Assessment centres

If you pass the video interview stage, you might get invited to something called an ‘assessment centre’ – these are common in recruitment processes as they’re one of the most reliable forms of assessment for candidate quality and suitability for the role.

Assessment centres can vary a lot between recruiters (no two events are usually the same!) and can involve a huge range of activities. Some of the more common activities in an assessment centre include:

1. Group task – you might be given a brief to discuss within a small group to then present back to a panel
2. Written task – you might be given a brief that you work on by yourself, analysing information and creating a written product/report at the end to be assessed
3. Numerical task – you might be given something to analyse to demonstrate your maths skills
4. Interview – this can sometimes be a separate activity after the assessment centre and sometimes employers will include this in the full day
5. Situational judgement test – as mentioned earlier in the module, this can come early in the recruitment process, or at the assessment centre stage
6. Meet the team, Q&A and tour – if the assessment centre is conducted in person, it’s likely you’ll be able to network with current employees in the organisation, as well as be taken on a tour of the offices. Sometimes you’ll get a free lunch with the team!

Similarly to video interviews, your performance in these activities will be noted and scored against a matrix, focussing on certain qualities and competencies that the organisation is looking for. You can often predict what recruiters might be looking for based on the different activities you have to undertake – things like teamwork and communication in a group task, or problem solving as part of a numerical task. If you want to give a group and a written task a go, you can do so here:

• Group task
• Group task assessor guidance
• Written task
• Written task assessor guidance

Ten top tips to ace an assessment centre

Now you know what kinds of activities might come up, here’s some of my top tips to ace an assessment centre:

1. You are assessed for the whole day, so make sure you present the best version of yourself at all times. Be polite and courteous to everyone you meet, and always make sure you’re on time.
2. You can only be assessed on what the assessors can see, so make sure you take part and use your voice. If you don’t contribute, then you cannot score well.
3. You likely won’t all be going for the same one role, so ensure you work collaboratively, not competitively against the others in a group activity.
4. Demonstrate your commercial awareness to show the employer how invested you are in their organisation.
5. Read the brief more than once and highlight key words and tasks to make sure you aren’t missing any vital pieces of information.
6. Volunteer for a role in the group activity – this shows your teamworking skills, and ability lead and take charge of a specific role. Make sure that if you do volunteer for a task, such as timekeeper or note taker, that you do it well!
7. Check on the time regularly, to make sure you’re making best use of your allocated minutes and have plenty of time to read anything provided and complete any tasks.
8. Don’t forget follow-up! Regardless of whether you get the role or not, it’s good practice to ask for feedback about your performance, so you can use this to improve the next time you go through an assessment centre. If you did get the role, there might still be areas for development that you can work on while you’re in post.
9. Don’t beat yourself up if you feel like you’ve performed poorly on one part of the assessment centre. Each task will be scored separately, so previous performance won’t impact future activities.
10. And finally – enjoy yourself! This is a great opportunity to get to know the organisation, and potential co-workers of yours, so make the most of it and stay positive.

Assessment centres can also simply be great fun to attend! You get to meet new people and really immerse yourself in the organisation and what the role you’re applying for might look like – so take the opportunity if you can!