Creating your organisation's development centre - from concept to completion

(Note that the process described below relates to development centres; a similar process is used for the creation of assessment centres.)

When working with Talent International Development Ltd, the basic steps for the creation of a client's development centre are as follows:

1. Scoping meeting - to decide on the client's specific needs, the basic concept for the centre, the type of business to be used and an outline of the exercises needed. There are some issues the client may wish to think about before the scoping meeting. Please click here for an overview.
2. Talent International Development Ltd will submit a project proposal with timeframe for your consideration after the scoping meeting.
3. Development of a competency framework for the organisation. This will include site visits and interviews. A set of competencies is a pre-requisite for a development or assessment centre.
4. Agreement on the business model/industry to be used and the format of exercises that will best typify the business model and test the competencies.
5. Production (by Talent International Development Ltd) of background information, exercise materials, rating guides, final feedback report format, participants' briefings and workshop materials.
6. Identification of potential observers from the client's management team.
7. Observer training (usually one or one and a half days) conducted by Talent International Development Ltd. This training will use the exercise materials developed in step 5.
8. Centre logistics discussion, including identification of administration team, documentation review, and observer/participant exercise matrix and venue inspection.
9. Conduct a three-day development centre and (optional) workshop (first day centre, second and third days, workshop training and feedback). Talent International Development Ltd's role will be to provide a centre manager, external observers and administration support for the assessment and integration process, as well as facilitation of the workshop. 
10. Each observer will be responsible for drafting feedback report(s) on the one or two participants to whom he/she will give verbal feedback. The reports will be proof read and formatted by Talent International Development Ltd prior to delivery to the participant and his/her manager.
11. Shortly after the development centre, we will hold a centre debrief with the organisation's commissioning managers to suggest changes and enhancements. If participants are rated numerically, the debrief will be supported by a correlation report that assesses the discriminatory powers of each exercise.

Points for client companies to consider before a development centre scoping meeting

The scoping meeting is the first key step in the creation of a tailored development or assessment centre. Below are some internal considerations that client companies might wish to discuss before meeting with Talent International Development Ltd's consultants. We will be happy to give further advice on these matters, based on our extensive experience of company practice in Asia, before or during the scoping meeting.

1. Careful positioning of the purpose of your centre is essential. We will need to discuss how information about the centres will be positioned with the attendees: i.e., what they will be told about its purposes and benefits;  the process; what will happen to the data we collect; what the outcomes will be; what the results mean, how they will be used and in what context.  
   
   
2. The level of participant. When writing development centres, we would aim to put a participant into a fictional role that is one or two positions above his/her current level of responsibility. It is usual for the participants at a development centre to be at the same or similar managerial level.

3. The types of exercise to be used. For all centres, the exercises should be designed to reflect the types of activities that best represent the work of people at the level aspired to and to bring out competence in key company issues. To see an outline of the types of exercises we have used successfully, please click here.

4. A sensitive issue: ratings and feedback. You might like to think about how (or whether) actual numerical ratings (scores) are to be fed back to participants. In some companies, hard scores are not disclosed to participants; in others, in others, participants are told their scores. There is no standard or best practice for this so you may wish to think about it: it is often a question of corporate culture and how the centre is positioned.

5. Talent International Development Ltd generally uses the tried and tested formula of 'A day in the life of a senior executive' for development centres. This means we have a continuous theme, basing all the day's exercises around the same company. This is flexible however; you may decide that a series of mixed exercises covering different business models better meets your needs.

6. The nature of the fictional company. When designing a themed development centre (i.e. one based around a single fictitious company), it is more usual to base the case on a business that is outside your organisation's own field but works to a similar model, client base, etc. You might like to give some thought to whether you would want us to base the case on your own industry or something different. The advantage of using a different type of business is that all participants are on a level playing field and no one has the advantage (or perceived advantage) of additional technical knowledge. (In assessment centres to be used for recruitment, it is more common to use your own business as a model as this also serves to give your candidates some insight into the organisation for which they will work.)

7. Critical incidents. These are emergencies or serious issues that arise from time to time that senior people need the key skills to handle. A critical incident could be any type of crisis, complaint, dispute, etc. and can be incorporated into centre exercises. You may wish to discuss this with some of your managers to get a ‘feel’ for what is critical and handled well by effective managers - and perhaps not so well by others; we will give you some ideas for critical incidents based on our interviews and competency focus groups.