our services | assessment for selection

Here's a video made by the SSC that shows how a Cerno assessment centre fits into an overall selection process (the Cerno centre is shown 3 minutes into the video).

When you're making a key recruitment or succession planning decision, we give you new insight into candidates.

Cerno's assessment-based programmes provide organisations with comprehensive insights into the strengths and development needs of their short-listed applicants. These insights help organisations make effective selection decisions. We pride ourselves on our ability to tailor assessment solutions to business needs.

We take the time to understand fully your information needs and the specific demands likely to be encountered by the successful appointee. Cerno’s expertise enables us to pinpoint the capability requirements of your role, and through a sound and revealing assessment process, provide you with robust insights into the strengths and potential risks posed by different applicants. The key phases of an assessment solution include the following:

Identifying what will be assessed
We work with you to confirm the capabilities that differentiate excellent from average performers in the target roles, for which you are considering applicants. These capabilities may be based entirely on your existing organisational model, on Cerno’s leadership model or represent a blend of both. You will have the benefit of advice from our highly qualified and experienced psychologists who know what it takes to be a successful performer in a range of leadership positions.
Assessing applicants
The assessment methods we use to gather information includes ‘standard’ and tailored instruments. This approach enables us to explore a wider range of issues relevant to the challenges of different roles, as well as individual capabilities and motivations. We know that assessments based primarily on psychometric instruments are unable to provide as full, unbiased or useful a picture as one that taps into information from a variety of sources. Individuals attending an assessment are likely to:
- Complete targeted online questionnaires. The questionnaires collect information on an applicant’s work and leadership preferences, approach and experience.
- Attend an Assessment Centre. Cerno’s specialist assessors guide applicants through a series of exercises, often in Cerno’s purpose-built assessment suite. The assessment would include realistic leadership simulations, an in-depth interview, critical reasoning tests and self-evaluation exercises. We work hard to ensure that applicants have ample opportunities to showcase their abilities and are been treated well. We minimise the time applicants need to spend on the assessment, without compromising the quality of the results. Individuals experiencing our process often comment that they find the assessment challenging, rigorous and fair.
Reporting on applicants' strengths and potential risks
Our assessment reports describe an individual’s strengths and potential risks across the key capabilities, and provide more certainty about people than is possible in computer-generated reports. Ratings of performance relative to the demands of the role are included for each key capability, as are tailored referee questions where required. Our reports avoid jargon and ‘psycho babble’, we consider ourselves successful when you do not have to infer meaning from our reports. Cerno’s reports are targeted to meet your needs, rather than being dense with extraneous information. We support our reports with verbal briefings that enable you to explore and fully understand the assessment results, and test any implications for a prospective appointee. Once you have made an appointment decision, Cerno typically provides applicants with a copy of their report and the opportunity to receive feedback from the Cerno assessor. We ensure through feedback, that assessed applicants maximise the possible learnings from the assessment process. Cerno also writes development plans for selected participants (e.g. internal applicants and/or the successful applicant), which clearly describe development strategies for key priority areas that best match an individual’s needs, preferences and career ambitions.

Our assessors are highly qualified and experienced (you can find out more about them here). Over the last few years we have provided assessment solutions to a range of Boards, governance authorities and managers for a variety of management levels and professional roles. Some of these organisations include ASB, Jade Software, KiwiBank, KiwiRail, New Zealand Transport Agency, New Zealand Police, New Zealand Post, Land Information New Zealand, New Zealand Defence Force, Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Health and ACC. In addition, we have delivered numerous assessment in the private and public sectors.