Common features

• Both inescapably involve assessment – the differences are in the purpose that the assessment is being done for and in the way it is handled.
• Guided by an agreed skills framework.
• Development Options Guide to support subsequent development.
• Post-Centre Development planning meetings between participants and their managers. Possibly facilitated.

Key features

If you are planning to run either sort of Centre, you need to have clear answers to the kinds of questions your participants are bound to ask.

• What’s the purpose? If it really is assessment, call it an assessment centre. Don’t try and hide it behind the less threatening sounding Development Centre.
• How were people chosen to attend?
• Do I have to attend – what happens if I don’t?
• Who does the assessment / gives the feedback?
• What am I being assessed against?
• Is there a report? Who produces it? Who sees it?
• What happens if I “fail”?
• What happens after the centre?

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Assessment centre

• Preceded by self and manager assessment or by 360 degree feedback.
• Mix of internal and external assessors, who work in pairs.
• Exercises and activities which simulate real life, in which the required skills can be demonstrated and assessed.
• An end-of-centre report combining all sources of information.

Development centre

• Preceded by the collection of 360 degree feedback
• Can be effectively designed around a single case study.
• Feedback from observers at key points in the process.
• A mix of internal and external observers, or only external observers.
• No end-of-centre report by the observers: participants produce an agreed summary of strengths and weaknesses and development needs at the end of the Centre.
• The summary is owned by the participants.