Roleplay

Most people who have been through an assessment centre for promotion or recruitment will have experienced the “dreaded roleplay”. 

• Put simply, the assessee is presented with a scenario (perhaps they will be asked to imagine they are the manager of an underperforming staff member, or the supplier to a dissatisfied customer) and I will assume the role of the staff member or customer. 

• They are then required to conduct a meeting with me and bring our exchange to a satisfactory conclusion – ideally for both parties; all the while being observed and assessed.

• My job is to enable the assessee to demonstrate that they possess the appropriate competencies which can be observed and scored by the assessor.  To achieve this I challenge the assessee or give way appropriately, reveal points of information at salient points and keep the exchange flowing if the assessee stalls through nerves or any other reason.

• Where my performance background is essential is in being entirely credible in my role and my responses to the assessee and providing absolute consistency from one assessee to the next, no matter what their particular approach to the meeting may be.

• I am very used to mastering briefs ranging from merely a few lines to highly detailed briefs involving complex behaviours and technical information, often requiring me to research beyond the brief provided to maintain credibility during the exercise.

• Examples of the considerable array of characters I have been asked to portray over the years range from a prospective partner in Ernst & Young, hospital consultants, all levels of staff and management in both public and private sectors, an armed robber, to a Watford Council street sweeper.

Case Study – providing the whole Roleplay package

Sometimes my roleplay work requires me to simply deliver a scripted roleplay scenario and at other times I work with the client from the outset to provide a whole roleplay package.  For example, I was asked by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) to design, write and deliver a scripted roleplay as a negotiating and influencing exercise for an assessment centre to recruit Investigators.  Following research conversations with an Investigator and two Senior Investigators I wrote a scenario involving an SIA Investigator seeking assistance for a joint operation from a less than co-operative West Yorkshire Constabulary Police Inspector.  The feedback from all the Senior Investigators who observed and assessed the exercise was that it was absolutely true to life and that my depiction of the Police Inspector was disconcertingly real.  The exercise was an integral and essential part of a highly successful assessment process.

I have delivered Roleplay solutions to an enormous number of organisations and below is a cross-section of examples:

Contact David on 07967 187047 or at david@davidkershaw.net