| Individual Development Assessment and Personal Development Planning |
| Individual development assessment is concerned with working with an individual and the organisation to assess an individual's strengths, potential development needs and importantly, how to meet them. The approach used can be specifically tailored to: |
 | Career development and direction – providing an objective assessment of strengths and potential development needs to assist in career development decision making | | Improving current performance – for example working with a newly promoted manager to assess potential strengths and development needs in the new role and to develop strategies to maximise performance, or supporting an employee experiencing performance difficulties | | Personal style development – raising the self awareness of the individual in terms of the way they relate to and manage others, manage tasks and activities and their feelings and emotions in terms of general levels of anxiety, levels of emotional control, reaction to change and need to achieve | |
| Assessment methods are selected on the basis of the purpose of the assessment and may include: |
| An in-depth interview with the individual and the consultant | | An occupational personality questionnaire to determine traits and preferences in terms of behavioural and work style | | 360 degree appraisal instruments to provide information on how an individual’s style is perceived by others | | Ability testing including tests of verbal and numerical | | Higher level tests of problem solving, analysis and managerial judgement | |
| A typical assignment would include: |
| A discussion of the purpose of the assessment with the client and the issues involved to identify the most appropriate assessment methods | | Briefing of the participant | | Assessing the participant | | Full discussion with the participant of the results of the assessment and support in personal development planning | | Written feedback to the client | |
| Team/Departmental Development Assessment and Team/Departmental Development Planning |
| Assessment of team/departmental members using the methods outlined for individual development can provide a view of strengths and potential weaker areas in overall team/departmental performance and allow for carefully targeted team/departmental development and training. |
| Assessment can also be enhanced by using the Belbin team type framework to determine the typical ‘role type’ of individual team members and by feeding back key findings to the team to raise awareness of team strengths and potential weaker areas. Awareness of potential weaker areas can then be used as a basis for group discussion in developing strategies for performance improvement. |
| A typical assignment would include: |
| Initial discussion between the consultant and the client to identify key issues and agree the elements of the assessment | | Participant briefing and assessment of individual team members | | Full discussion of the results of individual assessment with each participant | | Preparation of written feedback reports | | Analysis of overall team strengths and potential weaker areas | | Feedback of team strengths and potential weaker areas with team development recommendations | |
| Management Audit |
| Targeted assessment of key managers in an organisation can also be valuable during periods of restructuring or mergers and acquisitions to assist in decision making with respect to how individuals affected by role change may best be deployed and developed. |
