SHL’s Dependability Measure is launched in South Africa

The Dependability and Safety Instrument (DSI) is a short screening tool, which provides users with an easy to use and efficient tool that predicts whether an applicant is likely to have the following behavioural traits:

• Good attendance record
• Be an effective and supportive team member
• Someone who can be relied on to deliver what is required on time and to the required standard

One of the specific goals of the DSI programme was to construct and test a simple and practical set of rating scales that captured two specific sets of behaviours namely,

• Positive Organisational Citizenship Behaviour
• Negative Misbehaviours in Organisations

1. Complying with Policies and Procedures: Sticks to company rules and regulations, Takes safety seriously, Returns from breaks on time.
2. Coping with Pressures: Never has a disagreement with colleagues, supervisors or customers, Keen and even tempered in all situations.
3. Being Reliable: Rarely has time off, Is always reliable
4. Being Confident and Delivering: Is confident about their own abilities, Checks their work thoroughly for mistakes, can handle situations of conflict effectively

From the time that the OPQ32 was released in 1999 it has received outstanding reviews form various professional bodies worldwide. The OPQ32 has now also received the DNV; (headquarters in Norway) certification which is a leading global certification body with 300 offices worldwide. Research has shown that companies that used carefully developed assessment methods have increased levels of productivity.

The OPQ32 remains one of the best personality instruments available and it is also clear that the utility and benefits of this instrument are valuable in any organisation.

What is an Assessment Centre

The Assessment Centre (AC) technique is a well-known and widely used assessment technique for selecting persons for particular positions. This technique was first used by the German army before the Second World War.

This technique is normally defined as a simulation-based process employing multiple assessment techniques and multiple assessors to produce judgements regarding the extent to which a participant displays selected competencies required to do a job defectively.

Confusion between SETA’s assessments and the traditional or conventional AC’s

One must remember that assessments used by the SETAs refer to selected work samples that one must be able to produce under certain controlled circumstances. For example, a person should be able to write a formal business report in English. The assessor(s) will have been trained to accurately assess the outcome of such test in order to declare the person competent or not yet competent according to the established test criteria. The correct term in this context would thus be work or task sample assessments and not ACs.

The traditional AC is a structured process in which individual and group simulations are used to determine a participant’s current level of competence in relation to certain specified competency criteria. The assessment of the participant’s behaviour is conducted by different observers during simulations where the participant is required to perform specified tasks. The behaviour of the participant is observed, noted, classified and evaluated by qualified observers. Feedback is then given to the participant or the organisation, or both. Feedback is in the form of a written documents as well as a discussion.

There are also different types of ACs, ranging from traditional ACs to Learning ACs, to Collaborative and Functional ACs, more about this in our next newsletter. For interesting reading in the meantime try the book Assessment Centres: Unlocking potential for growth; edited by Sandra Sclebusch and Gert Roodt

Kind Regards from all of us!