An assessment center, is a systematic and comprehensive testing process in which pre-selected candidates are tested in an environment that provides a high degree of reliability and insight into his/her supervisory, leadership, and/or management potential by testing skills and ability, rather than just knowledge. Assessment testing is appropriate for all supervisory ranks.

The candidates participate in a series of exercises tailored to represent the culture and environment of your organization and community. The assessment center process allows the assessors to observe the candidate’s thought process, organizational skills, leadership ability, stress tolerance, analytical skills, influence, delegation ability, decisiveness, sensitivity and/or empathy, both verbal and non-verbal communication, ability to function as a team member, and his/her ethics.

The assessment center testing process has both individual and group tasks that are observed by a series of assessors, trained by McGrath Consulting in behavioral observation techniques. Each assessor will rank the candidates and then, as a group, discuss and agree upon a composite evaluation of each candidate.

The hiring authority is able to evaluate, before hiring and/or promotion, how an individual is likely to perform in the job via observation of the candidate’s ability to handle job-simulation exercises.