How do Assessment Centres differ from Development Centres.
17 May 2009
They differ in their purpose and in their objectives. Assessment Centres are designed to look closely at the attributes, skills, strengths and weaknesses of the participant’s and to match these against the requirements of current or future jobs in the organisation. They are usually designed for existing employees but are also sometimes used to aid recruitment decisions by providing all round data about candidates to supplement interviews. Participants in recruitment assessment centres are often external but can be internal candidates or even a combination of both. In these circumstances they add a degree of objectivity and better comparisons between known and unknown candidates.
Development Centres have the aim of helping to identify both the strengths and the development areas for the participants with a view to building up training and personal development plans for them. They are focused more on learning and development potential rather than on performance and suitability for specific roles and they tend to be based on competencies, behaviours and skills. They are therefore less stressful and the accent is more on learning and development than on pure assessment.
The activities, questionnaires and tasks used within both Assessment and Development Centres tend to be of the same nature as each other providing a range of different areas whereby people can demonstrate their strengths and accomplishments as well as bringing out their weaker, development areas. The observers are looking for more job related evidence in Assessment Centres and more learning related evidence in Development Centres. Indeed in Development Centres participants may well be given developmental feedback part way through the process to help them develop their style and approach, as they participate in further activities.
The nature of the feedback to participants in these two different processes tends to be different and to reflect their different purposes and objectives.
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