The Assessment Center as Instrument for Staff Selection. Components and Accomplishments

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Leadership and Human Resource Management - Recruiting, grade: 1,3, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: This essay examines the process of staff selection by using an Assement Center as a tool to select the expedient staff for the job and company. Its components and accomlishments gain centre stage within the context of this essay. The staff selection wasn't observed for a long time in the Human Recourse Management, but nowadays the selection of staff and especially the process and possible methods of staff selection play a major role. Each company selects its staff in a different way. There are many methods which can be used. The selection of a suitable method is depending on the position to be filled and what priorities the company has. The Assessment Center is a method of staff selection and has its origin in the military field. Nowadays, the Assessment Center is mainly used to select executives, but also to develop staff. The strengths and weaknesses of each participant are revealed by the Assessment Center, because of its extensive and diverse nature. The Assessment Center offers a number of benefits, but it is also one of the most expensive methods of staff selection, as it is enforced for 1-3 days and many observers are involved. Nevertheless the Assessment Center provides a high accuracy and thus saves a lot of costs that can occur when a company has made a wrong decision in relation to the staff selection, especially in the selection of an executive. There are many ways how Assessment Centers can be realized in context of staff selection, because there are a lot of exercises from which the company can choose and which can be distributed on the selected days. Based upon the research question that has been postulated before, a definition and description of staff selection will be given in chapter two. Furthermore conventional instruments for staff selection such as the analysis of application documents, interviews,tests, biographical questionnaires and graphological reports will be covered. Thereafter, the AC including a definition and description, origin, areas of application, advantages and disadvantages will be addressed in chapter three. Afterwards, the process of staff selection within the AC including preparation, realization and the result will be approached. In the conclusion a summary of the findings, a critical acclaim and an outlook will be given.