If you wanted to recruit a brilliant pilot, says assessment centre expert Mike van Oudtshoorn, would you

(a) ask the candidate to try on a uniform,
(b) ask them to fly a plane or
(c) ask them to try out a flight simulator?

The answer is clearly (c). But van Oudtshoorn, who has 35 years experience in the field, says that when it comes to assessing, far too few organisations apply logic. Many fail to identify what they actually want from candidates.

They run tests that do not reflect the requirements of the actual job, and test for current skills rather than potential. So what are the key steps to set up and run a successful assessment centre