Executive Assessment Service

When an appointment is critical to the success of your business, obtaining objective, comprehensive and relevant information is vital if you are to make the right selection decision. Business Minds' executive assessment service can help you avoid making costly selection mistakes. It is particularly valuable when:

• selecting for key appointments;
• you need help choosing between several candidates
• at shortlist stage you need more in-depth information
• assessing the promotion potential of internal candidates
• you are trying to assess characteristics that are hard to measure in an interview
• when you need to evaluate the talent pool following organisation restructuring, merger or acquisition

Assessment Framework

Agreeing the framework for the assessment is the most critical stage of the process in which we help you identify the competencies to measure the candidates against.

Recognising that each assignment is unique, we spend time taking a detailed brief from you that reviews not only the technical aspects of each position but the cultural factors that inevitably impact on performance.

Our chartered psychologists will work with you to identify the skills, competencies and personal characteristics required in the role. We will use the Assignment Brief from your recruitment partners, where available, as our background. We will use the job description & person specification as a basis for designing the assessment, together with a discussion with relevant personnel with expert knowledge of the target role.

Any specific areas of concern that you may wish to probe further can be included.

Designing the Assessment

The assessment will be designed in close consultation with you. We will recommend tests and exercises that measure the required competencies and which are relevant and appropriate both for your organisation and the industry sector in which it operates.

Our psychologists have access to over 5000 different tests and we review the market constantly for new developments. All tests are from reputable UK publishers and will be selected because of their relevance to the job in question, their reliability and validity.

Personality Profiling

Our personality profiling will help provide you with information on the aspects of an individual's behavioural style that will impact on their performance at work. We can help you choose from the wide range of current, well-researched personality questionnaires available to give detailed information on specific personality characteristics which underpin performance on key job competencies critical for graduates, managers and experienced hires.

Reasoning and problem-solving tests

Our assessments commonly measure the level of reasoning that is required to support work judgements and decision-making in many different types of professional, executive, and managerial positions. We can help you assess:

• Numerical Reasoning

  Numerical Reasoning assessment provides information regarding a person's ability to comprehend graphs, tables and charts, make inferences from numerical data, compare contrasting numerical data, and evaluate quantities to arrive at a correct judgement.

• Verbal Reasoning

  Verbal Reasoning assessment measures the ability to rapidly extract relevant information from written sources and make objective judgements on the basis of that information. It provides an indication of how a person will perform when working with relatively complex information such as reports, correspondence, and research information.

• Abstract Reasoning

  Abstract reasoning assessment measures the ability to acquire and assimilate new ideas with existing knowledge. It provides an indication of the ability to identify patterns and trends, recognise underlying relationships among concepts, and solve problems. It looks at the ability to switch between contexts and levels of analysis, innovate, solve problems, and take a strategic perspective.

Our psychologists are trained to use a wide range of tests and questionnaires including:

• Personality & Management Style Questionnaires

  OPQ®™, 16PF®™, MBTI®™, Firo-B®™, MSI®™, CPI®™

• Reasoning Tests

  GMA Series®™, SHL™ ATB, MGIB, CRTB, Verify®, Watson Glaser, GCI®™

• Simulation Exercises & Interviews

  Assessments may also include job related simulation exercises such as case studies, analysis exercises, in-trays, role-plays and oral presentations as required. These can be particularly useful tools when measuring skills such as prioritisation, delegation, judgement, influencing decision-making and initiative-taking.

Full day assessments also include Business Minds' competency-based Feedback Interview, where the assessment results are discussed with the candidate and probed for further behavioural evidence. It enables us to explore the findings of the test and exercises in more detail whilst giving the candidate the opportunity to talk through and comment on the findings.

Conducting Assessments

At Business Minds we treat candidates with integrity and respect, with the aim of helping them perform to the best of their ability within the assessment process. We believe that candidates need to be kept fully informed, which means providing information about any tests that are used and explaining all procedures in advance. Wherever possible, we provide candidates with practice tests to give them an idea of the types of questions the test may contain and overcome any feelings of nervousness they may be feeling.

The format for a typical full day executive assessment is as follows: the candidate completes tests and exercises in the morning, our psychologist scores and analyses the tests over lunch; a feedback session is conducted in the afternoon to discuss the results and probe for further behavioural evidence. Assessments are conducted on an individual basis. Assessments can be conducted at your premises or suitable hired facilities.

Reporting and feedback of assessment results

Business Minds will prepare a full report for you on each candidate outlining their strengths and development needs against each of the competencies identified earlier. We understand that recruitment information is often required quickly and so we guarantee that reports will be sent to you within two working days of assessment. Our psychologists will also be to discuss the profiles with you over the telephone as needed. We are also available to attend client meetings to discuss profiles at an additional charge. For the full day assessment service feedback is usually given to the candidate on the day.