Development Centre with Online Business Simulation
What is a development centre?
Development centres help identifying specific focus areas where the participants need to improve their skills. They are similar to Assessment Centres in many ways, but instead of selecting the suitable candidate for a job, their purpose is to identify possible weaknesses and concentrate on the exploitable potential of the participants, so they focus on the further development of the participant very much like talent development programmes.
The target groups can be examined in different ways. For example, the development centre can take place with multiple participants assessed at the same time, or focusing on individual weaknesses.
Organizers can assess any quality or skill that is necessary for performing in the specific job, so development centres can be an essential part of a company’s talent management strategy. The emphasis is on personal improvement, and participants get continuous feedback about their performance.
Our simulation can be combined with talent development exercises. For example it is possible to rotate participants among functional areas or give them challenging assignments.
Using an Online Business simulation for development centre purposes
How can an Online Business simulation help the development process?
Our platform can be an important and integral part of the development program. You can start the assessment program by explaining the rules, introducing the platform and assigning the tasks to the participants.
The suggested minimum length of the simulation for larger groups is two to four hours, and for smaller groups the ideal duration is about two hours. Of course for more comprehensive evaluation purposes you can organize longer sessions. The suggested number of participants during development centre events is between 2 and 16 persons, forming groups of two, three or four. It is recommended that you assign one supervisor to each group to assess the participants’ individual performances and skill sets. The simulation platform is useful when targeting specific competences, management skills and “soft” skill elements (like creating and giving presentations).
The suggested minimum length of the simulation for larger groups is two to four hours, and for smaller groups the ideal duration is about two hours. Of course for more comprehensive evaluation purposes you can organize longer sessions. The suggested number of participants during development centre events is between 2 and 16 persons, forming groups of two, three or four. It is recommended that you assign one supervisor to each group to assess the participants’ individual performances and skill sets. The simulation platform is useful when targeting specific competences, management skills and “soft” skill elements (like creating and giving presentations).
You can use the platform as a follow-up re-evaluation programme at the end of different phases of the development programme. This way you can evaluate the participants’ development progress in certain areas, but our platform offers interactive ways to use it as a fun closing stage of a whole development programme, too.
The platform can also be used for improving teamwork and providing experience for participants from different professional areas simultaneously.
Who should attend?
Development programmes are usually attended by employees, whether experienced or newly-hired, who are progressing to new corporate positions, or who take part in talent or leadership development programmes. Participants should be open to critical feedback, as well as to learning new methods and approaches in the development process.
Suggested outline
Organizers can use our Online Business simulation as a support platform for development centre’s analysis purposes. They can integrate their own tests and exercises with the simulation. After an introduction specific to the Development Centre, the participants can learn more about the simulation itself:
- Introduction of the learning environment, explanation of the rules of the simulation
(0,5 – 1 hour) - Setting of targets for the teams – or for individuals (0,25 hour)
- Competitive simulation exercise using SimTeam as an extended case study
(1-6 hours) - Assessment of participants’ performances; feedback about strengths and weaknesses; encouragement for participants to do their own self-assessment.
- Review of key learning points
Focus areas
- Cooperation and analytical skills
- Communication and language skills
- Conflict management and problem solving
- Performing under time pressure
- Strategic approach, planning skills
- Financial skills
- Managerial skills
Why is it unique?
- You can configure the platform to simulate lifelike time pressure situations
- The simulation can have specified initial conditions
- Unlike the other applications, the SimTeam simulation is difficult to predict. A large number of parameters can be adjusted every time you use the platform. Therefore, participants cannot prepare for its challenges, and the DC can always offer new scenarios.
- The simulation is available in nine languages (English, German, Russian, Estonian, Slovak, Romanian, Polish, Turkish and Hungarian)
At our Online Business simulation platform we attach great importance to our partners’ success, therefore we provide precisely constructed simulation scenarios, and we can also provide training courses where you can learn how to operate the platform and understand the benefits it brings to you and to your company’s development centres.
