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Recruitment assessment centres

Easily compare candidate performance levels.

Are you looking to make multiple hires in one go? Have you considered running an assessment day as an opportunity to meet and compare different candidates and speed up the hiring process?

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Since our first assessment day in 2017, we’ve been running professional and well-executed assessment centres for clients looking to accelerate their hiring plans. Before you choose the candidates, you need to choose the right recruitment agency.

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Our assessment centres have an amazing 100% success rate.

Every assessment day we’ve run has resulted in multiple hires, a statistic we’re very proud of.

Our level of involvement is down to you.

Managed by

you

If you already know how to run an assessment centre and you’re keen to continue with your current recruitment assessment methods, we can help you find excellent candidates to attend.

Managed by

us

If you require extra support, we can manage assessment centres from start to finish. From your initial brief, we will build an assessment centre strategy that reflects your hiring goals.

Assessment centre benefits

There are many benefits of assessment centres for recruitment and selection. Here, we’ve broken down just some of the key advantages of assessment centres in recruitment.

Minimises subjectivity

They enable a fair process whereby comparisons between candidates can be more easily made, which in turn increases the accuracy of judgements made.

Standardises evaluation processes

This also allows you to more easily analyse and adapt the way candidates are assessed and improve hiring processes long term.

Speeds up the hiring process

Interviewing can be very time-consuming, liaising with candidates to find suitable dates. Grouping interviews in an assessment day format can help significantly reduce hiring times.

Reduces costs

Holding an assessment centre enables employers to carry out multiple stages, in just 1-2 days, reducing the costs associated with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stage interview processes.

Helps to shape teams

You might find candidates with complementary skills and behaviours, enabling you to form teams, plan ahead and predict future job performance.

Increases accuracy

Due to the broader variety of selection techniques used in an assessment centre approach, employers can be more assured that they have chosen the right candidates.

Improves candidate experience

Assessment centres can give applicants a deeper insight into the role and company. Successful candidates are therefore able to make more confident decisions on whether to accept the offer.

Builds your brand

A well-organised assessment centre can positively reflect the employer’s brand to candidates. Even those who are not offered a job will still have a good impression of the professionalism of the organisation.

Assessment centre preparation

Assessment centre preparation is a key component of a successful assessment day and allows us to ensure our plan fits all requirements for the roles and the client.

 

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1. Determine how many hires

Assessment centres work best when hiring for 3+ people and usually require 10-15 candidates to attend.

Is there an appropriate space in your office, or is an offsite assessment centre required? We encourage on-site assessment centres, saving on costs and allowing candidates to get a better insight into your company culture.

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2. Establish dates & times

Will the assessment centre require a half-day or full-day? This depends on the number of attendees, roles, and capacity.

We’d also need to leave an appropriate time period to acquire and prep enough candidates in the lead-up.

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3. Find the best candidates

By this point, we’ll have discussed all roles with you and crafted SEO-optimised job descriptions to fully extend our reach.

Vetting CVs and booking calls, we’ll line up a fantastic selection of candidates, and in the meantime, we’ll be finalising the assessment day timeline.

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4. Organise assessment day details

  • Name badges & registers of attendance
  • Candidate feedback forms and CVs printed
  • Prepare all materials for assessment tasks
  • Decide on internal team attendees
  • Determine when decisions and offers will be made

Assessment centre case study

We have hired many great candidates for Verizon through assessment centres. Each of these assessment days hosted 7-12 candidates, sourced and selected by our Recruitment Consultants.

Here’s an assessment centre example we ran for Verizon, comprised of a series of assessment tests to engage candidates and show off their skills.

  • This task is great for testing sales and communication skills.

    • Step 1: Candidates are paired up and given some time to pitch themselves to each other, highlighting why they’d be best for the role.
    • Step 2: They then need to pitch their partner to the rest of the room.

  • This classic assessment centre test reveals who has the best negotiation skills, and who can remain calm whilst trying to get their opinion across.

    • Step 1: Divide the group up into smaller teams
    • Step 2: Teams must select 5 people to save from a detailed list of fictional people needing saving from a sinking ship.

  • Assessment centre presentations are a good way to assess candidates’ confidence and persuasion skills.

    • Step 1: Give a question or statement to the candidates
    • Step 2: They will then prepare and present their opinion or answer to the question, aiming to convince you to believe their opinion.

  • After the assessment centre group tasks, it’s a good idea to get to know each candidate better one on one.

    A standard 30-minute interview enables you to ask more specific questions relating to candidates’ individual experiences and CVs.

Whilst Verizon give us full control over the schedule and which candidates attend, they choose to remain fully engaged with each step of the assessment centre exercises.

Each assessment centre runs from 10am to 4pm, providing a free lunch, as well as tea and coffee throughout the day. This allows the candidates to really immerse themselves and get to know the office area better.

After each assessment centre is completed, Give a Grad a Go and Verizon work together to make final assessments, allowing Verizon to send out offers the next day.

Assessment chart

Want some free printables? We used a comparison chart to help us compare and assess the candidates, you can download the free PDF or excel spreadsheet to use in your own assessment centres exercises! Make sure you also check out our top tips on how to run a successful graduate assessment day.

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Revolutionise your hiring process. Let us know your requirements and we’ll build a plan tailored to your needs.

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FAQs - assessment centres for recruitment

  • If you’ve been considering running an assessment centre, it’s firstly important to understand how they work. So, what is an assessment day for a job?

    Assessment centre definition:

    Designed to assist in the recruitment process, assessment centre days involve group participation of candidates or job applicants in multiple exercises, which are observed by the employer looking to hire, or a team of assessors.

    Recruitment assessment days are normally spread over 1 or 2 days, dependent on the number of new hires required, and usually held at the employer’s place of work.

    Typical recruitment assessment centre group exercises include group tasks, role play, case studies, interviews, presentations, psychometric assessments, and aptitude tests.

    1. The fair comparison process helps to minimise subjectivity.
    2. Opportunities to shape teams based on assessment centre attendees and how they perform together.
    3. Standardises the evaluation process, meaning you can more easily analyse and adapt the way you assess candidates, so you can continue to improve hiring processes.
    4. More accurate hiring due to more different interview and assessment techniques being used.
    5. Speeds up the hiring process allowing employers to see all applicants in one day rather than spread over weeks of interviews.
    6. A better candidate experience can mean they are able to make more informed decisions on whether the role and company are right for them, thus fewer costly mistakes made from hiring the wrong people.
    7. Reduces costs because we all know time is money. If you’re saving time, you’re also saving money.
    8. Positive brand building can be a benefit, with exposure to more candidates they’ll see how well organised the company is.

    Whilst this helps in understanding the purpose of assessment centres, employers’ reasons for using assessment centres as a recruitment tool will differ.

  • Assessment centres in recruitment are a fantastic way to fully assess and explore the range and calibre of candidates we have to offer – which is why we use them for our own internal hiring at Give a Grad a Go.

    Tailored to each client, our assessment centres can be a cohesive collaboration between you and us; or fully managed from start to finish by us. We build your personal assessment centre plan to suit your needs.

    Not only does our unique flexibility set us apart from other assessment centre companies, but our excellent quality candidates make us the better option. 84% of our candidates have achieved either a 1st, .2.1, or master’s degree at university.

    So, if you’ve been considering the option of an assessment centre for recruitment, then look no further!

  • We have flexible pricing options for both the assessment centres we run as well as the assessment centres we help support you with providing candidates. This can either be worked out on a cost-per-hire basis, or we can charge a flat rate fee for holding the assessment day(s).

    Please get in touch with one of our Client Service Specialists to discuss the best option for you.

  • Candidates have been hired in every assessment centre we have organised for our clients, and so our success rate is 100%. On average our assessment centres have a hire rate of 30%, with our most recent assessment centre seeing a successful hire rate of 80%.

    This means that with an assessment centre attendance of 10 people, on average 3 people are hired every time and sometimes up to 8 people are hired.

     

  • This depends entirely on the company holding the assessment centre, and can often be influenced by the sector the company is in. It is recommended though that employers try to make it clear to attendees what their expected dress code requirements are.

    Many companies will try to reflect their own corporate dress code, for instance in a creative startup agency which has a casual dress policy, they might communicate to candidates that a smart/casual dress code is sufficient for the assessment day. Whereas in a client-facing finance role, they might expect candidates to attend wearing a suit.

    At Give a Grad a Go, we would communicate this to candidates so that you don’t have to.

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