I am in the process of designing an assessment centre for the hotel industry. Can anyone help me and guide me on how to go about it. Will appreciate very much. Regards, Roopa
From Oman, Muscat
From Oman, Muscat
hi here are some of the description for Assessement Center :
The Assessment Center is an approach to selection whereby a battery of tests and exercises are administered to a person or a group of people across a number of hours (usually within a single day).
Assessment centers are particularly useful where:
* Required skills are complex and cannot easily be assessed with interview or simple tests.
* Required skills include significant interpersonal elements (e.g. management roles).
* Multiple candidates are available and it is acceptable for them to interact with one another.
Individual exercises
Individual exercises provide information on how the person works by themselves. The classic exercise is the in-tray, of which there are many variants, but which have a common theme of giving the person an unstructured large pile of work and then see how they go about doing it.
Individual exercises (and especially the 'in tray') are very common and have a correlation with cognitive ability. Other variants include planning exercises (here’s problems, how will you address them) and case analysis (here’s a scenario, what wrong? How would you fix it?).
One-to-one exercises
In one-to-one exercises, the candidate interacts in various ways with another person, being observed (as with other exercises) by the assessor(s). They are often used to assess listening, communication and interpersonal skills, as well as other job-related knowledge and skills.
In role-play exercises, the person takes on a role (possibly the job being applied for) and interacts with someone who is acting (possibly one of the assessors) in a defined scenario. This may range from dealing with a disaffected employee to putting a persuasive argument to conducting a fact-finding interview.
Other exercises may have elements of role-play but are in more 'normal' positions, such as making a presentation or doing an interview (interesting reversal!).
Group exercises
Group exercises test how people interact in a group, for example showing in practice the Belbin Team Roles that they take.
Leaderless group discussions (often of a group of candidates) start with everyone on a relatively equal position (although this may be affected by such as the shape of the table).
A typical variant is to assign roles to each candidate and give them a brief of which others are unaware. These groups can be used to assess such skills as negotiation, persuasion, teamwork, planning and organization, decision-making and, leadership.
Another variant is simply to give a give topic for group to discuss (has less face validity).
Business simulations may be used, sometimes with computers being used to add information and determine outcomes of decisions. These often work with 'turns' that are made of data given to the group, followed by a discussion and decision which is entered into the computer to give the results for the next round.
Relevant topics increases face validity. Studies (Bass, 1954) have shown high inter-rater reliability (.82) and test-re-test results (.72).
Self-assessment exercises
A neat trick is to ask candidates to assess themselves, for example by asking them to rate themselves after each exercise. There is usually a high correlation between candidate and assessor ratings (indicating honesty).
Developing assessment centers involves much test development, although much can be selected 'off the shelf'. A key area of preparation is with assessors, on whose judgment candidates will be rejected and selected.
Identify criteria
Identify the criteria by which you will assess the candidates. Derive these from a sound job analysis.
The assessment center was originated by AT&T, who included the following nine components:
1. Business game
2. Leaderless group discussion
3. In-tray exercise
4. Two-hour interview
5. Projective test
6. Personality test
7. ‘q sort’
8. intelligence tests
9. Autobiographical essay and questionnaire
Validity
Reliability and validity is difficult, as there are so many parts and so much variation. A 1966 study showed high validity in identifying middle managers. There is a lower adverse effect on individuals than separate tests (eg. psychometrics).
Criticisms
The outcome of assessment centers are based on the judgments of the assessors and hence the quality of those judgments. Not only are judgments subject to human bias but they also are affected by the group psychology effects of assessors interacting.
Assessors often deviate from marking schemes, often collapsing multiple criteria into a generic ‘performance’ criterion. This is often due to overburdening of assessors with more than 4-5 criteria (so use less). More attention is often given to direct observation than other data (eg. psychometric tests). Assessors even use their own private criteria – especially organizational fit.
The Critical Postitions for Hotel administration is :
Food Production Management
Hotel Operations
Food Service Management
Hospitality Personnel Management
Casino Management
Casino Management
Hotel Management
Menu and Food Production Management
Catering and Banquet Management
Thus based on the above positions, skills has to be identified and assessment centers can be made for the skills.
with regards
yoganth murthy
From India, Bangalore
6The Assessment Center is an approach to selection whereby a battery of tests and exercises are administered to a person or a group of people across a number of hours (usually within a single day).
Assessment centers are particularly useful where:
* Required skills are complex and cannot easily be assessed with interview or simple tests.
* Required skills include significant interpersonal elements (e.g. management roles).
* Multiple candidates are available and it is acceptable for them to interact with one another.
Individual exercises
Individual exercises provide information on how the person works by themselves. The classic exercise is the in-tray, of which there are many variants, but which have a common theme of giving the person an unstructured large pile of work and then see how they go about doing it.
Individual exercises (and especially the 'in tray') are very common and have a correlation with cognitive ability. Other variants include planning exercises (here’s problems, how will you address them) and case analysis (here’s a scenario, what wrong? How would you fix it?).
One-to-one exercises
In one-to-one exercises, the candidate interacts in various ways with another person, being observed (as with other exercises) by the assessor(s). They are often used to assess listening, communication and interpersonal skills, as well as other job-related knowledge and skills.
In role-play exercises, the person takes on a role (possibly the job being applied for) and interacts with someone who is acting (possibly one of the assessors) in a defined scenario. This may range from dealing with a disaffected employee to putting a persuasive argument to conducting a fact-finding interview.
Other exercises may have elements of role-play but are in more 'normal' positions, such as making a presentation or doing an interview (interesting reversal!).
Group exercises
Group exercises test how people interact in a group, for example showing in practice the Belbin Team Roles that they take.
Leaderless group discussions (often of a group of candidates) start with everyone on a relatively equal position (although this may be affected by such as the shape of the table).
A typical variant is to assign roles to each candidate and give them a brief of which others are unaware. These groups can be used to assess such skills as negotiation, persuasion, teamwork, planning and organization, decision-making and, leadership.
Another variant is simply to give a give topic for group to discuss (has less face validity).
Business simulations may be used, sometimes with computers being used to add information and determine outcomes of decisions. These often work with 'turns' that are made of data given to the group, followed by a discussion and decision which is entered into the computer to give the results for the next round.
Relevant topics increases face validity. Studies (Bass, 1954) have shown high inter-rater reliability (.82) and test-re-test results (.72).
Self-assessment exercises
A neat trick is to ask candidates to assess themselves, for example by asking them to rate themselves after each exercise. There is usually a high correlation between candidate and assessor ratings (indicating honesty).
Developing assessment centers involves much test development, although much can be selected 'off the shelf'. A key area of preparation is with assessors, on whose judgment candidates will be rejected and selected.
Identify criteria
Identify the criteria by which you will assess the candidates. Derive these from a sound job analysis.
The assessment center was originated by AT&T, who included the following nine components:
1. Business game
2. Leaderless group discussion
3. In-tray exercise
4. Two-hour interview
5. Projective test
6. Personality test
7. ‘q sort’
8. intelligence tests
9. Autobiographical essay and questionnaire
Validity
Reliability and validity is difficult, as there are so many parts and so much variation. A 1966 study showed high validity in identifying middle managers. There is a lower adverse effect on individuals than separate tests (eg. psychometrics).
Criticisms
The outcome of assessment centers are based on the judgments of the assessors and hence the quality of those judgments. Not only are judgments subject to human bias but they also are affected by the group psychology effects of assessors interacting.
Assessors often deviate from marking schemes, often collapsing multiple criteria into a generic ‘performance’ criterion. This is often due to overburdening of assessors with more than 4-5 criteria (so use less). More attention is often given to direct observation than other data (eg. psychometric tests). Assessors even use their own private criteria – especially organizational fit.
The Critical Postitions for Hotel administration is :
Food Production Management
Hotel Operations
Food Service Management
Hospitality Personnel Management
Casino Management
Casino Management
Hotel Management
Menu and Food Production Management
Catering and Banquet Management
Thus based on the above positions, skills has to be identified and assessment centers can be made for the skills.
with regards
yoganth murthy
From India, Bangalore
Community Support and Knowledge-base on business, career and organisational prospects and issues - Register and Log In to CiteHR and post your query, download formats and be part of a fostered community of professionals.
Assessment Centre Concept Notes.pdf