Assessment Center

Fact Finding Activity

Brinshay C. King, Elizabeth A. Knutson, Jarrod K. Murray, Benjamin T. Pharr, & Shavonta M. Robinson

Human Resource Development

Dr. Larry Wiley

Assessment Center Project

Abstract

Participants will be assessed on how well they can research and find information through

interviews and searching, where available, on a computer. This will assess their fact finding

capabilities. The participant will be given a specific scenario and directions. They will have 5

minutes to make inquiries and research on a mock website. They participant then has 10 minutes

to prepare a write up and present their findings. The KSAO’s that are covered in this exercise

are public presentation, reading comprehension, active listening, communication, analyzing,

problem solving, time management, oral comprehension, oral expression, deductive reasoning,

working under pressure, researching, and processing information.

 Introduction

The definition of fact finding as, “a person who searches impartially for facts or actualities of

a subject or situation, especially one appointed to conduct an official investigation.” The fact

finding exercise of the assessment center would be generally verbal, such as role playing

exercise. In this exercise a student has been chosen to meet with a SHRM president and the goal

is to work with the local SHRM within business projects. Basic information about the program

will be given to the participant (assistantships, practicum, class hours, internships, courses

required, etc.); student will be interviewing a SHRM representative to attempt to figure out how

to do all these tasks. Say class size is twelve; student would have to see how to incorporate 12

students. The participant will be assessed only on the information that is provided. The

participant will be judged on any assumptions that they create from the activity (for example,

assuming a computer lab is available). The participant will have to assume an investigative role

in order to receive more information at would be considered to be important to the task. If there

are computers available during the assessment, then the participant will use a mock website to

research information. There they will need to decipher between valuable information and

information that may not be useful for their ultimate goal.

The scenarios are made to be as realistic as possible. This mundane realism is achieved by

treating the participant as a newly accepted I/O student that needs to go to the Board of Regents

as to why the program should still be on campus. This is to create an environment that the

student (participant) will be forced to learn the information after finding it, not just simply copy

and paste. After they have researched the information and written up what they have found they

will be required to give an oral presentation of what they have found. This is to measure how

much they, the participant, have been able to learn and to see where they may have done better
creating a sense of ownership.

Method

The participant will be briefed quickly on the role they will be assuming upon arrival.

They will be in a room isolated from other participant s so that the assessment can be

individualized. The participant will be given a scenario. The scenario will be read to the

participant as follows:

Scenario

You are a new student in the industrial organizational psychology program and have been

selected to serve on a committee to secure internships for members of your program. You will be

meeting with a panel comprised of three human resource managers who have expressed a

willingness to work with your program and offer internships to graduate students. You know

your program of study requires each student to complete 600 hours of internship/practicum

experience. You also know that most students will have little to no practical experience in the

human resources field.

Directions to the participant:

You will need to review the information for each potential internship that you have been

given (via the website). You will have five minutes to review the material. After completing your

review, you will be given the opportunity to speak with all three human resource managers at

once. You will have exactly ten minutes to interview these professionals and ask questions about

their proposed internship position. After speaking with the panel, you will then have ten minutes

to prepare an oral presentation about your findings. Make no assumptions about the potential
internships when giving your presentation; you are limited only to the information provided by

the handouts and/or the panel. You will then have five minutes to present your findings.

Information provided to the participant:

Your graduate program had 30 students enrolled for Spring 2013. Of these 30 students,

between 15 and 20 will need internships. Students will prefer paid internships, but many will

give preference to an internship that will fulfill half of their experience (300 hours). Internships

should be during weekday mornings or during the weekend so that it does not conflict with

coursework. Some tasks, such as filing or answering phones, while an essential function to the

internship, cannot be counted toward practicum experience.

Panelist Information:

Internship Opportunity One: A theme park approximately 5 miles away from the college

has an opening for a HR generalist. The park employs approximately two hundred seasonal

employees. Responsibilities would include completing paperwork, data entry, managing payroll,

filing, and managing vacation/time off requests. Filing generally comprises 25% of the job duties

(around 5 hours a week). The position would require the intern to work 20 hours a week,

including weekends. The internship is paid, and the intern would earn 700 dollars a month. Two

positions are available.

Internship Opportunity Two: The payroll department on campus is seeking an intern to

work with ADP, a payroll management system. Payroll would be managed for approximately 30

employees. The internship is 20 hours a week. Students would be required to work three days a
week before class. In addition, students would be expected to answer telephones approximately

10 percent of the time. The internship is unpaid. Two positions are available.

Internship Opportunity Three: A human resources consulting firm is seeking an unpaid

intern to assist in salary studies for benchmarking client salaries, policy research, and assisting in

employee handbook creation. On occasion the intern may need to be present with clients to

review policies and/or explain other appointed tasks that where performed. The intern may at

times be required to assist in training and/or the creation of training manuals.

KSAO Scale

The KSAO’s scale shows the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes

that are needed for a graduate assistant in a university setting (see figure 1). The highlighted and

starred KSAO’s are the attributes that are measured by the fact finding exercise of the

assessment center. The KSAO’s that are measured in the fact finding exercise are: public

presentation, reading comprehension, active listening, communication, analyzing, problem

solving, time management, oral comprehension, oral expression, deductive reasoning, working

under pressure, researching, and processing information .

Grading Rubric

The grading rubric can be seen in figure 2 in the appendix. The rubric is created to assist

in having all of the raters rating the participant on a similar scale as to reduce rater error. The

rubric covers 5 separate rating scales from unsatisfactory to exceptional behavior of the notated

KSAO’s. Within each dimension there are brief definitions that would place the participant in

each category
Grading Sheet

The grading sheet is a simple marking system with a built in algorithm that calculates the

participants score and percentage (see figure 3). The algorithm adjusts the score in accordance to

the weight of the ranking based on a likert scale like system of 1 through 5, having unsatisfactory

set as 1 and exceptional as 5. To reduce error the rater only places a “x” in the place where they

feel the participant belongs for that particular area. To also reduce error, there is a formula put in

place to insure that the raw score can only equal 13 (the total possible marks for any participant).

When the rater reaches the score of 13 the cell will highlight in green assuring the rater that there

are no errors within the marking.

Conclusion

In conclusion the fact finding exercise of the assessment center is based primarily on face to

face interaction and does an excellent job covering public presentation, reading comprehension,

active listening, communication, analyzing, problem solving, time management, oral

comprehension, oral expression, deductive reasoning, working under pressure, researching, and

processing information. The scenario is a realistic situation that the student may find themselves

in on a smaller scale, searching for jobs or internships and having to know the industrial and

organizational psychology program intimately in order to better explain themselves in

interviews. This activity also prepares them for many of the onsite graduate assistantships on

Valdosta State University’s campus.

Appendix

Figure 1 KSAO Scale

Knowledge Skills Abilities Others
Computers Reading Comprehension* Oral Comprehension* Interacting with Computers
Educational Expectancies Active Listening* Oral Expression* Communicating with Instructors and Peers
English Language Communication/Speaking* Written Comprehension Documenting/Recording Information
Public Presentation Formulation* Writing Written Expression Getting Information*
Research Procedures Critical Thinking/Analyzing* Category Flexibility Processing Information*
Policy and Rules Monitoring Deductive Reasoning* Organizing, Planning, and Priortizing Work
Mathematics Problem Solving* Inductive Reasoning Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships
Time Management* Works Under Pressure* Professionalism
Highlighted sections (also marked by an asterisk) will be measured by the "Fact Finding" exercise.

Figure 2 Rubric

Rubric Unsatisfacroty Marginal Meets Expectations Surpasses Expectations Exceptional

Unprepared, not able to Slightly prepared, able to All of previous and answered All of previous and
Public Presentation Formulation
convey information Prepared convey information most questions answered all questions
Reading Comprehension
Active Listening
Communication/Speaking
Critical Thinking/Analyzing
Problem Solving
Time Management
Oral Comprehension
Oral Expression
Deductive Reasoning
Works Under Pressure
Getting Information
Processing Information
Figure 3 Score sheet example:

Participant Name:
Rater Name:
Grading Sheet Poor Fair Good Very Good Excellent
Public Presentation Formulation x

Reading Comprehension x x

Active Listening
Communication/Speaking x

Critical Thinking/Analyzing x

Problem Solving x

Time Management x

Oral Comprehension x

Oral Expression x

Deductive Reasoning x

Works Under Pressure x

Getting Information x

Processing Information x

Raw Ranking Score: 2 1 4 3 3

Total Raw Ranking Score: 13

Total Adjusted Score: 2 2 12 12 15

Total Adjusted Score: 43 out of 65 Rating Percent 66%

Additional Comments: