Assessment Centre Group Exercise – what's the purpose?
Group exercises are often a central and crucial element in the assessment centre. The leading recruiters often use the group exercise as a fundamental tool in the sifting process of job applicants.
The assessment centre group exercise assesses social skills, ability to work in a team, specific skills that are required for certain positions such as managing skills, presentation skills, customer service skills and more. In addition the group exercise reveals to an extent your social confidence.
There is a wide spectrum of behaviours that are demonstrated by applicants during a group exercise in an assessment centre – ranging from loud and dominant people to shy and introvert. The group dynamic reveals each participant's individual behaviour thereby enabling the recruiters to predict how each applicant is likely to behave and progress in the work environment in general and how they are likely to react in specific situations.
During the assessment centre exercises you are likely to face some challenging and complex tasks in a group of 8-16 applicants. In certain cases, all applicants participating in the group exercise are applying for the same position in other cases different people may be applying for different positions.
The group exercise's purpose in the assessment centre is to predict and assess:
- your ability to work in a team
- your social skills
- your ability to work under stress and pressure
- your ability to take initiative and influence others
- your communication style: manners, nature, generosity, aggression, dominance, listening skills, independent mindedness and more.
- the degree of compatibility between your social skills and the skills required for the job opening.