Virtual assessment centers

Creative Commons (CC) resources continue to grow, from web pages to graphics, audio and video media. The Creative Commons Licensing program was started by a Stanford law professor, Lawrence Lessig, to work with creative works protected by copyright law, including text, audio, images and video of any subject, in any format. The words ‘Common’ are derived from those elements of the environment that we all share, seas, rivers, land and air. Today there are also cultural commons, including artistic and historical landmarks, and scientific commons that allow critical research sharing – that is, open access to fundamental research to advance progress against cancer. And the EU has called for fully open access to scientific research by 2020.

A CC provides licenses that authors can use to indicate how other people are allowed to copy or redistribute those works, use them for derivative works, and earn money from them without asking permission or paying royalties to the author. You can quickly boost collaboration, where every commons customer can use, copy, mix and redistribute everything, thanks to copyright terms that are much more liberal than those enforced by most organizations that “own” material.

The rights granted through the CC license can only be in addition to those already present in copyright law, such as fair use or fair dealing, and you can only apply the CC license to your own original work; In other words, you cannot legally incorporate someone else’s copyrighted work into yours because you want to distribute the result under a CC license.

My work to date has focused on applying this approach to assessment and development business simulation material to support the virtual assessment center strategy.

The current economic downturn has had a significant impact on the management consulting market. Most business reporting and analysis sources reveal the need to drive efficiencies in business infrastructure. Human resources (HR) and hiring processes are not immune to this need for streamlining, and the ongoing development of virtual people assessment and development processes reflects this.

When we examine the recruitment landscape, technology solutions are becoming more prevalent and growing. E – Recruitment is the norm and has been for some time and arguably it’s rare to see a pencil and paper psychometry, most tools have gravitated online. The Internet has enabled companies to access large talent pools of job seekers and potential talent faster and cheaper than ever, making it a more cost-effective option than the traditional newspaper or publication ad and reducing the need for use agencies. Also, it is more cost effective to test multiple participants remotely than in a live environment.

However, although e-recruitment and online psychometric testing are well established, translating the assessment / development center processes into a virtual environment is more complicated. There are systems out there, but there are still many opportunities for further development.

A powerful strategic response to virtual development / assessment center development is to ensure that business simulation tools (i.e. group exercises, role play exercises, inbox, etc.) They are allowed to evolve, and this evolution is put in the hands of recruiters and HR professionals who use such advanced processes on the front line. Such flexibility reduces costs by allowing new versions of materials to be designed to reflect changes in evaluation / development requirements.

The application of a CC license to A&D business simulation materials leads to the following terms and conditions in the law:

Clients are free to:

• Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.

• Adapt: ​​remix, transform and build on the material

Consequently, customers can not only purchase business simulation templates that they can edit in relation to requirements; if they have the software capacity in-house, the absence of copyright restrictions allows professionals to put the materials online, developing their own virtual assessment center capacity. This is not possible with the current ‘off the shelf’ exercises protected by copyright, since professionals cannot adapt and share (in any medium or format).

For those organizations currently publishing assessment and development business simulation materials, the idea represents a very clear-minded transition that many will not be willing to make. This leaves a choice between buying static materials, which can only be used once for a unit fee, or designing custom material in-house, which is time-consuming.

My strategy is a creative middle ground, achieved by creating business simulation materials that are free from the ties of copyright. This not only creates a sustainable people development and assessment practice; sustainable in terms of allowing materials to be changed in relation to user needs. It is also a true exchange of knowledge and best practices within which a viral and self-managed learning agenda can evolve, while potentially reducing the costs associated with designing bespoke materials.

So it is relatively easy to release copyright under the CC umbrella, the key question is: as people in appraisal and development professionals, should we? Putting a new materials ownership philosophy into key strategic shifts in talent identification and evaluation creates its own complexity. The material could be diluted and / or misused. Lack of expert knowledge could lead to best practices being compromised or equality legislation being violated, which in turn could lead to legal challenges and damage corporate reputation.

Furthermore, a virtual assessment environment in itself raises certain problems: older or less IT-savvy candidates could be deterred, and inconsistent internet access in some, mainly rural parts of the UK, could also inadvertently discriminate against some people. . Then there’s the fear that candidates will simply try to manipulate any system, whether it’s asking someone else to work with them or responding tactically in terms of what they understand about employers’ expectations. There is also the risk of candidates feeling disconnected due to the perceived barrier between them and the employer.

Despite these potential problems, companies cannot afford to make the wrong hiring decisions, so it is perhaps not surprising that online assessment has become more attractive to employers. The assessment center methodology still provides the highest selection validity of all contracting methodologies, and a virtual solution makes this highly valid method more accessible and cost-effective. Online evaluation systems allow companies to attract applications from around the world and filter them in a cost-effective and timely manner. More importantly, they offer a tangible way to assess an individual’s abilities for a particular role and how they would fit within an organization. Meanwhile, for potential employees, the online assessment can be done at a time and place that works best for them and can give them a better idea of ​​what the job is likely to involve before deciding whether to proceed with the application.

Given these arguments, it is very likely that virtual assessment centers are a high-growth medium. However, there is also the possibility that companies’ have the technology but lack the materials. Consequently, I have created a set of business simulation of current events ‘events‘Y ‘training.’ My fully editable evaluation event templates (including up to four exercises attached to the same background topic) would attract a fixed fee of £ 240. This can be changed by internal management or professionals to reflect specific circumstances, modified to produce parallel forms and used indefinitely, all within the fixed fee. This is in contrast to a “standard” unit cost approach (that is, fee per exercise per person). Typically, an assessment center uses 4 single-use, “ready-to-use” exercises. At a cost of £ 75 per exercise (or £ 300 per person assessed), a 12-person assessment center has a materials cost of £ 3,600. More consulting fees are likely to be charged when materials require editing or redesign to reflect a new context.

Editable business simulation material is managed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License, and not controlled by copyright. This is the largest number of A&D materials released in this way in the UK to date. Anyone who completes the application stage can download a full portfolio of A&D events or choose from the range of exercises. All materials can be used indefinitely. More importantly, if they do not exactly match company culture or corporate standards, they can be edited without restriction or placed in virtual testing environments. This enables people evaluators to create a common talent currency and language that leads to a developmental legacy they will own.

Join us in the A&D business simulation materials revolution!