How to Use Assessment Centers

The Ultimate Simulation

Just as pilots train in a flight simulator and surgeons test and practice in virtual reality, leaders can try out and experience what it’s like to be a leader in a virtual setting before they do so in real life. It's called an assessment center.

DDI revolutionized leadership selection and decision-making by bringing military-grade precision to the business world. What began as a method for identifying officers and spies after World War I was reimagined by DDI’s industrial-organizational psychologist founders in 1970 to identify, evaluate, and develop leaders. Over the past 55 years, DDI’s behavior-based assessment centers have evolved from in-person simulations to fully virtual, immersive experiences—empowering organizations worldwide with data-driven insights to build exceptional leaders.

The data from a leadership assessment center is behavior-based, objective and measurable, and highly predictive of future success. Discover everything you need to know about assessment centers—drawn from our decades of experience as the pioneers and innovators who've shaped how they’re used today. 

What’s an Assessment Center?  

Think of an assessment center as a “day in the life” of a leader—packed into a single, immersive experience. Participants take on realistic challenges, make decisions, and lead in a simulated organization designed to reflect their actual role. While simulations are a key ingredient, an assessment center goes further by combining these experiences with expert observation and data-driven evaluation to reveal each leader’s true strengths and opportunities.

An assessment center is a structured, standardized experience that evaluates how leaders think and act in real-world situations. It provides in-depth data to make accurate and valid hiring, succession, or development decisions based on who’s ready for future roles. Participants engage in role-specific simulations—such as leading teams, solving business challenges, or making strategic decisions—within a realistic, fictitious organization. These behavioral simulations are observed and rated by multiple assessors and are often complemented by other tools, such as cognitive or personality assessments and interviews.

Each exercise is designed to reveal behaviors critical for success in the target role. These key competencies are identified through a job analysis conducted before the assessment center begins.

Together, these components provide a comprehensive, data-driven view of each person’s leadership strengths and development needs.

In the simulation portion of assessments, participants face various tasks, challenges, assignments, and interactions that a typical leader would face in the real world. For example, during a first-level leader simulation, they might be asked to coach a direct report with a performance problem or assigned to delegate a new task to a peer. For an executive-level participant, the assignment may be a high-profile media interview to manage a crisis facing the company. 

Common job simulations used in assessment centers include:

• Inbox exercises, which were previously known as “in-basket exercises” 
• Group discussions 
• Interactions or role plays with “direct reports” or “clients” 
• Fact-finding exercises 
• Analysis or decision-making problems 
• Formal presentation exercises 
• Written communication samples 

A combination of skilled human assessors and objective technology evaluates the participant’s behaviors and produces a reliable evaluation report. The report includes overall ratings on leadership competencies as well as detailed feedback on specific actions or behaviors they observed.  

When Should I Use an Assessment Center? 

The assessment center methodology has been proven to be fair and valid over several decades. It’s often the best method available to organizations if your goal is to make accurate hiring and promotion decisions while minimizing adverse impact. It’s also a very powerful way to engage leaders with a breakthrough experience and get them excited about their own development. 

Here are specific ways to use an assessment center: 

• High-potential programs: If you’re looking to provide a distinct program for your top talent, an assessment center can be an extraordinary moment in a leader’s career. 
• Succession: Assessment simulations accelerate readiness by letting leaders experience a realistic “day in the life” of a future role. They can safely try out new challenges, uncover growth gaps, and build confidence—without the risk of real-world consequences.
• In-role development: Some organizations have found it valuable to use a "day in the life" approach for incumbent leaders in need of additional development in their current role. For example, a first-level leader with limited formal training can get additional experience in an assessment center exercise.   
• Hiring or promotion: Immersive simulations can be used for both external hires and internal promotion decisions.  

How Do You Know an Assessment Center Is Right for You?

Assessment centers can be used for both small-scale and high-volume leadership needs—any time an organization wants deeper behavioral insight and consistent evaluation. While immersive simulations require more coordination than lighter-touch assessments, they can be efficiently deployed across teams of any size with the right structure, technology, and trained assessors.

This flexibility makes them valuable for a wide range of situations: from assessing a small group of leaders for a key promotion to scaling across large groups in similar roles. For example, large organizations with tens or even hundreds of general managers can use scalable assessment centers to ensure every leader is evaluated against the same behavioral standards, creating a unified talent benchmark across locations. The result is stronger decision-making, more targeted development, and greater confidence in identifying leadership talent, whether the need is small or large.

What Are the Advantages of Assessment Centers? 

Assessment centers stand apart because they predict future capability, not just past performance. While most assessments measure what leaders have already done, an assessment center reveals how they’ll perform when stretched into future challenges.

Key Advantages of the "Day in the Life" Approach:

• Predictive insights into future performance. A realistic "day in the life" simulation gives you a valid picture of how a person would perform in a target position before you decide to hire or promote them. 
• Objective data, not perceptions. Unlike 360-degree feedback assessments that are driven by perceptual data, assessment center participants receive an objective measure of their leadership capabilities. The results are based on the evaluation of professional assessors or smart technology. 
• Targeted feedback on specific behaviors and competencies. Leaders receive specific examples of what worked and what didn’t, along with coaching to help them focus on behaviors that drive success. An assessment center report and actionable feedback from a coach can help leaders focus on where and how to improve. 
• Proven validity and fairness. Research over decades confirms that assessment centers are predictive, valid, and fair across gender, race, and age—more so than most selection tools.
• A pivotal development experience. An assessment center can be one of the most significant development opportunities for a leader. The insights they gain from the high-stakes experience can change how they lead now and throughout their entire career. Regardless of outcome, the experience allows participants to accept the fairness and accuracy of promotion decisions and have a better understanding of job requirements. 

What Are the Potential Pitfalls of an Assessment Center?

Even with all their benefits, assessment centers come with challenges. To get the best results, avoid these common pitfalls:

• Failing to set clear expectations. Leaders need to know what they are getting into. Without the right explanation, the experience may seem intimidating and time-consuming. With the right preparation, the experience becomes a transformative learning opportunity rather than a test.
• Changing your data-sharing policy mid-process. Leaders want to know how assessment data will be used and who will see the results. It’s important to be clear about how you plan on using the data, communicate your policy, and stick to it.
• Treating immersive simulations as all-or-nothing. Many organizations shy away from immersive simulations due to time and cost constraints. But there are significant payoffs to this powerful methodology. It helps develop your most critical talent and assists in making high-value and high-risk selection decisions.

What to Expect in an Assessment Center 

Before participating in an assessment center, it's important to set clear expectations and understand the process. Here’s what a typical successful experience looks like:

Step 1: Prepare for the Assessment 

Communicate the purpose, importance, and how results will be used. Provide background materials—such as organizational charts, financials, and role descriptions—to set context for the simulation.  

Step 2: Engage in Simulation 

Leaders participate in a realistic, role-specific experience, either in person or virtually. Simulations may include emails, meetings, or problem-solving tasks—anything from conducting a business analysis to preparing a vision speech.

Step 3: Score Behavior 

Certified professional assessors and smart technology score participants' behaviors. Their behaviors are evaluated against specific competencies required for success in that leadership role.  

Step 4: Share Feedback 

A trained feedback provider reviews results with the leader to connect data to real-world challenges and development goals. This step is often one of the most valuable parts of the process, helping leaders understand their strengths and commit to growth.

Step 5: Use the Data 

Rich data from assessment centers can inform selection, promotion, and development decisions.

• Use results to identify who’s ready now and who needs development.
• Create individual development plans for high-potential talent.
• Aggregate data to design group development strategies or pinpoint capability gaps across the organization.

How Do Leaders Benefit from an Assessment Center? 

In an assessment center, leaders can benefit from: 

• Behavioral and competency feedback. Leaders receive detailed feedback on the specific behaviors they exhibited or missed. They also receive overall ratings on leadership competency areas. 
• Insights into role strengths and development areas. If the leader went through a simulation targeted at their current leadership level, then the data helps them build on their strengths and close the gaps in their development areas.  
• Data on readiness gaps. If the leader is put through a simulation targeted at the next level, they’re able to see which next-level competencies they’re ready for as well as any competency gaps. 
• Broader awareness of leadership demands. Even high-level executives sometimes struggle to see what it will really take to succeed in bigger roles. An assessment center gives them an appreciation of what they might face in these roles and why it’s critical to develop key skills. The experience can also help them decide if they truly want to pursue certain roles.

Making the Most of Assessment Center Experiences

Assessment center experiences can vary in length depending on the level and configuration, typically lasting anywhere from 90 minutes to a full day. Because they are a high-value, high-stakes assessment method, these immersive, "day in the life" experiences are best administered once for each leader at each level—ideally when leaders are preparing for greater responsibility, being considered for promotion, or need targeted development for their current role.

While assessment centers focus on evaluating observable behaviors, many organizations enhance their insights by combining them with personality assessments or behavioral interviews. To maximize impact, results should be paired with individualized feedback and coaching sessions to help leaders translate insights into meaningful growth and action.

About the Author
Monica Corbitt Rivers, PhD, is a Managing Consultant on DDI’s North American Consulting team. She manages a portfolio of client engagements across sectors, integrating the best of research and practice to provide thought leadership, drive innovation in client solutions, and align people and business strategies for optimal return on investment.