaylin was a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society. On

her return to South Africa, she certified as a Facilitator in Lego Serious Play Materials and

Methodologies, driven by the belief that building social capital is a key investment for the future,

and that hands-on approaches assist with this in fast-paced, often fractious and tech-distracted

workplaces.

51


In 2016 Gaylin became the first South African to be accredited in the game changing organimetric

The GCIndex®, a scalable instrument that identifies and builds game-changing talent and teams,

introducing a framework and language of impact and innovation in organisations. Gaylin brought this

thinking into South Africa, establishing a base for the instrument in the region, and has been

certified to run accreditations for practitioners locally to use this next generation tool for more

successful and innovative outcomes in their work.

On invitation from the Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology at UNISA, Gaylin

authored the chapter “From compete to create: exploring new tools” published in the 2019 Springer

Nature Switzerland text “Thriving in Digital Workspaces”. She sits on the Advisory Board and writes a

column for Talent Talks Africa, and is an Associate Member of the Society for Industrial and

Organisational Psychology of South Africa.

Gaylin speaks regularly at events and has been invited to address the South African Women in Tech

network 3 times over the past two years.

In addition to writing, speaking, coaching and facilitating, you will find Gaylin collaborating around

new ideas and offerings with others who share a drive to positively disrupt the world of work, and

the role that humans play within it.

“And will you succeed? Yes! You will indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed). Kid,

you’ll move mountains”

A famous quote by Dr Seuss that has inspired Rudashni Peters to navigate both

her personal and professional journeys with passion and purpose. She completed

her Social Work Hons degree at Wits and practised as a Social Worker in the areas

of Women and Child abuse and Drug and alcohol abuse. During this time, she co-

authored a chapter in the book “Sheltering and Violence in SA”. Her practice

included individual, group, child and family therapy as well as community interventions such as

gender equality in the public sector services. She then completed her Post Graduate Diploma in HR

at Wits Business School.

From a young Social Worker in Lenasia (small Indian community) to the HR Director Supply Chain

Africa at Unilever, she has been fortunate to have assumed a number of significant roles throughout

her professional journey. During her 21 years in the HR space, she has worked at Deloitte, KPMG,

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, Unilever and has run a consulting company. She operated locally and

globally, operationally and strategically from Junior to EXCO levels. She has set on a number of

Transformation Forums influencing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Some of her areas of

specialisation include Leadership Development, Performance Management, Talent Management and

Organisational Development. During her time at KPMG, she was a globally accredited facilitator and

facilitated a number of leadership development courses as well as other soft skill courses. She

believes and has come to appreciate purpose in a profound way- organisations with purpose grow,

brands with purpose last and people with purpose thrive ( credits to the Unilever team for

illuminating this)

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030244620

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She is one of Dr Seuss’ biggest fans and believes that if only organisations took some of those simple

yet pertinent messages into the workplace, amazing things could happen! Her special needs son has

been her inspiration and has taught her the art and skill of moving from impossibilities to

possibilities.

John Raddall is founder and CEO of Quanta Consulting, a company dedicated to

creating high energy and intelligent organisations through the practical

application of customised assessment tools and intervention methods. John

started his consulting career as Director Strategy for an international group and

launched his own practice in the 1990’s. His unique methodology focuses on two

key elements, energy and evolution, as the foundation of Quanta’s interventions,

which have been applied with thousands of leaders and their organisations in

both South Africa and Europe. The Quanta programmes focus on developing high-energy leaders

and teams that drive creativity and superior performance.
























53


Cynthia Schoeman is the Managing Director of Ethics Monitoring &

Management Services Proprietary Ltd. She is the chairman of the Ethics

Practitioners Association (EPA), and sits on the Investigating Committee of

the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA).

She has over 15 years’ experience in the field of workplace ethics and

governance. She has developed practical tools and services to support the

effective and proactive management of workplace ethics within

organisations and consults to private and public sector organisations in this regard.

Cynthia is a published author in the area of workplace ethics, namely Ethics Can: Managing

Workplace Ethics (2014), Ethics: Giving a Damn, Making a Difference (2012) and An Employee’s

Guide to Workplace Ethics (2011). Cynthia’s articles are widely published in business journals

and the press.

Cynthia is a regular speaker on workplace ethics at conferences and is often interviewed on TV

and radio as an ethics expert. Cynthia has lectured on ethics and governance as external faculty

on executive and academic programmes since 2000 at South Africa’s top business schools.

Cynthia has a BA from Unisa and an MBA from Wits Business School.

http://www.lka-attorneys.com/index.php/about-us

54


ACs and ACSG: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: ACSG Celebrating 40 Years


Convenor: Sandra Schlebusch (LEMASA, South Africa)

Presenters: Pieter Bronkhorst (Evalex, South Africa), Michelle Brown (Pinsight, USA) and Jason

Manson-Kullin (Evalex, South Africa)

Venue: Boardroom 2


Before the Institute of Personnel Management’s (IPM) annual convention in Johannesburg in 1980,

the inaugural meeting for the ACSG was held, chaired by Wilhelm Crouse, the Executive Director of

the IPM at that stage. Herman Spangenberg was elected as the first chairman of the newly formed

organisation. The intention with the ACSG was that AC practitioners from various organisations

shared ideas on how to run ACs more effectively, particularly regarding how to improve the

leadership of their respective organisations (Meiring, 2020). Over the years the ACSG presented

annual conferences with both local and international keynote speakers, where practitioners

exchanged ideas, research, insights and information related to the practice, science and teaching of

ACs.

During 2020 we celebrate the ACSG’s 40th anniversary and this presentation is part of the

celebration. The presentation aims to give insight into how the ACSG and ACs evolved over time and

gives a peak into the possible future of both ACs and the ACSG itself.

Three presenters will participate:

Pieter Bronkhorst will give an overview of where we were and where we are.

From his involvement in the ACSG since its inception in 1980, Pieter will provide an overview of how

the AC method and the ACSG have evolved over 40 years. The fascinating journey of what the AC

method was in the pioneering days, how it has transformed to what we experience today and the

drivers behind this transformation will provide an interesting perspective for those who have chosen

the assessment of human talent as a profession.

Michelle Brown will give insight into international trends and where ACs are likely heading.

Michelle will provide the AC users perspective from AC providers and customers in China, Middle

East, Europe, South America and North America. From this international and market-based

perspective, this session will highlight global trends and implications for AC delivery, power,

positioning and their use in organizational decision making.

Jason Manson-Kullin will provide the perspective of a Generation Z person about their needs and

wants around the ACSG and ACs.

Jason will provide us with his take on where we are with regard to the AC method from the

perspective of the up and coming professionals in our field. The insights he will provide on the AC

will be from his experience of running AC and Psychometrics for a wide range of business

organisations, his view on its efficacy and future expectations.

55









Companies”. Evalex and OMT are in the business of building high performance teams and companies


Michelle Brown is the Vice President of Client Success at Pinsight, based in Denver

in the USA. Pinsight is a talent software solution, delivering scalable and reliable

talent assessment and development tools to growing organisations across the

globe.

Michelle’s 20 years of experience as a clinical psychologist, management

consultant, and client services leader has equipped her with a unique perspective

to solving complex talent issues and improving operational outcomes. As a partner in a boutique-

consulting house, Michelle led dozens of transformation projects with multi-national organisations

in a cross section of industries, with demonstrated improvements in employee engagement,

organisational culture, health and safety, supply chain, leadership effectiveness, customer

experience and productivity. Currently, Michelle provides direct talent strategy support to Pinsight’s

clients and leads a team of talent and software specialists to provide high quality and easy

implementation of Pinsight’s leadership assessment and development tools.

Michelle is an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, teaching Organisational Behaviour and

Leadership in their online MBA program and holds an Executive MBA from the University of Denver

and an Honours Degree in Psychology from the University of Queensland.

Jason Manson-Kullin is a management consultant and registered Psychometrist.

He completed an Honours in Psychology, Anthropology, and Philosophy with the

University of Johannesburg and a practical psychometric internship with Deloitte

Consulting (Pty) Ltd. Moving to the Evalex team full time, has afforded him

exposure to the full life cycle of assessment development, maintenance, and

management in a heavily technology and innovative focused environment with a

broad range of clients and partners – albeit only with seven years of experience.

Originally hailing from the windy city in the Eastern Cape, then stared schooling in Zimbabwe before

settling in Johannesburg – which was his first contact to the internet and computers. Passion for

technology, people, quantifying information, and at times over zealous inquisitiveness has led to a

quest for solutions that afford humans insights and innovations through the aide of technology.

56




























57


Virtual Reality Tournament: Game of Heroes


Convenor: Kyle Dodds (Insight Online, South Africa)

Venue: Patio


The use of virtual reality (VR) in the world of work, both as training tool, and facilitating some sort of

assessment, has taken root in the corporate world. Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that

can be similar to a situation in real life, or it can be totally imaginative. Through wearing a VR

headset, giving auditory and video feedback, a person is immediately immerged in a different reality.

The purpose of this tournament is to expose the ACSG attendees to the power of VR.

The tournament will stress the importance of teamwork, logical thinking and above all,

communication, apart from exposing participants to the immersive experience of VR. All these will

play an important role in the corporate world of 4IR.

The tournament is played during a “test-drive” stage and two tournament stages.

“Test Drive” Stage:

During the “test-drive” stage, team members individually participate in a VR activity to obtain bonus

points for their teams. This will take place during the afternoon prior to the actual tournament.

Tournament Introduction:

Before the start of the tournament, the tournament process, rules and officials are introduced to the

participants. The teams will have time to mobilise themselves. A team will consist of 4 – 6 team

members.

Stage 1: Knock-out Rounds:

Teams compete by completing an activity in a virtual world. Teams are eliminated from the

tournament when they cannot successfully complete the activity within a given time. The

complexity of the activity increases with each subsequent round.

Stage 2: Final Round:

The “best of the best” 2 teams will compete for the title: Team 2020 Super Heroes. The winning

team is the team that can complete the activity in the shortest time.

Close-out and Certification Ceremony:

A short de-brief session, facilitated by Insight Online will take place. A ceremony during which the

winning team will receive certificates and prizes will end the tournament.

“The use of VR in the workplace and AC situations is depended on the creativity of the practitioner.”

https://www.insightonline.solutions/

https://www.insightonline.solutions/

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Conference Day Two: 13 March 2020

Is it for Real? A Neuroscientific Perspective on Virtual Reality


Presenter: Dirk Geldenhuys (UNISA, South Africa)

Venue: Boardroom 2

When: Friday, 13 March 2020 at 08:30

The use of virtual reality (VR) is becoming more and more popular, especially for therapy (such as

exposure therapy) and research purposes, as it offers sensory inputs that elicit specific reactions in

controlled environments. The question we must ask ourselves is: if these experiences are for real

why does VR elicit emotional responses, knowing well what the “real” source of these sensory inputs

is?

The argument in this presentation is that an understanding of the functioning of the human brain

will assist in providing an answer to the above question. It will also offer a solid foundation and

framework for using VR for measuring, predicting and changing human behaviour more effectively.

The objective of this presentation is thus to explore how our brain constructs our reality and to make

inferences for the use of VR technology.

The presentation offers a theoretical perspective that is based on the study of neuroscientific

research findings, theories and principles that were published in academic journals and integrated

scholarly books. The theoretical underpinnings that will be explored in the presentation include a

discussion on the development and functioning of the brain as comprising of open, complex

operating systems and the role of memories in constructing our realities.

The presentation will conclude with the view that the experience of VR does not depend on the

sensory inputs from the headset only, but more so on the different memory systems that are

activated (triggered) by those inputs. In this sense, the brain does not discriminate on the basis of

the source of our sensory inputs.

Dirk Geldenhuys is registered as an industrial psychologist with the HPCSA and as a

master practitioner with the SABPP. Currently, he is a full professor in the

department of industrial and organisational psychology at UNISA, teaching

organisation development and coaching. He was trained in and obtained more than

20 years of experience in systems-psychodynamics, appreciative inquiry, social

constructionism and applied neuroscience. For the past six years he focused on

publishing and presenting at conferences, locally and abroad, in the field of applied

neuroscience.

In his private capacity Dirk is a director and co-founder of BrainFit Partners Pty Ltd. He is a certified

practitioner and serves on the advisory board of the Predictive 6 Factor Resilience Scale and the

Driven resilience programme and thereby a certified resilience Coach (CReC). He is also a member of

the international association of applied neuroscience (IAAN). Furthermore, he is a certified BWRT®

(Brainworks Recursive Therapy) practitioner – level 2. He coaches to individuals and groups on all

organisational levels from a neuro-scientific framework and work across industries with a strong

focus on resilience and wellness.

59


Inspiring Possibilities and Critical Dilemmas for Learning in a 4IR Africa

Track: Keynote Speaker

Presenter: Thokozile Lewanika Mpupuni (ABSA, South Africa)

Venue: Boardroom 2


The fourth industrial revolution has brought many inspiring and life changing possibilities to life in

Africa. The continent’s home-grown 4IR successes include riding with SafeMotos, paying bills on M-

Pesa, shopping on Jumia and WhatsApp banking with Absa. In the world of learning (and work),

technologies like automation, robotics, machine learning, chatbots and augmented virtual reality

have created incredible experiences for learners and workers alike. On the other hand, these

technologies have also disrupted jobs, career trajectories, and predictions like “By 2022, 50% of

companies believe that automation will decrease their numbers of full-time staff and by 2030, robots

will replace 800 million workers across the world” are commonplace and alarming. Several

organisations, Absa included, have put in place strategies to align their organisational capabilities to

the changing needs and demands of customers and the realities of the new world of work. Future-

minded governments, learning institutions and development partners have joined the dialogue and

initiated actions towards adapting learning curricula, granting free access to learning programmes,

reviewing retirement age legislation and exploring entrepreneurship rather than formal employment

to address youth unemployment challenges. What has been the response of individuals in leading

the charge to ensure their own continued relevance in this new world of disruption, dilemmas and

new possibilities? What has been your response? Are you a deer caught in headlights, a

comfortable armchair critic or an adaptive 4IR citizen? Let’s discuss it.

Thokozile Lewanika Mpupuni is an integrated talent transformation specialist

who is driven to create socio-economic impact and transform Africa’s unrealised

potential through liberating leadership greatness. She fulfils her purpose through

speaking, teaching, consulting, coaching and in her current role as Group Head of

Leadership, Learning and Talent for the Absa banking Group. Her brilliance lies in

her ability to drive vision with execution excellence across an organisation and

‘through’ levels. She combines analytical rigour and insights from scientific

training (holds a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Cape Town) with

accelerated consulting capabilities (McKinsey & Company) and experience in blue chip corporates

(Novartis, Discovery Limited, Absa) to deliver game changing performance in individuals, teams and

organisations across Africa. Thokozile’s life purpose is to live a centred, authentic and joy-filled

life. Her motto that drives her is: “delivering that which people thought impossible, because human

potential is truly limitless”. Her interests include history, music, art, reading widely and observing

nature.

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2018.pdf

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2018.pdf

https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Featured%20Insights/Future%20of%20Organizations/What%20the%20future%20of%20work%20will%20mean%20for%20jobs%20skills%20and%20wages/MGI-Jobs-Lost-Jobs-Gained-Report-December-6-2017.ashx

60


Technological Advances in Assessment Centres & the Changing Role of Assessment Practitioners

Track: Open Space

Presenter: David Bischof (ASSA / PAI, South Africa)

Venue: Kwena 1


The world of recruitment, development and talent management assessments is constantly evolving,

with many new innovations entering the market in terms of the next generation of assessments.

Such innovations include the use of technology in assessment delivery, scoring and reporting, as well

as the emergence of Gamification, Robotics, VR, and the use of social media, big data and Artificial

Intelligence in the assessment process. This is particularly the case in the use of Assessment Centres.

Within the South African context, we are also faced with many legislative changes and challenges

regarding the correct and ethical use of assessments. The PAI hosted session aims to provide insight

to practitioners on the next generation of assessments and to provide clarity on legislative changes

and guidance on the correct and ethical use of assessments within the South African environment.

The session will also include an update on current South African legislation and the role of

Assessment Standards South African (ASSA) in the evaluation of assessments in the workplace.

David Bischof is currently Director for Assessments Standards South Africa (ASSA) as

well as Chairperson for People Assessments in Industry (PAI), an interest group of

the Society of Industrial and Organisational Psychology of SA (SIOPSA). He is also

Director - Business Development at Organisational and Management Technology

(OMT) and a previous Senior Manager of the Assessment Centre at Deloitte

Consulting (Pty) Ltd. David holds a Master’s degree in Research Psychology (cum

laude) and is registered as both a Research Psychologist and a Psychometrist – Independent/Private

Practice with the HPCSA.

As chairperson for PAI, David focuses on ensuring that testing exists in the South African context as a

value adding, ethical and fair practice. David specialises in psychometrics as well as leadership

assessments and talent intervention, development as well as high-level local and international

project management of Assessment Centres used.

David is also past chairperson for the Assessment Centre Study Group (ACSG). David has presented

on numerous occasions at the ACSG and SIOPSA conference on best practice assessment and talent

management approaches as well as global human capital trends.

https://www.siopsa.org.za/

61


The Game of Developing Successors: A Case Study

Track: Open Space

Presenters: Mia Bunn (Vitatalent Consulting, South Africa)

Venue: Kwena 1


Introduction: Part of the return on investment (ROI) of a Succession Development Programme from

an organisational perspective is that participants will react positively on developmental feedback,

and act on it by implementing the development plan resulting from attending, as example, an

Assessment Centre. However, from published research (as example McCarthy & Garavan, 2006;

Ryan, Brutus, Greguras, & Hakel, 2000) and practice, we know that this does not always happen. It

remains an organisational challenge to enable employees to experience developmental feedback

positively and to actively execute developmental activities when they are simultaneously also held

accountable for effective job performance.

The Challenge: Peermont Global (a hospitality and entertainment company operating numerous

properties across South Africa and Botswana) decided to address this challenge head-on with the

implementation of their re-engineered two-year Succession Development Programme.

The criteria for the programme were firstly an enhanced participant experience of the whole

programme, including the assessments, building fun into the process. Secondly, participants needed

to be motivated to execute the various development activities, despite being accountable for

effective job performance. Thirdly, the assessment process still needed to produce timely, accurate

assessment information.

The Solution: A decision was taken to gamify the whole programme. Game mechanics such as

challenges, points, rewards, leader boards, feedback and transparency were designed into the

programme while still respecting ethical considerations around assessments and feedback.

The programme phases are depicted as follows:

Nomination

and Selection AC1

Development

Journey:

Individual Activities

Team Activities

Team Mentor

Success

Celebration AC2

Publish

Results

Talent Committee Oversight

A total of 20 managers started the programme, with five fall-outs due to various reasons (death,

resignations). The programme included successors for middle management, senior management

and executive management level positions. The participants were nominated by management from

all business units based on their performance results, as well as other criteria.

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The one-day AC1 consisted of:

An in-box;

A Group discussion

An Analysis and Presentation exercise;

Psychometric tests

AC2 consisted of:

An In-Box

A Group Discussion

The competencies assessed and developed during the programme were specifically designed for

Peermont Global.

The Talent Committee, consisting of Executive Leaders, received feedback about the participants’

progress five times per annum.

The Results: The overall programme is considered a success as is evident from:

- Group Survey and one-on-one interview feedback results have indicated high/positive ratings from all participants on their overall experience of the programme

- The approach to design the programme in such a way that increased collaboration and the completion of development activities as a team whilst collecting team points. This resulted in both participants and senior leaders reporting a marked increase in executing development activities

- The programme has sparked significant interest amongst other non-participating managers who have expressed a keen interest in securing a place in the next talent programme

Keys to the programme’s success are the collaboration between all stakeholders throughout the

process, the organisation’s culture being evident during all programme phases, and shifting

development focus from individual effort to team effort.

During the presentation the presenter will share the initiatives implemented to enhance the

participant experience, to enhance the execution of development activities and to ensure timely and

accurate assessment results by describing the tools and methods used during each phase of the

gamified two-year assessment and development programme.

Mia Bunn is a Director of Vitatalent Consulting with more than 20 years'

experience in the field of Human Capital Consulting and Talent Management. Her

most recent position was with Deloitte Human Capital Consulting where she

project managed the design, development and execution of innovative human

capital projects for almost 10 years before starting Vitatalent Consulting in 1996.

Mia holds a BSc (Hons) Psych degree and has over the span of her consulting

career assisted a range of national and international companies in developing and

implementing specialist Human Capital solutions and Talent Management strategies. Mia has

presented at a number of conferences on strategies for selection and succession management as

well as the design of integrated talent management processes.

63


The Changing Nature of Leadership Over Time

Track: Open Space

Presenter: Maharani Syahratu Kertapiti (PT. Daya Dimensi, Indonesia)

Venue: Kwena 2


Leadership development can be seen as a key to building a better Indonesia. However, what type of

leadership should be developed? Do we need the same type of leaders across time? Are there any

specific types and/or traits of leaders that remain constant within different time frames?

This presentation is intended to provide answers to the above questions. Data from 50 top

executive-level assessment centre participants were analysed. The participants are from Indonesian

State Institutions and State-Owned Enterprises who attended the assessment centre between 2007

and 2019. The current study indicates interesting findings that describe the interactions between

leader traits, leader behaviour, and leadership effectiveness during the changes in Indonesia’s

political and/or socio-cultural situations.

Using Trait Activation Theory (TAT) (Tett, Simonet, Walser, and Brown, 2013) as the background of

the analysis, the study also tries to explain why the similar competency strengths that differentiate

the effective leaders from the rest (e.g. change leadership, strategic thinking, and building network)

could be shown by groups of leaders with different traits and types of leadership characteristics.

Maharani Syahratu Kertapati is an experimental psychologist, leading the

Diagnostic Research and Tools Development division of Daya Dimensi Indonesia.

Before joining Daya Dimensi Indonesia as an assessment consultant, she was a

lecturer of the Faculty of Psychology at University of Padjadjaran in Indonesia

with more than 8 years experience in psychological research and experiment,

focusing on assessment tools development.

Having a strong passion, knowledge and experience in the field of Psychometry,

she has developed psychometric tools for a number of companies and organisations including Astra

International, Adira Finance, PT Telkom, Psi-AD, Department Social RI, Kementrian Riset, Teknologi

dan Pendidikan Tinggi, Kementrian Pendidikan, Institut Teknologi Bandung, and the University of

Padjadjaran.

Maharani is currently pursuing her PhD degree at the University of Indonesia with interest in the

area of research about Assessment Centre Validity and Impression Formation.

64


Do Assessments Really Work in Selecting the High Potential Applicant or are We Wasting our

Time? Empirical research Showing the Effect that Algorithms and Assessment Type have on the

Return on Investment of Assessments

Track: Open Space

Presenter: Hendrik Bronkhorst (Evalex, South Africa)

Venue: Boardroom 2


The Dilemma: Assessment practitioners are being bombarded with new products on a daily basis:

new behavioural assessments (personality, styles, values, interest), picture-based assessments,

gamified assessments, simulated assessments, video-based assessments, AI-driven assessments, and

even linguistic analysis assessments. This proliferation brings with it a number of challenges, but at

the most fundamental level. Do they work? And if they work, how well do they work?

Most of us have probably experienced the following dilemma: You have to fill a vacancy at a

leadership level, have received a good number of CVs, interviewed the best candidates and now

have a short list of three candidates. You are considering appointing the one that came across the

best in the interview. Do you go with your gut feeling, or send all three for some form of

assessment? Based on the assessment, all three are rejected. Or, all three are recommended! What

now?

Are you wasting your time? Should we not simply trust the interview process?

Does the conclusion or recommendation depend on your assessment type? Do different types of assessments produce different levels of accept / reject?

Cut-lines, benchmarks, and algorithms are probably being used to speed up the decision-making process. What effect are they having on the number of candidates that fit the role?

If all three are rejected, does it mean there is no talent available in the market? Are we setting the benchmarks too high?

Given the job market and available talent, what portion of applicants should meet the requirements of your job: 100%, 50% or maybe only 10%? Are we too choosy and rejecting too many applicants?

What is the net effect of different cut-lines or benchmarks, will a higher benchmark result in higher performance?

What is my Return on Investment? If I use a particular assessment, what value will this add to the bottom line of my business?

Methods and Approaches: Using empirical data from over 2,000 Middle Managers across a number

of companies and industries we researched these questions and will present some surprising and

interesting findings.

All these leaders completed a set of Behavioural assessments (personality, styles, values, interests) a

Cognitive Battery (abstract, deductive, numeric, judgment) and a Simulation Battery (5 leadership

simulations/exercises, e.g. inbox). We also had performance data on candidates. We then analysed

the results through three lenses:

If you were to apply a cut-line, benchmark or Job-fit calculation for a Middle Manager, how many

people would have made the benchmark? How many people will be rejected using these criteria?

65


Once we had a sense of acceptance and rejection of candidates due to the cut- lines we wanted

to know what effect this had on actual performance on the job.

E.g. if we hire someone based on a moderate Personality fit, what did performance look like in

relation to a very good Personality fit, or a higher benchmark? What did performance look like

against people that did not meet the benchmark at all? What did performance look like if we

combined all the measures?

The last step was to use the selection/rejection volumes, overlaid with the performance, cost-

per-assessment and productivity ratios to get a sense of Return on Investment in Rand terms.

Results and Conclusion: There were a number of findings which will be presented, but the highlights

are:

Using cut-lines and job-match individually for each assessment type had the effect that you are rejecting roughly 50% of candidates.

Combining two or three has the effect that between 70% and 80% of candidates are rejected.

Hendrik Bronkhorst is the MD for Evalex. He has extensive experience in the

delivery of Talent Management Solutions and competence framework and library

design and development for a range of organisations and industries using the

Evalex system. He also has in-depth knowledge and experience in the

implementation of organisation wide Performance Management Systems for

various organisations along with Assessment centre management.

He has also been involved in project management of various talent management

for various organisations regionally and in Africa.


66


The Enhancement of Key Leadership Competencies of Middle Managers of a Public Enterprise

Track: Open Space

Presenters: Marita Becker (Eskom, South Africa), Gerda van der Merwe (JvR, South Africa)

and Sabrina Dixon (JvR, South Africa)

Venue: Kwena 1


Objective: A public enterprise identified specific leadership competencies that are key enablers for

success and effective operations. A Management Enhancement Programme (MEP) was designed and

implemented aimed at the enhancement of leadership competencies of middle managers. In order

to determine on what level middle managers demonstrate these competencies, a Diagnostic

Assessment Centre (DAC) was developed.

Theoretical Foundation: According to the International Task Force on Assessment Centre Guidelines

(2010) an AC is a “standardised evaluation of behaviour based on multiple inputs. Several trained

observers and techniques are used. Judgements about behaviour are made.” Simulation-based

assessment in general and ACs in particular are appealing due to their high degree of face validity

and strong linkages to on-the-job performance criteria (Lance, Lambert, Gewin, Lievens, & Conway,

2004). Exercises are designed to closely simulate aspects of the work environment in a contextually

grounded manner (Meiring et al, 2015).

Meiring, et al. (2005) state that the assessments techniques are chosen to elicit a variety of

behaviour. The information can be combined with information gathered through other sources,

such as Interviews and Psychometric evaluation. The design of behavioural simulation exercises is a

crucial step in the AC process. These exercises must be constructed in such a way that participants

can demonstrate the requisite construct-related behaviour, (Meiring et al, 2015). Carefully designed

behavioural simulation exercises are used as vehicles for eliciting behaviour. This allows participants

adequate opportunities to display behaviours linked to the selected competencies, (Lievens,

Schollaert, & Keen, 2014; Oliver, Hausdorf, Lievens, & Conlon, 2014; Tett & Burnett, 2003).

The Diagnostic Assessment Centre (DAC), is used specifically for development, and is designed to

assess and develop participants across a range of selected competencies. The DAC allows the

participant with multiple opportunities to display, practice and improve their performance in the

competencies.

Methodology: Following an analysis of the organisation’s leadership framework, behavioural

indicators were developed. Subject matter experts were interviewed to determine the actual

behaviours underpinning the required competencies and to provide the technical realities. Based on

this information the Behavioural Anchored Rating Scales and an automated scoring platform were

developed. Two sets of information, human resources and technical data were utilised to design a

bespoke “Day-in-the-life-of” DAC exercise (consisting of an analysis, presentation, role play and

leaderless-group activity), that simulates the current environment and elicits the leadership

behaviours.

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A convenience sample of 30 managers from two (2) levels of middle management was selected to

attend the pilot DAC. In conjunction with the DAC, which provided a view on displayed competence,

candidates had to complete psychometric assessments to indicate potential to demonstrate the

competencies. Psychometric assessment data also enriched the development discussions with the

individuals and created a complete view of the middle manager’s development gaps as an input into

the development strategy going forward.

Marita Becker is a registered and practicing Industrial & Organisational

Psychologist and the assessment manager in the skills & talent department of the

Human Resources Division at Eskom. She has worked for Eskom for 10 years. Her

responsibilities include the management of the psychometric assessment value

chain and engage with various stakeholders on different levels of the organisation.

She provides professional services for various contexts such as recruitment, career

guidance and talent boards. She has facilitated various sessions with the utilisation of the MBTI and

EQ-i2.0 assessments for teams. She conducts statistical analysis for trend identification, forecasting

and estimation. Furthermore, she project manages the 360° Leadership Brand Effectiveness

assessments, which includes feedback and quantitative and qualitative analysis. She completed her

Master’s degree in Industrial & Organisational Psychology at the University of South Africa. She is

registered with the HPCSA as a Psychometrist Independent Practice (since 2011) and Industrial

Psychologist (since 2017).

As an experienced organisational psychologist, Gerda van der Merwe has a

demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry. She is

skilled in human capital effectiveness and talent management with a particular

emphasis on job analysis, psychometric and skills assessment, succession and

performance management as well as people and leadership development. Gerda

is registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. She has worked in

a senior capacity as a Management and Talent Consultant with a keen focus on quality delivery and

sustainable implementation.

Sabrina Dixon is a Psychometrist with vast experience in recruitment and human

resources. She has been a consultant in the industrial psychology space for four

years and is passionate about people development in order to enhance the success

of organisations. Her experience in management consulting includes the use of

psychometric tools for the purposes of selection and development, succession

planning and leadership development. She is registered as a psychometrist with

the Health Professionals Council of South Africa.

68


Reflection on the 2018 International Congress on Assessment Centre Methods

Track: Open Space

Presenters: Pieter Bronkhorst (EVALEX, South Africa), Martin Lanik (Pinsight, USA) and Sandra

Schlebusch (LEMASA, South Africa)

Venue: Kwena 2


This was, without a doubt, the largest ICACM yet! 570 delegates from 20 countries attended, 77

presentations were delivered by 70 speakers from 15 countries during the two and a half days.

Countries represented were: Australia, Belgium, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia,

Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea,

Switzerland, Thailand, UAE, United Kingdom, and United States.

During this presentation, three delegates will share their experience and impressions of the

congress, as well as Shanghai. We will share with the audience:

What are the international AC trends as portrayed at the congress

What did we learn at the congress that we were not even thinking about

The best congress presentation(s) about AC research and practice

What are the conclusions we can reach with regard to the AC as a method for assessing leadership potential and facilitating leadership development

What are the implications for ACs in South Africa, as well as the ACSG

As for our experience and impressions of Shanghai, perhaps the following quote by Patricia Marx

sums it up: "New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Shanghai doesn't even sit down, and

not just because there is no room."








Companies”. Evalex and OMT are in the business of building high performance teams and companies


Martin Lanik is author of the business bestseller The Leader Habit and CEO of

Pinsight. His habit-forming leadership development focuses on 5-minute practice

sessions woven throughout the day. Martin’s research-based formula has helped

thousands of high-potentials, managers, directors, and executives in 30 countries

build stronger leadership skills. More than 100 companies - including AIG and

CenturyLink – have implemented his programs, which received awards from Chief

Learning Officer and Brandon Hall.

69


Martin’s work has been featured in Forbes and Fast Company, and he has contributed articles to

outlets like Chief Executive, Business Management Daily, HR People + Strategy, and HR.com. His

recent book, The Leader Habit became an instant bestseller, and it’s transforming how organisations

and individuals approach leadership development. Martin holds a PhD in industrial/organisational

psychology from Colorado State University.



























70


Assessment Centres and the South African Law


Presenter: Sonette Lancaster (Lancaster and Kunguane Attorneys, South Africa)

Venue: Boardroom 2


An Assessment Centre Practitioner (AC Practitioner) follows a multi-faceted approach to assessing

individuals for selection, diagnosis and / or development purposes.

This places the AC Practitioner in a number of interlinking relationships which may place unique

obligations on the AC Practitioner. These obligations may arise from the prevailing legislative

framework within which the AC Practitioner operates, or may arise through ethical and/or moral

obligations that rest on the AC Practitioner.

Whatever the nature of these obligations, it is essential for responsible AC Practitioners to comply

with their obligations in law and to ensure that their practice is conducted ethically and responsibly.

This White Paper accordingly aims to extrapolate the legal framework within which an ethical, lawful

and responsible AC practice is operated from the initial opening of a practice to delivering a

complete AC related service to an AC Client. The applicable legislation is discussed within three

sections. The first section addresses AC’s in terms of definition and role-players. The second section

highlights legislation applicable to the business of being an AC Practitioner. The last section starts by

discussing the overarching legislation impacting AC’s from inception to evaluation and continues by

disseminating the stages of AC design and implementation, linking each stage to applicable

legislation.

The purpose of this presentation is to introduce the White Paper to the AC Practitioners and to invite

comments and contributions.

The White Paper by no means constitutes legal advice and cannot possibly encapsulate every aspect

and application of the South African (and international) law. It does, however, serve as a guideline

to AC Practitioners in terms of the legal frameworks within which the AC Practice functions within

South Africa. The responsible AC Practitioner can therefore familiarise and align themselves with the

salient aspects of the legislation and common law mentioned in the White Paper and obtain

appropriate and focused professional legal advice where and when required.(2019).

Sonette Lancaster was admitted as an attorney in 2007. She joined the labour

practice at MacRobert Attorneys and headed the team before her departure.

Sonette brings with her a fount of legal knowledge and experience in all areas of

Employment Law. Her clients include several public entities, JSE and NY stock

exchange listed corporations and other entities worldwide. Sonette holds an LLB

degree from the University of Pretoria as well as an LLM with specialisation in tax

law.

71


She holds a postgraduate certificate in pension funds law and acts as trustee for a major South

African provident fund. Sonette is member of SASLAW and has been acknowledged as a main

contributor in terms of hours spent staffing their pro bono advice office at the Labour Court in

Johannesburg. Sonette is also a member of the International Law Organisation (ILO) and has on

occasion been invited to sit as an acting judge in the Labour Court. She enjoys training and provides

in-house and online interactive training to corporate clients on many legal and practical topics,

including the successful prosecution and chairing of disciplinary enquiries and arbitrations. Sonette

is a member in good standing of the Legal Practice Council.

http://www.lka-attorneys.com/index.php/about-us

72


Cultivating Ethical Culture in Organisations


Presenter: Deon Rossouw (The Ethics Institute, South Africa)

Venue: Boardroom 2


The objectives of this presentation are (1) to introduce delegates to the shift from compliance to

culture in the fields of governance and organisational ethics, and (2) to identify the challenges and

opportunities that the said shift holds for the assessment of corporate ethical culture.

Although AC practitioners may adhere to a code of ethical conduct that governs their behaviour,

they need to be mindful of the ethical culture of the organisations they consult to. The degree to

which client organisations have an ethical culture will likely make it easier or more difficult for AC

practitioners convincing them to use ACs in an ethical manner. There is a growing body of

knowledge in both the fields of corporate governance and organisational ethics that indicates that a

mere reliance on fear-based compliance can undermine the cultivation of individual ethical

responsibility in organisations. There is a realisation that ethical conduct can only be sustained if it is

anchored in an ethical organisational culture. Reference will be made to various international

reports that advocates the importance of culture, as well as to the Fourth King Report on Corporate

Governance for South Africa, that also identifies the cultivation of an ethical organisational culture

as a key outcome of good corporate governance.

One of the major challenges that accompanies this shift towards ethical culture, is the question of

monitoring and reporting on ethical culture. Governing bodies that need to exercise governance

oversight of the ethical culture of the organisations that they govern, requires credible and reliable

reports on the state of ethical culture in their organisations. They also need a baseline against which

they can monitor developments in ethical culture in their organisations over time, but also

benchmarks for comparing their companies’ ethical culture against those of their industry peers.

Delegates will be introduced to the Ethical Culture Maturity Index that was developed by The Ethics

Institute with the aim of providing organisations with an internal baseline for tracking the

development of their ethical culture over time, as well as with an industry benchmark against which

they can compare themselves to their industry peers.

Deon Rossouw holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from University of Stellenbosch.

Prior to serving as CEO of The Ethics Institute, he first headed the philosophy

department of Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg and later also the

philosophy department at the University of Pretoria. He also spent a year as

Program Executive for Business Ethics at the Globethics.net Foundation in

Geneva, Switzerland. He is an Extraordinary Professor in Philosophy at the

University of Stellenbosch.

Deon is a member of the King Committee on Corporate Governance for South Africa, and has been

recognised as a Chartered Director by the Institute of Directors in South Africa.

He is an internationally recognised expert in Business Ethics and the Ethics of Corporate Governance.

He wrote several books on business ethics and published in leading international journals.

73

https://www.fleurducap.co.za/

74

Alphabetical Presenters’ Index

B L

Baczyńska, Anna 39 Lancaster, Sonette 70

Becker, Marita 66 Lanik, Martin 30, 68

Bischof, David 60 Lewanika-Mpupuni, Thokozile 59

Bronkhorst, Hendrik 64

Bronkhorst, Pieter 32, 54, 68 M

Brown, Michelle 54 Manson-Kullin, Jason 54

Browning, Jennie 26 Meyer, Terry 49

Bunn, Mia 61

N

C Nel, Petrus 18, 23

Cillié-Schmidt, Lydia 16, 20, 35

Clifton, Sebastian 45 P

Pendit, Vina Ganakin 48

D Peters, Rusdashni 49

De Wet, Christine 12

Distiller, Kevin 43 R

Dodds, Kyle 57 Raddall, John 49

Donnelly, Clayton 42 Rossouw, Deon 72

Dowdeswell, Kim 45

Dixon, Sabrina 66 S

Schlebusch, Sandra 16, 49, 54, 57

G Schoeman, Cynthia 49

Geldenhuys, Dirk 58 Slivinski, David 37

J V

Jee, Gaylin 49 Van der Merwe, Gerda 66

Vorster, Paul 24

K

Kertapiti, Maharani Syahratu 63

Kuncel, Nathan 19, 28

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Documents

Front Page Outside Cover · Abstract Selection Process: The submission format, review process and the acceptance of abstracts were handled by the ACSG committee. All abstracts submitted