Development Centre and/or Assessment Centre?

There is a difference between a development centre and an assessment centre.

In basic terms, at an assessment centre, participants are in a pass or fail situation, in a development centre there is no pass or fail. Change Creation will help decide on the most appropriate centre and design a bespoke event based on delivering against organisational, cultural and operational needs.

Assessment centres

Assessment centres have always had a place in recruitment; traditionally they were used for large recruitment campaigns at graduate or junior level. More recently, there has been a trend towards applying the same techniques to more senior positions. So what can you expect when you visit one of Change Creations assessment centres?

Role play

Typically based around a scenario related to the role being recruited
‘RealPlay’ tests the participants ability to perform in the role for which they have applied

Group exercise

Participants work together as a group towards a stated end goal as the assessors watch and listen
The assessors will be looking for candidates to take control of the situation, draw opinions from others, keep the group to time, stand their ground (without becoming argumentative) and successfully take the group to its stated goal

Behavioural event interview

Participants will be asked to discuss 2-3 specific occasions in their career to date, either key successes or occasions that didn’t have the desired outcome
Participants are typically assessed against a list of pre-agreed corporate competencies

Biographical interview

Participants are interviewed against their CV
Questioning is targeted around understanding experiences, responsibilities to date, motivations, why certain career moves have been made, expectations etc.

Verbal and numerical testing

Gives an indication of the ability to process both verbal and numerical information while working to a time limit
These tests are conducted either prior to or on the assessment day

Psychometric testing

These are used to help assess the participants culture fit and psychological make-up

Presentation exercise

Participants are asked to pre-prepare a presentation, often based around a proposed business plan for their first 6 months in the role
While the quality of the slides and content is important, of more importance is the delivery of the presentation and the ability to think on their feet when fielding questions

Development Centres

Our Development Centres are bespoke and built on market insight. We do not deliver “one size fits all” Development Centres for our clients ensuring the themes and tasks respond to our client’s differing needs. Our Development Centres are typically designed to:

Build personal awareness of strengths and areas for development in relation to the organisational competencies
Understand personal strengths and how to use them to best effect in the organisation
Understand the one or two critical areas that get in the way of personal effectiveness and help build strategies that improve these areas
Support individuals in growing their awareness and doing some things differently in order that they can be the most effective leader or manager they know

Designing a Change Creation Development Centre

Our Development Centres are specifically designed to meet organisational, cultural and operational needs based on the essential skills, knowledge and behaviours required to achieve personal and organisational goals. The outputs confirm that there is a best possible match between the needs and values of an organisation and the people.

Typically, participants are taken through a series of exercises, simulations and business scenarios. The outputs from these activities are analysed against agreed criteria and performance requirements and are fed back to the individuals by our skilled, trained assessors. Participants receive development feedback throughout the event, culminating in a full feedback session within one week of completion.

Participants at the development centre are observed by our trained assessors who ideally have no prior knowledge of them, ensuring performance observed is interpreted and measured against required competence criteria.

We offer a range of flexible tools and services, including recognised industry standard psychometric questionnaires and ability tests which complement our exercises and give a rounded picture of the individual.

A Change Creation Development Centres may include:

Simulations and business scenarios
One to one ‘RealPlay’ situations
Group exercises
Psychometric ability tests and personality questionnaires
Verbal and numerical reasoning tests
Development feedback throughout the event
Final written development reports

Change Creation Development Centres are designed and implemented for:

Career development
Graduate development
Management development
Succession planning
Ongoing personal development

Contact us today

If you would like us to contact you please complete the details below:

Client Feedback

Just back from this event and I thought I ought to feedback. This workshop is probably the best development course I have been on, and the comments from the other four guys from Barry power station who were on the course with me, also reflect my opinion. The Facilitators

Change Creation is currently working at all levels across our business on various different projects and I constantly receive complimentary comments regarding their work. They are fun to deal with, but remain the ultimate professionals. They are strong in all the required areas where we need training

The results from the Employee Opinion Survey became a concern for our function. Change Creation was asked to develop some ideas that would help improve the way we operated both internally and externally. After the initial consultation period, they developed and facilitated an innovative programme for the

We needed a basic one day workshop within British Gas Residential, to increase the level of commercial awareness of our first line management population. Change Creation provided us with the perfect trainer to deliver the programme. Following the successful pilot, the course will be available and delivered to

During the 4 week induction process, all of our Account Managers attended a 2 day workshop which was developed to prepare them for the tough job ahead. We asked Change Creation to review the programme and content of our current Behavioural Workshop. They recommended that the 2-day

The objective was to create a real desire for our management population to actively participate and attend the course in a positive frame of mind. ”The feedback has far exceeded our expectations and we are extremely pleased that we ran these sessions. Our Managers are now looking

The feedback on the success of the Leadership Effectiveness workshop at British Gas Business reached us here at Residential and after various meetings with Change Creation, we decided to run a series of 2 day workshops in our divisions. All of our team leaders rated the 2 days

Following extensive diagnostic work, the Change Creation team developed the programme for us, and then facilitated a series of sessions to ensure that a core group of our Trainers were capable of delivering each of the 8 behavioural workshops to our exacting standards. They work closely with our

Having personally attended the Leadership Development session, I was convinced that Change Creation was the company to assist us to develop and deliver the largest Customer Service training programme we have ever undertaken. Three modules were designed and developed by the Change Creation team and they are currently delivering

We were seeking ways to change the behaviours of our middle management team. One of our Directors who had used them in a previous organisation recommended “Change Creation”. Their proposal and prior to delivery, their diagnostic, excited us and design work impressed us all, resulting in a