“A great investment in employees” – between October 2015 and May 2016, we supported the Corporate Communication and Corporate Responsibility division of a leading German logistics company.
Across five Development Centre (DC) programmes – four conducted in German and one in English – 29 talents from the division were given the opportunity to test themselves in a range of practical simulations and to gain a structured assessment through an in-depth comparison of self-perception and external feedback.
The primary objective of the DC process was to provide participants with thorough, structured and appreciative feedback. Building on the results, participants were expected to receive valuable impulses for their personal development that would enable them to actively drive their individual development planning forward.
Prior to the programme series, an eight-competency framework was developed in collaboration with the division’s leadership team, including competencies such as passion, resilience and stakeholder focus. These competencies reflected key capabilities that are of particular relevance both today and in the future.
In close cooperation with our client counterparts, a Development Centre design was created that strongly incorporated current and upcoming challenges of the business area.
During the two-day DC programmes, line managers, HR representatives and external consultants from managerberater acted as assessors. Individual results, strengths and development areas were compiled by managerberater in confidential outcome reports which were sent exclusively to each participant. No additional copies were issued. Responsibility for the use of the results therefore remained entirely with the participants, who were also able to engage in follow-up discussions, including coaching sessions with experts from the internal HR department.
Outstanding Participant Feedback
The consolidated results of the participant evaluations conducted after each Development Centre are now available – and they are convincing across all dimensions. Participants particularly highlighted the strong practical relevance and the high business focus of the DC design.
Regarding the delivery of the programme, all participants reported experiencing the process as professional, open and respectful. The overall scope of the programme – assessed through the appropriateness of the number of simulations – was rated positively by 96% of participants.
A core focus of the evaluation was how participants perceived the 45-minute feedback dialogue, designed as an open exchange on equal footing. Overall, this element stood out as the most positively received aspect of the programme.
All participants described the feedback as concrete and constructive, and all confirmed that it provided meaningful impulses for their continued development. Almost all participants also reported personal learning gains: 93% stated that they were able to derive clear next steps for their development from the DC experience.
As one participant aptly put it:
“A great investment in employees.”
We are delighted by these evaluations, which reflect the result of close collaboration between our client contacts in Corporate Communications, Corporate Responsibility and Human Resources, as well as our team. Key success factors of the DC series included the strong functional relevance of each programme component, the high degree of openness and appreciation throughout the process, and the feedback dialogue designed to foster genuine exchange – an element that participants valued particularly highly.
