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DEVELOPMENT CENTRES
Group-focused work is designed to gain an understanding of the overall development needs of a particular set of individuals within an organisation. (For example when considering which of your sales people already have the potential to move into managerial roles and who needs more training and development.) Their particular areas for development will be elicited from the programme.
Group-focused work is designed to gain an understanding of the overall development needs of a particular set of individuals within an organisation. (For example when considering which of your sales people already have the potential to move into managerial roles and who needs more training and development.) Their particular areas for development will be elicited from the programme.
"Davis Associates have been instrumental in helping us to systematically identify and review the talent pool within our organisation. Their range of validated practical and written exercises have supported our decision making in terms of selecting individuals with the relevant talent profile to support our management development initiatives. Their programmes have underpinned our own staff development programmes and helped deliver a focussed and committed management team which is capable of delivering in a challenging environment."
Steve Howson – Senior Vice-President, Medicsight
Benefits for the organisation
Working on a group basis offers a range of benefits to both the organisation and the individuals taking part.
It allows the skills and attributes of each person to be compared against the others.
It helps identify key areas of strength and skill shortages, and so gives the opportunity to address any deficiencies.
The potential in employees can be more clearly identified than in one-to-one interviews and appraisals.
It provides greater clarity for succession planning.
It allows the active involvement of Line Managers in crucial development decisions.
It provides the opportunity for Managers acting as observers to develop their own skills of assessing behaviour through observation.
It demonstrates to employees that the organisation is investing in their future.
Benefits for the Individual
It provides an opportunity to dedicate a period of time totally to self-development.
It offers an opportunity to gain an insight into their existing strengths and development needs.
It entails a concentrated session of personal feedback, which in turn develops self-awareness.
It provides a starting point for career development.
It is very motivational - it actively demonstrates that the organisation is taking a positive interest in their future.
Organising Group Development Programmes
To gain the required understanding of the development needs of the group, a number of pre-determined job criteria and definitions are used and the programme provides systematic and objective assessment against those criteria.
The assessment techniques chosen are designed to elicit a range of job-related behaviours, with the goal of providing feedback during and after the programme, building in elements of counselling and coaching. Feedback focuses on skill and competency development, including career progression.
Precisely how a group development programme is organised will depend very much on your needs.
However the general approach is that:
Usually 5-8 people attend each centre.
Appropriate psychometric, managerial judgement and critical reasoning questionnaires are used which can be completed on-line prior to the Centre.
A variety of other development techniques are used, including individual and group exercises, in-tray exercises, presentations. This breadth of techniques is employed to ensure a comprehensive coverage of attributes and skills, and it also increases the reliability of measurement.
Several assessors, from both Davis Associates and the organisation are involved which decreases subjectivity and partiality. (We also run programmes specifically designed to train in-house observers in the necessary techniques.)
At the end of the Centre all the assessors will provide feedback and using this Davis Associates will compile a written developmental report for each candidate.
This will be followed by action planning and a structured programme for development.