Assessment: Promise land

It would be a stretch to suggest that the assessment sector is recession-proof. But it is fair to say that providers have not suffered in the way other HR services vendors have. During the toughest period of the economic downturn, employers continued to make use of assessment tools as they needed to restructure, or develop existing staff. As Roger Philby, founder and CEO of talent management company the Chemistry Group, puts it: “Over the past 18 months to two years no one was hiring, so companies had to work with the people they already had – and optimise them – because they couldn’t afford to hire new ones.”