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Several applicants in one room?
That no longer exists at Deutsche Bahn.
Shortly after the lockdown began in spring, when many companies sent the majority of their employees to work from home, the company changed its selection of applicants at short notice.
The classic assessment center, in which several candidates have to solve a wide variety of tasks on site over a day, is history.
Since mid-April, everything at Deutsche Bahn has been under the motto: online or nothing.
Since then, many digital assessment centers have organized recruitment staff for future trainees - mostly young professionals who have just graduated from university.
Deutsche Bahn is not alone in this.
In many industries, companies are currently having to reschedule in terms of applicant selection.
A digital assessment center seems to be the easiest way to adequately test job candidates.
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Insurance company Allianz is also increasingly relying on online assessment centers, for example for selecting new apprentices or trainees for the company's IT.
First, the candidates have to face an online test lasting around 70 minutes.
Then there is a video call.
Applicants should, however, be prepared for the fact that an online assessment center differs significantly from the classic on-site variant.
Because some exercises cannot be easily transferred to digital.
In-basket exercise in the online assessment center is less popular
Nobody knows that better than Christof Obermann.
The professor of business psychology researches the subject of assessment centers and teaches at Cologne University of Applied Sciences.
One task that is often omitted is the post box exercise, feared by many candidates, he says.
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Applicants have to prioritize various work instructions under time pressure - and then justify their solution.
It's difficult to do online, says Obermann.
Because explaining every decision via video chat is far too time-consuming.
Everything about the assessment center
But the fact that a candidate has to solve a fictitious case can also happen in an online assessment center, says the business psychologist.
A typical example is a meeting with a customer.
The customer, according to a possible simulation, complains heavily on the phone about a product that has been delivered.
As an applicant, it is important to deal with the situation confidently, for example to reassure the customer and to find a solution to the problem.
Such a scenario can exist with retailers as well as with service providers.
Applicants must also be aware of the exam situation in the online assessment center
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However, Obermann sees a fundamental problem with the digital version of the assessment center: “We are now seeing a tendency towards a certain superficiality,” he says.
The standards suffered in many companies.
Since the switch from analog to digital is associated with a lot of effort, the companies sometimes simply omitted some tests and asked fewer characteristics of the candidates.
For applicants, this can mean that they may not be able to convey their full potential.
Everything about the interview
Deutsche Bahn tries to prevent that.
She has digitized her entire assessment center.
Those who made it to this selection round don't have to go to Frankfurt or Berlin, but rather sit in front of their laptop in their own four walls.
But what sounds comfortable has its pitfalls.
"It is very important for our participants to make themselves aware that they are now in an exam situation," says Eva Herzog, team leader for recruiting trainees and students.
Logic tests are popular in the online assessment center
The candidates have to download the communication tool "Microsoft Teams".
They can talk about it via video chat and share their computer screen, for example when they have to give a presentation.
This speeds up the process somewhat.
The digital version currently only lasts half a day instead of one day, says Herzog - especially because there are no waiting times or changing rooms.
Online assessment centers often limit themselves to a few exercises.
Above all, logic and personality tests, arithmetic and word tasks and an interview are popular, says Walter Feichtner, career coach from Munich.
Those who can normally score by being particularly involved in group discussions or finding their way around role-playing games have a harder time in such cases.
According to the career coach, logic tests are mainly used in selection rounds for trainee programs or for young professionals.
A typical, simple logic question is: “Which of the following words does not fit in the series?
Cooking, tailoring, learning, forging or carpentry. ”In this case,“ learning ”does not fit, as all other verbs describe a craft activity.
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Another question might be, "If Easter falls on Pentecost and Christmas is after Easter, is it true to say: Pentecost is before Christmas?" The answer in that case is: It is true.
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Candidates also have to continue series of numbers.
For example: “4, 9, 19, 39, 79, - what's next?” The correct answer is 159. The first number is added to five.
Then the addition value doubles in each case.
"Candidates are often given more tasks than they can solve in a short time," says Feichtner.
The goal then is to overwhelm them.
Even if such tasks in the online assessment center encourage cheating, the career coach advises against it.
It is tempting to have a friend sitting next to you to help solve the problem - but the examiners often asked afterwards how they got the result.
Then at the latest the fraud will be noticed.
An online assessment center cannot be solved 100 percent
Applicants should try to answer all questions as honestly as possible, recommends the coach.
This applies in particular to questions about personality.
A widely used test is the “Big Five” personality test.
Here candidates have to tick the extent to which certain statements apply to them.
For example: “I don't like disorder - I like to tidy up” or “I prefer variety to routine”.
In the end, companies can use the answers to create a personality profile for each applicant.
The test can say, for example, how conscientious or open to innovations a candidate is likely to be.
"There is rarely a right or wrong in personality tests," says Feichtner.
Nevertheless, he advises not completely neglecting the expected competencies when answering the questions.
"I recommend 80 percent authenticity and 20 percent show," he says.
According to Feichtner, there are many ways to prepare.
There are countless examples of logic tests on the Internet.
Preparation books, in which various tasks are collected and explained, can also be useful.
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However, one thing should be clear to every candidate: “You should not, in principle, hope that you will be able to solve an online assessment center 100 percent,” says Feichtner.
The companies did not ask for that anyway.
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This article was first published in August 2020.