If you want to move to a new role, it would be unreasonable to expect you to know everything about that new job in advance. Instead, your personal qualities and attributes (or PQAs) are measured at an Assessment Development Centre (ADC) to see if you have the potential to carry out the new role. These PQAs cover things like your commitment to diversity and integrity, your ability to work with others and to communicate effectively.
To measure these, a 1 to 4 scale is used. So for example – if your communication skills were being measured, you would get a score of 4 if you always communicate verbal and written messages clearly, concisely and in a structured fashion emphasising critical information.
But if your communication is delivered in an unclear, unstructured and over-complex way and you don’t deliver the essential points of the message, you will only get a score of 1. These scores will help you and your managers to plan your future development needs.
Because these 1 to 4 scales measure your behaviour they are called Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) and the whole set of BARS can be found on the right of this screen.
Background
The White Paper Our Fire and Rescue Service recognised that the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) needed to improve its human resources systems. In particular there was a need to update practices in relation to recruitment and staff progression.
With the introduction of the Fire and Rescue Services Act on 1 October 2004, the Appointments and Promotion Regulations were repealed. In the light of this and the introduction of the Integrated Personal Development System (IPDS), the Fire Services Examinations Board (FSEB) ceased activities following the final examinations in early 2006. Fire and Rescue Authorities (FRAs) are now able to recruit, develop and promote staff in line with the National Framework.
The 2006/8 Framework states that FRAs should use the new national processes to assess people's potential for new operational and control roles in the service.
How do the NFS and ADC Processes work
The NFS process has been designed to test whether people have the potential to work as firefighters across all duty systems. It has not been designed to cover the control operator role. The ADC processes have been designed to test the potential of people to work in a wide range of managerial roles although validation work to date has been limited to operational and control roles. Both NFS and ADC processes involve participants taking part in a variety of role related and job simulation exercises respectively whilst being observed by a team of trained assessors. Interviews, psychometric tests and written exercises are also used. Extensive research has shown this approach to be the most objective and accurate method of assessing an individual's potential to perform safely and effectively in any particular role. These processes will also help to ensure that recruitment and progression is relevant to the role, open and fair and reflects the FRS core values as expressed in the National Framework.