ABSTRACT
Readers who are used to running their own assessment centres may think that our references to a dedicated ‘centre manager’ is excessive, because many centres are run by one of the assessors in addition to their normal work. Clearly, that approach can have advantages when budgets are stretched, but it is generally a false economy. At best, this arrangement can only work if the person keeps to simple administrative duties such as briefing participants as each exercise starts. We hope that by the end of this chapter you will be convinced that there is potentially much more to the role than simply ensuring that the centre runs efficiently. The efficient running of the centre is a direct consequence of a good plan. While there are some points to make about the running of the assessment centre, we want to give some attention to two additional aspects of the centre manager’s job: quality control and managing the assessor discussion.
