Assessment Centre

This technique of appraising was first applied in German Army in the year 1930. Afterwards business and industrial houses started utilizing this method. It is not a technique of performance appraisal by itself. Actually it is organisation or system, where assessment of various individuals is done by several experts by using various techniques. These techniques involves the methods discussed before additionally to in-basket, role playing, simulation exercises, case studies,  transactional analysis, structured in sight,  etc.

In this approach, individuals from several departments are brought together to spend two or three days working on group or individual assignments same to the ones they would be handling while promoted. Observers rank the performance of each & every participant in order of merit. As assessment centres are fundamentally meant for evaluating the potential of participant to be considered for training, promotion or development, they offer an outstanding means for conducting evaluation procedure in an objective way. All assesses obtain an equal opportunity to indicate their talents and capabilities and safe promotion depend on merit. As evaluators know the position needs intimately and are trained to carry out the evaluation procedure in an objective manner, the performance ratings may discover favour with a majority of the workers. A considerable amount of research facts is available to support the contention that people selected by this technique prove better than those selected by other methods. The centres facilitate individuals working in low status departments to compete along people from well-known departments and expand their promotion opportunities. Such opportunities, when formed on a regular basis, will go a long way in developing the morale of promising participants working in 'less important' positions.