Assessment centres: the IRS report

The use of assessment centres can help improve hiring decisions considerably, yet even employers that have committed the time and money required to adopt this demanding selection process could gain more from their investment, as this IRS report shows.

On this page:
Introduction and overview
What is an assessment centre?
The typical assessment centre process: in summary
The business case for assessment centres
The vacancies for which assessment centres are most commonly used
Bringing together internal and external candidates
Designing an assessment centre
The venues used for assessment centres
Bespoke or off the shelf?
Assessment centre exercises and programmes
The staff involved in conducting assessment centres
Providing assessors with training
The point in the recruitment process at which assessment centres are used
The typical duration of assessment centres
Employers’ expenditure on assessment centres
The candidate experience
Briefings to candidates
Giving feedback to candidates
Candidates’ reactions to assessment centres
Conducting evaluations of assessment centres: the theory
Current practice in evaluating assessment centres
Making improvements
Employers’ views on the effectiveness of their assessment centres
The key issues in using assessment centres
Our research
Table 1: The vacancies for which assessment centres are used
Table 2: Employers’ assessment centre venues
Table 3: Current practice in assessment centre elements
Table 4: Who conducts assessment centres?
Table 5: The duration of assessment centres
Table 6: The cost of assessment centres per candidate
Table 7: The nature of the feedback, if any, that is given to candidates attending assessment centres
Table 8: Employers’ views on their assessment centres’ effectiveness
Assessment centres checklist
Resources
Tables broken down by broad economic sector and workforce size

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