Designing a development centre

August 15, 2008

Yesterday I discussed some of the benefits that can be achieved by running a development centre to help identify the skill gaps and development needs of a group of employees, and help them to build development plans to get them where they need to be to succeed and progress. Organising and delivering a development centre is a very time consuming and complex task, and should only be undertaken if you have time, resources, buy in from senior management and the necessary skills to do deliver the event. Many organisations use external consultants to plan and carry out development centres on behalf of the company, and, whilst expensive, my guess is that this is a much quicker, more straightforward and even cost effective way of implementing a development centre, because it really is a big task. Some important things to consider when planning a development centre are:

  1. Identify exactly what you are trying to measure. The outcomes of the tests and exercises will be pretty worthless if they don’t relate to a specific job need. This is where measurable competencies are needed, whether it’s for the jobs the participants presently hold or jobs they may be looking to progress into. Examples might be negotiation, analytical or communication skills.
  2. Identify tasks, exercises or tools by which the competencies can be measured, such as simulating a real job situation (e.g. in a role play), an interview, presentation or team challenge. This is where the help of a consultant might come in handy. If you want to do something like psychometric testing it is imperative that a trained professional (i.e. occupational psychologist) carries out these tests.
  3. The activities in the development centre should be organised so that each key competency is measured more than once, in more than one activity, and by more than one observer. This will help to make the final data more reliable and will reduce the risk of a one off brilliant or poor performance.
  4. Observers need to be fully trained in how to carry out this role. It is good experience for managers to carry out the role of an observer, and helps them to understand the process of self development that they can use themselves. It also costs less to train up internal observers than to use a wholly external team, but it is essential that they are given the skills to observe and assess participants effectively and fairly, otherwise the exercise could turn out to be a waste of time.
  5. Build into the schedule lots of time for feedback and reflection. This is what it’s all about after all. Participants should be able to discuss with the observers their performance in the development centre, what it means, and options for progressing their development going forward.
  6. Having a coordinator for the whole event is a good idea, as there’s a lot of different things going on at the same time, as well as observers and participants to organise. There also might be a lot of materials to sort out, and possibly technical things like a projector or TV. The observers need to be left to get on with their job so a centre manager or coordinator will take all the stress of the organisation away from everybody else. I did this role once for an assessment centre and it was a very busy day for me, but the fact that I managed all ‘bits and pieces’ helped the day to be a success.
  7. Finally, the development centre should not be an isolated event. As I said yesterday the competencies measured fit very well into other HR activities, and the centre will be fairly useless if it does not do this. The biggest obstacles to post centre development are lack of time, resources, and organisational commitment, and thought should be given to the methods by which development will take place and how this will be resourced prior to the centre being implemented.

Sounds complicated? It is, but for those organisations that have the resources and are willing to provide the time, the development centre can provide a good return on investment through accurately pinpointing development needs and the ways in which they can be met, as well as identifying the potential stars of the future. It can also give participants the realisation that a lot of time and attention is being given to their needs, which is obviously another plus point of the event.

Things to consider:
Do you need Paving Stones
Are you searching for Injection moulders
electric projector screen for your company

Posted by hrgirl | Filed Under Learning and Development 

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