Digital Assessment Center Trumps Traditional Assessment Center.
The emergence of the digital assessment center has enabled us to overcome many challenges faced by traditional, physical assessment centers.
ACCURACY
Traditional assessment centers can be stressful. If participants are not in their best form, the assessment exercise can fail to show an accurate view of true potential. A half-hearted attempt will reflect incorrect scores, and the lengthy process leaves little room for a re-assessment. A virtual assessment center, on the other hand, ensures a comfortable and objective environment where participants are safe from confounding or extraneous factors and can complete their assessments in a stress-free manner.
And the accuracy of reports in traditional assessment centers depends on the accuracy of the rating scale. However, scoring is absolute and at the mercy of the assessor’s perception and judgment. Scores are not normalized with respect to historical data captured across a comparable target pool of candidates. Therefore, manual reports are typically prone to error. A virtual assessment center assures a standardized online assessment, with little or no involvement of an assessor, leading to minimum bias, better employee performance, and results.
SCALABILITY
Traditional assessment centers come with limited capacity for both participants and assessors. Being confined to a single geographic location is an obstacle to scalability. Digital assessment centers, on the other hand, allow for an unlimited number of participants to perform their best virtually, without the distraction of travel and extensive time commitments. They allow us to conduct assessments at multiple locations simultaneously without jeopardizing quality or results - in large numbers, spanning talent levels, across organizations - large or small, across countries, languages, and time zones, and without constraints.
TIME
The time needed to complete traditional assessment centers, including scheduling, assessment distribution, analysis, providing feedback, and completing reports, is generally extensive. And these assessment centers can take months to complete due to extensive planning and scheduling constraints. Digital assessment centers, on the other hand, accelerate the process by leveraging technology. Given their sole dependence on the internet, they are quick to start, participants can complete their assessments anytime irrespective of location, and results are immediate.
LOGISTICS
The process of evaluating candidates using a traditional assessment center is cumbersome and stressful for company sponsors who are often found racing to book meeting rooms, arrange flight tickets and accommodation for candidates, secure qualified assessors, and tirelessly following up to receive scores and reports on time. With the digital assessment center, there may be a few links sent to participants to begin assessments and a follow-up meeting with a coach. That’s it. Easy and highly efficient.
COST
Traditional assessment centers are expensive to run and therefore usually limited to a select few employees. Having to rent a physical space and other expenses such as travel, accommodation, meals, and securing certified and experienced assessors, make the center a significant investment. Therefore, they are typically restricted to a certain cross-section of the organization, generally the mid to senior-level audiences. However, a digital assessment center provides a virtual environment with the same or greater level of engagement at a fraction of the cost; strong ROI every time.
EXPERIENCE
Participants are required to travel to the traditional assessment center and remain for the duration of the assessment experience. This can disrupt work schedules and deadlines. Even after the assessment, participant fatigue due to the long and arduous assessment process, combined with the need to catch up once they get back to work, usually results in the loss of productivity. The digital assessment center, on the other hand, allows for participation anytime, anywhere providing maximum convenience. Participants are not constrained by scheduling, travel itineraries, or interference with day-to-day work or personal obligations. Assessors can access assessment data from a single platform reducing their travel and overall time commitment; a win-win, heightened experience for both participant and assessor.
BIAS
Data shows that traditional assessment centers are prone to bias from assessors. Assessors may typecast participants into socially prevalent slots, as they might get swayed by one-off instances. For example, participants who initiate and drive group discussions may be considered to possess natural leadership abilities. The Halo Effect (tendency to be lenient), the Horn Effect (tendency to be strict), and the Central Tendency Bias (the to give average scores to all participants) are common biases that affect results in traditional assessment centers. On the other hand, the virtual assessment center assures a standardized online assessment, with little or no involvement of an assessor, leading to minimum bias, better employee performance, and results.
DATA
Unlike with the traditional assessment center, digital assessment center activity occurs in the digital world, which means the piles of paperwork that assessors usually build during physical assessment centers and then collate for the final result is eliminated. Digital assessment centers facilitate standardization of assessments, easy benchmarking, and easy culling of results. Their ability to produce instant and automated results with minimum or no manual efforts is often a key attraction for customers.
