Many people mistakenly believe that the process of choosing which applicant to hire for a job is recruitment. Recruitment is actually the process of obtaining an applicant pool. So, placing advertisements for an available position would be part of the recruitment process. Once we have a pool of applicants to choose from, we then move on to the selection process. Here, we use different methods (e.g., interviews, psychometric tests, assessment centres) in order to choose or select a person for the job. This therefore is selection.
Employers rate assessment centres as worth the high cost
More than nine out of 10 employers using assessment centres believe they are a very (47%) or fairly (48%) effective means of recruiting* staff to fill vacancies, according to research by Employment Review (UK).
The survey of HR practitioners in 91 companies and public sector bodies also found that more than half (53%) believe the often considerable costs of assessment centres are justified.
Assessment centres bring job applicants together in a group so they can be subject to a range of selection methods including group exercises and role play, individual interviews and psychometric tests.
This article first appeared in Personnel Today magazine and can be read in full at:
http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/2007/08/21/41933/employers-rate-assessment-centres-as-worth-the-high-cost.html
*Editorial note: technically speaking, assessment centres are for selecting, not recruiting staff. We have left the article unedited as we did not write it!