‘We cannot teach anyone anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves’ Galileo Galilei

Over two hundred research studies since 1956 have indicated the accuracy of the following statements, which underpin the assessment centre technique:

• what correlates most strongly with successful job performance are the behavioural patterns of the individual concerned
• without self awareness of these behavioural patterns, and opportunities to develop them, they change only slowly over time, if at all. Future performance is therefore predictable, given knowledge of existing behaviour patterns.
• with self awareness, and the opportunity to develop these patterns of behaviour, many change rapidly, leading to improved job performance.
  

In other words, the most important predictor of how an individual will behave in the future is how they behave now.
True behavioural assessment can therefore be said to occur only when techniques are used to gather data about a person’s existing patterns of behaviour, for example through simulations during an assessment centre, or through criterion based interviewing which seeks examples of a person’s behaviour in the past.

The assessment centre approach provides reliable results. Studies carried out by a number of companies have served to emphasise the reliability of the assessment centre method. Candidates selected by the method appeared to be two to three times more likely to succeed in higher management positions than those promoted on the basis of evaluation by their bosses

Case Study: We designed and ran two centres concurrently in Vienna for a Financial Services company to recruit MBAs in a highly competitive market.

Results: All UK and international vacancies filled – the first time this had happened since MBA recruitment began.