IN-HOUSE ASSESSMENT CENTERS
An in-house assessment center, instituted in 1981, is an integral part of the Winston-Salem (NC) Fire Department’s management system. It has helped our administrators identify and evaluate supervisory and management potential early in candidates’ careers, evaluate the organization’s maturity, select managers and supervisors, and establish future directions for staff development.
The assessment process also has helped personnel make positive selfexaminations, establish self-expectations, widen perceptions of the organization. and identify steps toward organizational maturity.
Dr. Henry Murray generally is credited with coining the phrase “assessment center” from his studies involving the personalities of people he encountered at Harvard University during the 1930s. During World War II. the military used the assessmentcenter process to select intelligence agents; it was used primarily by the military until the early 1950s.
Private industry began to use and develop the assessment process during the 1950s. The management development program used by AT&T during the early 1950s in fact has been credited with being the model from which the modern-day assessment process was derived.
Financial considerations weighed heavily in our department’s decision to adopt an “in-house” version of the concept. An assessment center typically involves a team of assessors working with a group of candidates during a particular period of time. This technique is costly when assessors from various organizations arcused or a professional consultant is hired to facilitate the process.
Cost estimates for the large number of candidates going through the W inston-Salem assessment center ranged from S 20,000 to S30,000 per year. The expenses associated with hiring consultants and outside assessors led Winston-Salem to explore the possibilities of using in-house assessors and facilitators.
January 1990 marked the 10th anniversary of the department’s use of inhouse personnel to conduct the assessment center. The process we now use was derived from a large collection of research and bits and pieces of seminars. Significant contributions also have been made by various staff members who have participated in assessment centers throughout the United States, lire departments in North Carolina have been helpful by allowing Winston-Salem personnel to participate in and view their processes.
We took the best ideas and shaped them into a process that meets the department’s and the individuals’ needs as closely as possible. Every year, participants and assessors in the process are asked to make suggestions that would make the assessment process more viable for the next year.
THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
During the assessment process we ask candidates to perform a widerange of simulated exercises while trained assessors note and assess the candidates’ behaviors according to a set of standardized evaluations they have been trained to use.
The first phase of the assessment process is selecting the assessors. We use nine assessors—three teams of three assessors each—for the four areas of evaluation (elements). Assessors must be supervisors within the department and must have completed at least one performance appraisal of subordinate personnel within the department.
They are required to attend training sessions that cover the following areas (potential rating problems):
- The halo effect, or the tendency
ASSESSMENT CENTERS
- to allow one highly favorable or unfavorable trait to force a color judgment of all the other traits.
- The influence of bias and prejudice.
- The unfairness of leniency.
- The unfairness of severity.
- The necessity for distinguishing between current job performance and conjectured potential.
- The absolute necessity for the supervisor to take an active interest in the appraisal program.
In addition, assessors are given exercises designed to allow them to identify positive and negative behaviors and to associate the behavior with a particular dimension.
The second phase involves selecting candidates to participate in the assessment process. All suppression personnel who meet the department’s requirements for participation in the promotional process are given a written test. Employees who score in the top SO percent are eligible to participate in the assessment process.
The assessment process involving the position of captain typically consists of the following elements:
- Oral presentations. The candidate assumes the role of a captain speaking to a large social organization. The candidate selects one topic from a list of three topics and has 30 minutes to prepare a 10-minute presentation.
- Written exercise. The candidate has 1 1/2 hours to complete the written exercise, in which the following must be discussed: the candidate’s personal values and their impact on the candidate’s personal development and professional goals and the steps that would be taken to reach them.
- Tabletop simulator. The candidate has 10 minutes to review a fire problem and 30 minutes to demonstrate knowledge and abilities associated with fireground management.
- Background interview. During this 40-minute meeting, the candidate focuses on information he/she believes will be pertinent to success as a
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- captain.
The four elements are composed of dimensions—skills and attributes on which the candidates are evaluated. (See sidebar opposite.)
Each assessor is assigned an element to assess and is responsible for completing a rating sheet pertinent to that element for each candidate.
Candidates are rated on a scale of from 7 (excellent) to 0 (opportunity existed; dimension was not demonstrated).
The raw score derived from using this rating structure is used only as an indicator of performance. Each assessor must justify the numerical values by writing a description of the behavior.
Assessors determine the raw scores for individual candidates and then arrive at a consensus with regard to the score for a specific dimension. The evaluation form then is given to the process facilitator, who converts the score by using a weighted factor for each dimension and element to determine the final assessment score.
The weighted factors are established by an advisory committee consisting of the fire chief and the deputy fire chief. The purpose of the weighted factors —which are not known by the members of the assessment teams —is to enhance the integrity of the assessors’ scores.
On completing the assessment process, each candidate is asked to rate the process and the assessors on an evaluation form. Assessors and resource personnel also evaluate the process.
Each candidate has an opportunity to discuss his/her performance in the assessment process with the deputy fire chief. The discussion session has two objectives: to discuss the candidate’s performance throughout the assessment process and to help the candidate conduct a positive selfexamination to balance the assessment evaluation that identifies areas in need of improvement. The candidates can establish strategies for improving low-evaluation areas as they are identified.
POSITIVE RESULTS
All participants’ evaluations have been highly favorable, and we have learned something new in each assessment process conducted. The first year the candidates were exposed to 2½ hours of assessment. Two years later (1983) the process expanded to seven hours. Three assessors were used the first year; nine assessors and seven support personnel were used in 1983.
As position requirements change, so do some of the dimensions. Basically. we look to the job description for direction regarding the assessment process. The bottom line of any assessment process is to ensure that the candidates have ample opportunity to demonstrate to the assessors any skills they may possess in a specific area.
Winston-Salem fire administrators have found that assessment centers are excellent predictors of management potential. Equally as important, the assessment process serves as a development program for personnel. This process has enabled fire administrators to evaluate members’ maturity and determine the direction of our future focus.
Using in-house personnel as assessors and support personnel has created an atmosphere of growth for all personnel, helped subordinate personnel to feel comfortable with regard to where they fit into the organization, helped personnel understand a person’s right to be oneself, and provided an insight for personnel so that they could view mistakes as necessary before behavior changes.
Our fire administrators are convinced that the primary function of the in-house assessment center is to provide a foundation for growth. The assessment process is not an exact science, but it is one of many management tools that can be valuable in assisting managers to develop staff and identify employees with potential for advancement. We plan to continue to use and develop the in-house assessment center as a part of our management system.
