Employer Branding through Assessment Centres

Employer branding is the effort made by the company to promote itself as an 'employer of choice' among the prospective employees with the aim of attracting candidates for the company. It is a process of promoting a positive image of the company in the eyes of the candidates. Employer branding helps a company to attract, recruit and retain talent. Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is a vital objective of employer branding. Employer branding helps to attract superior, highly qualified and skilled talent pool. For any organisation the best source of competitive advantage is its rich talent pool and in this context employer branding is of great importance to organizations.

Talking about assessment centres, assessment centre may not necessarily refer to a place, but it is a method and process to evaluate competencies of individuals mostly the prospective employees. Assessment centres can either be inhouse or could be assigned to third party. Assessment centres help to identify the suitability of a candidate for particular job, task, assignment, employment. Assessment centres do not use one single technique, but rather use multiple techniques viz. psychometric tests, group tasks, presentation, team building activities, case study, simulation, role play, strategic planning, problem solving, interview method. This helps to get an all-round perspective about the individual. Assessment centres help to assess existing performance and predict future performance of the candidates. Their competencies and behaviours come out acquiescently in the assessment centre. The assessment of the candidate at the assessment centre transcends beyond his paper qualifications and gives a fair idea as to how he would perform in the real-world situation.

Employer branding can be done effectively through assessment centres. Employers have an opportunity to create a positive image in the minds of candidates who participate in the assessment centre. Company's vision, transparency, rich heritage, hiring process, systematic and process-oriented approach can be impressed upon the candidates at the assessment centres. The candidate will get a sneak preview of the values and culture of the company. This goes a long way in enhancing the brand image of the company. In fact even those candidates who do not get hired will carry a positive impression about the company leading to positive publicity through word of mouth and these days even the social media. Compared to interview method, assessment centre is a broad and elaborate process. The candidate spends more time in the hiring process, gets a chance to interact with multiple managers and several key staff of the organization. This also helps to create a bonding between the candidate and the company. Organizations must not perceive assessment centre as a cost but treat it as an important investment. Organizations can use assessment centres as a platform to showcase their agility and robustness to the candidates thus attracting best of the talent.

MMS is a general management program affiliated to the University of Mumbai. It has four semesters spanning over a period of two years.

Admission:

Admissions to the 2 year full time MMS Degree Program takes place through the centralized admission procedure laid down by the DTE Mumbai, Maharashtra State.