What is the ISHR Group's iAdvance Process?

What do you think of when you hear the term “Leadership Assessment?" To many HRM's, the concept conjures images of Assessment Centers or even Assessment Instruments. While these are useful points of reference, what differentiates ISHR Group's Assessment Process, iAdvance, are two more human aspects. First, iAdvance is more “high touch” than “high tech.” Secondly, it is focused on observable behavior and its impact in both the organization and in associated results.  

Individuals going through the intensive iAdvance process spend about three hours with an ISHR Group consultant recreating their Leadership Biography, articulating “why they’ve done what they’ve done”, “how they got to where they are today,” and “what they’re looking to do going forward.”
          
While the data gathered during the interview is useful to identify patterns of behavior over a person’s career, the power of the iAdvance process comes from the references, the "Live 360," with whom the consultant speaks to validate or hone the hypothesis resulting from their individual interview.

iAdvance is an intensive 4-step process.  The Historical Assessment Interview uncovers patterns of behavior which have caused the individual to be effective to date, as well as potential areas that could be impacting their short-term and longer-term effectiveness. The "Live 360" gathers input from a number of people with whom the assessee has worked.  The Assessment & Development Report provides a written summary of strengths, development needs and recommendations for improvement.  Finally, the Feedback and Coaching sessions provide a comprehensive debrief and development plan for the assessee and the business to utilize moving forward.

How have clients used ISHR Group's iAdvance Process?

Clients typically use our Leadership Assessment & Development process in one of two ways, and often employ a combination of both. The first is Third Party Assessments, where we come in to a business and individually assess specific leaders who have either been identified as having additional potential in the business or who are having difficulty being effective in their current roles. The company either doesn’t have the skills internally to assess their leaders, don’t have the resources available, or want an objective view from external experts who can both calibrate talent and provide benchmarking based on other companies we’ve worked with globally.

ISHR Group also offers intensive workshops for small groups of senior HRM’s who want to hone their own assessment and coaching skills to allow them to develop this competency within their own organization. iAdvance Workshops provide the tools and feedback based on conducting “live” leadership assessments with individuals in their business. We often hear from participants that this is the most useful course they have been to in their career because it is so action oriented and practical … it’s much more than just an ‘interviewing’ class.
 
How does your Assessment process differ from other assessment tools?              

Our assessment process is not based on psychological instruments or on specifically developed assessment centers. We are not trained psychologists, but experienced HR Managers who know what it takes to be a successful leader in corporations around the world.

What competencies should we use to assess our leaders?

We certainly can provide you with our suggestions of what we’ve seen differentiate effective leaders from others, but it is also important to identify critical success factors in your business. Company culture is as important as global leadership attributes – one size doesn’t fit all.

And, if you have not identified critical success factors, we can work with you to determine what those are by interviewing key leaders in your business or operationalize your current company values to determine the competencies to assess against.

What level of individual should go through a Leadership Assessment?

That’s the beauty of the iAdvance process – it can be used with Emerging Leaders through Senior Executives; the amount of time spent on the interview, the number of references spoken with, the content of the report, and the amount of coaching can vary based on the level/needs of the individual.

Our company is global … have you used this process outside the U.S.?

One of our differentiators is our experience in working with leaders and HRM’s globally. We pride ourselves in taking cultural differences into account when assessing or coaching, but balance that with providing a consistent framework globally so that companies develop a common language and standards around assessing talent.

Certainly the individual being assessed benefits from going through the iAdvance Process…what are the other benefits?

There are numerous benefits to implementing our Leadership Assessment & Development process across your business. Not only is it a key retention tool for the individuals, but it is a way of making “people are our biggest asset” come alive in terms of a creating a foundation for on-going development.

The benefits extend well beyond the individuals. A composite view of many individuals can give organizations a feel for the degree to which leaders are being assessed against consistent standards – Is the bar the same across functions? Business units? Countries?  Assessments provide additional data to help increase the effectiveness of making the right decisions about talent when looking at moving people into new leadership roles. The on-going coaching ensures the Assessment & Development Report becomes a living, actionable plan that brings an organization's Talent Management process to life.