Productive and efficient training

Development centres provide a comprehensive basis for systematic, targeted and thus efficient further development of your talent. You will gain a comprehensive picture of the strengths and learning areas of your employees, allowing you to create individual development measures. Your high-potential employees will gain recognition as well as valuable feedback on their relevant profiles.

Development centres are often a fixed part of the personnel development process. However, development measures that have already been planned can also be designed much more effectively when you know which areas require consolidation. We also use innovative testing procedures in order to provide reliable testing that meets your specific requirements. Development centres can also be used to drive organisational change. The development centre can be designed around a specific purpose, such as a team solution for a current challenge or the improvement of internal relationships in new configurations.

The development centre process

The focus during the creation of a development centre is on identifying the participants. The selection can be made on the basis of assessments by managers, employee meetings, 360° feedback, self-reflection, interviews or tests. A specific concept is created for the selected participants based on the corporate objectives and the objectives of the development process. Various methods are available for helping participants to develop within the framework of development centres.

Over the last 20 years, our team of HR consultants and business psychologists have hosted a broad range of development centres with different tasks, participant requirements and company challenges. This experience enables us to create specific development centre concepts that are productive and as efficient as possible.

The focal points of development centres can be divided into three general groups

> Analysis and enhancement of potential

The purpose of analysing potential is to select participants, provide a reliable estimate of their potential and to generate some initial effects of the learning process while still working on the tasks. Depending on the objectives, aptitude testing elements are incorporated to create realistic simulations. This stage can also be used to create learning effects if the simulations are very relevant to reality. To reinforce this, small theory inputs can be integrated into the tasks.

Some examples of development centres include case studies (fictional or current challenges), interaction situations, interviews, development of concepts or analyses, presentation of results and organisational tasks.

> Self-reflection and feedback

The self-assessment of (potential) participants can be conducted on the basis of the company’s own competency model or on the basis of the NEWSEARCH competency model. Depending on the objectives, it may also be useful to integrate personality tests, self-reflection (asking about fields of interest, motivations, development ideas) or 360° feedback. They ensure the participant’s perspective is taken into account in the establishment of learning areas for the development centre.

During implementation of the development centre, targeted feedback is crucial to ensuring the participants experience the effects of the learning process. The feedback contains different perspectives, from observers and participants or from documented video feedback. Based on our experience, it is also effective to ask managers to take on the role of observer. This will enable them to get training in identifying potential. In addition to feedback from others, it may also be a good idea to include guided self-reflection of an individual’s own performance.

> Systematic and personality-based development

The potential and the participants’ learning areas identified in the development centre are logged in development reports. This enables these to be transferred to development plans in the best possible way. After the development centre, you can plan and implement training and coaching sessions in a productive and efficient way. We would also be happy to support you in the areas of leadership development and team-building based on the expertise that we have developed over many years. After a certain period of time, it is a good idea to hold a follow-up meeting to monitor development and resolve any issues.