14th December, 2017: The Centre for Human Resource Development, XLRI- Xavier School of Management recently hosted first-of-its-kindInternational Conference on “Assessment Centers and Talent Management in Emerging Markets: Lessons from Global Practice”.
The two day conference held at XLRI Campus in Jamshedpur on 9th and 10th December, 2017 was inaugurated by Fr. E. Abraham S.J., Director, XLRI, Dr. George Thornton, Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University, USA and Prof. R.K. Premarajan, Chairperson, Centre for HRD, XLRI.
Talking about the event, Fr. E. Abraham S.J., Director, XLRI said, “All too often personal decisions in organizations are fraught with issues of subjective, less reliable approaches to assessment and measurement. Assessment Centre as a methodology to an extent tries to address some of the issues and has achieved a lot of traction in spite of its resource intensive nature. However, AC methodology adopted at its first industrial application at AT&T has undergone tremendous transformation and today with extensive use of technology many of these implementation challenges are getting addressed. I trust that the conference will not only provide excellent opportunity to share some of the recent advances in the areas of Assessment Centers and Talent Management but will also facilitate joint work between academia and practitioners of the science of assessment. This forum will be an excellent opportunity for the practitioners and academics in this field to exchange ideas and learn from one another.”
The Conference was co-chaired by Prof. R.K. Premarajan, Chairperson, Centre for HRD, XLRI Jamshedpur and Dr. George Thornton, Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University, USA.
Prof. R.K. Premarajan, Chairperson, Centre for HRD, XLRI Jamshedpur said on the occasion, “In the changing world the main goal of the human resource management is to achieve competitive advantage by the strategic allocation of qualified personnel. It is therefore imperative for organizations to search for more accurate methods for assessing talent and supporting their development. Assessment Centers, Diagnostic Centers and Development Assessment Centers are excellent ways applied in organizations to support the needs. Goal of this conference is to advance valid uses of ACs for selection, diagnosis of training needs, and development as well as to promote responsible ACs in line with state-of-the-art practices and ethical guidelines. The unique format of this blended conference allows contribution of specialists and participation of practitioners around the world.”
Dr. George Thornton, Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University, USA said, “The conference will not only provide opportunity to discuss assessment and development center trends with people from around the world, but will also help to advance thinking and provide excellent opportunity to share some of the recent advances in the areas of Assessment Centers and Talent Management.”
The inaugural session of the conference discussed on the ‘Assessment, Measurement and Prediction for Talent Management’. The session was chaired by Dr. George Thornton and the other speakers were Dr. S. Pandey, MD, Corporate Comprehensive Management Consultants (CCMC) and Mr. Satish Pradhan, Independent Consultant and Former Advisor, Tata Sons Ltd.
The two day conference hosted discussion sessions and paper presentations on the three themes- ‘Global standards for the Assessment Centre Method and its growth in Emerging Markets’, ‘Advances in Assessment Centers in Selection Applications’, ‘Contemporary Development in Building People Competencies using ACs’, ‘Validity Issues in Assessment Centers’ and ‘Technology and Assessment Centers’. Two workshops were also held on ‘Innovations in Assessment Centers’ facilitated by Prof. R.K. Premarajan and Dr. George Thornton and ‘Designing Assessment Centre Simulations’ would be held on the day facilitated by Dr. George Thornton.
Some of the speakers at the conference were Andreas Lohff (MD & Owner, Cut-E Group Hamburg Area, Germany), Helen Baron (CPsychol, AFBPsS, CSci. London, UK), Mehmet Surmeli (Founder, Top Talent Solutions, Turkey), Dr. Pearl John (Member of Asia PS leadership Team & the India Leadership Team), Manohar Garikapati Lazarus (Practice Lead- Organization Development, Infosys BPO Ltd), Dr. Bill Byham (Executive Chairman at Development Dimensions International (Ddi) Purdue University, Greater Pittsburgh Area), Dr. Christof Obermann (Professor & Dean for Business Psychology at The University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany) amongst others.
The international conference was a Hybrid Event combining the “live” in-person event at the XLRI Campus and a “virtual” online component for remote attendees. The conference has online sessions by many international speakers, while the paper presenters from Asian regions were campus at XLRI to make their presentations.
Centre for Human Resource Development (CHRD), XLRI
Centre for Human Resource Development (Centre for HRD) was established with a vision of being a Centre of Excellence in the area of Human Resource Management in India. The objective of the Centre is to create and disseminate knowledge in the field of Human Resource Management. As part of its mandate of facilitating the quality enhancement of HR profession in the country, the Centre undertakes research projects, conducts conferences, publishes case studies and newsletter, and holds webinars and other executive development programs.
XLRI- Xavier School of Management
XLRI-Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur is a premier, private management institute in India founded in 1949 by Fr Quinn Enright, S.J. in the ‘steel city’ of Jamshedpur (www.xlri.ac.in). Over the last six decades, the institute has grown into a top-ranking business management school of international repute with a wide portfolio of management programs and research publications. Its alumni are spread around the globe and have demonstrated responsible business leadership in their organizations. XLRI continually strives to contribute its mite to the professional growth and management of numerous organizations and institutions across industry sectors. XLRI has been awarded two prestigious International Accreditations, viz., AACSB - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and AMBA - Association of MBAs. XLRI has also earned the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) accreditation.