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Assessment Centres
Virtually all companies now use assessment centres as part of their recruitment process.
If you’re applying for a job then preparing for this is essential if you want to succeed at getting hired. After passing the initial application stage (often including various online aptitude tests) you will be invited to what’s known as an Assessment Day. In practice the Assessment “Day” can often take several days to complete. |
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Assessment Day psychometric exercises
During your time at the assessment centre you will tested in a variety of ways in order to assess your eligibility for the role. This can include verifying any online aptitude tests already taken and sometimes pen and paper aptitude tests are presented for the first time. This is also usually when you can expect to sit through interviews with your potential employers. In general though, the assessment day is when you take a number of psychometric assessment tests.
These usually include:
E-tray Exercises
Case Studies
Presentations
Group Exercises
Role-play Exercises
Below we’ll discuss what each of these tests entail and what skills are being assessed in each examination.
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In-tray exercises are designed to simulate an average work environment by presenting you with an “inbox” of various tasks and messages that you will need to process in a limited amount of time. In-tray exercises are often referred to as E-tray Exercises when they are taken on computers. In-tray exercises assess how well you analyse and process different types of information, how you cope with stress and your organisational skills. As your time will be limited, a strong emphasis is placed on how well you prioritise the different tasks given. For this reason it’s important to work out which tasks are more important or urgent than others.
Find more information on In-tray Exercises as well as practice tests here. |
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Like In-tray Exercises, Case Studies try to recreate work like conditions. However while In-tray Exercises focus on everyday work tasks and email messages, Case Studies present you with a specific business scenario. You will be given an information pack about a certain business campaign or event, and will then be given some time to study and process the information. Afterwards you will be interviewed on the campaign and be asked to make decisions and give opinions on how you would deal with that issue. Sometimes instead of an interview you will be asked to give a written report.
Case Studies assess your ability to think on your feet, your general business knowledge, your problem solving skills and your ability to analyse information before acting on it.
Find more information on Case Studies as well as practice tests here. |
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Presentations are a very common form of psychometric assessment used by companies. You will be given the task of creating a presentation based on a product, campaign or any other business related information based on the data you’re provided with. This will first involve studying and preparing the content of your presentation, before presenting it verbally. Often the subject of the presentation can be an advertising campaign or business strategy and your job will be to convince your audience of the benefits of what you’re presenting. Alternatively you might need to show findings that a certain practice is having negative outcomes and you will need to convince your audience of the problems with that practice.
The skills being assessed in a Presentation include analytical understanding, communication abilities, and creativity.
Often the last stage of a Case Study is combined with a Presentation, requiring you to give your conclusions as a Presentation instead of an interview.
Find more information on Presentation as well as practice tests here. |
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Group Exercises may appear similar to Case Studies and Presentations in that information is given to a group of people who then need to complete certain tasks and often give a presentation as well. However, since these tests involve groups of people working together the group dynamic becomes a large part of the test. Your assessors will be looking for certain personality traits that become more prominent while working in a group. The traits that they’ll be assessing include things such as leadership, communication skills, arrogance, dominance and goal orientation. Most importantly, you will need to show that you’re able to work well and achieve results as part of a team.
Find more information on Group Exercises as well as practice tests here. |
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Another popular method of psychometric assessment is the Role-Play Exercise. You will be asked to act out a certain role within a company and have to deal with hypothetical situations presented to you. The exercise is usually given in the form of an interview between you and an assessor with both of you taking different roles. The roles can include Manager and Subordinate (you could be either) or Customer and Salesmen to name some common examples. In general the roles are usually representative of the job you’re applying for. Sometimes, you will be shown a video of a certain work scenario and be asked to take on the role of one of the actors in the video. In order to succeed in Role-Playing Exercises, you will be required to show good persuasion and diplomacy skills, the ability to think on your feet and general business understanding and know-how.
Find more information on Role-Play Exercises as well as practice tests here. |
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