Creative Commons (CC) resources continue to grow, from web pages to graphics, audio and video media. Creative Commons Licensing was started by a Stanford law professor, Lawrence Lessig, to deal with creative works protected by copyright law, including text, audio, images, and video on any subject, in any format. The words ‘Commons’ are derived from those elements of the environment that we all share, seas, rivers, land and air. Today there are also cultural commons that include works of art and historical landmarks, and scientific commons that enable the sharing of critical research, that is, open access to critical research to advance progress against cancer. And, the EU has called for full open access to scientific research by 2020.
A CC provides licenses that authors can use to indicate how other people can copy or redistribute those works, use them for derivative works, and make money from them without asking permission or paying royalties to the author. It can quickly drive collaboration, where everything can be used, copied, remixed, and redistributed by each common customer, thanks to copyright terms that are much more liberal than those pursued by most organizations that ‘own’ material.
The rights granted through the CC license may only be in addition to those already present under copyright law, such as fair use or fair dealing, and you may only apply the CC license to your own original work; In other words, you can’t legally incorporate someone else’s copyrighted work into your own because you want to distribute the result under a CC license.
My work to date has focused on applying this approach to assessment and the development of business simulation material to support the virtual assessment center strategy.
The current economic downturn has had a significant impact on the management consulting market. Most business reporting and analysis sources reveal the need to drive efficiency in business infrastructure. Human resources (HR) and hiring processes are not immune to this need for streamlining, and the continued development of virtual people assessment and development processes reflects this.
When we examine the recruiting landscape, technology solutions are becoming more prevalent and growing. Electronic recruitment is the norm and has been for some time and it is arguably rare to see a paper and pencil psychometric, most tools have gravitated online. The Internet has enabled businesses to access vast talent pools of job seekers and potential talent faster and cheaper than ever before, making it a more cost-effective option than traditional newspaper or magazine advertising and reducing the need for resorting to agencies. Also, it is more cost-effective to assess multiple participants remotely than in a live environment.
However, while electronic recruitment and online psychometric testing are well established, translating assessment/development center processes to a virtual environment is more complicated. There are systems out there, but there are still plenty of opportunities for further development.
A powerful strategic response to virtual development/assessment center development is to ensure that business simulation tools (i.e. group exercises, role play exercises, inbox, etc.) they are allowed to evolve, and this evolution is put in the hands of recruiters and HR professionals who use such advanced processes on the front lines. Such flexibility reduces cost by allowing new versions of materials to be designed to reflect changes in evaluation/development requirements.
Applying a CC license to A&D Business Simulation Materials leads to the following legal terms and conditions:
Clients are free to:
-
Share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
-
Adapt: remix, transform and build on the material.
Therefore, customers can not only buy business simulation templates that they can edit in relation to the requirements; If they have the software capacity in-house, the absence of copyright restrictions allows professionals to put the materials online, developing their own virtual assessment center capacity. This is not possible with current ‘off the shelf’ exercises under copyright, as professionals cannot adapt and share (in any medium or format).
For those organizations that currently publish evaluation and development business simulation materials, the idea represents a very clear mindset transition that many will not be willing to make. This leaves the choice between buying static materials, which can only be used once for a single unit fee, or designing custom material in-house, which is time consuming.
My strategy is a creative middle ground, achieved by creating business simulation materials that are free from the shackles of copyright. This not only creates a sustainable people assessment and development practice; sustainable in terms of allowing materials to be changed in relation to user needs. It is also a true exchange of knowledge and best practices within which a viral, self-managed learning agenda can evolve, while potentially reducing the costs associated with custom material design.
So it’s relatively easy to release copyright under the CC umbrella, the key question is: as people who practice evaluation and development, should we? Putting a new material ownership philosophy into key strategic shifts to identify and assess talent creates its own complexity. Material could be diluted and/or misused. Lack of expert knowledge could compromise best practices or violate equality legislation, which in turn could lead to legal challenges and damage to corporate reputation.
Furthermore, a virtual assessment environment in itself poses certain problems: older or less IT-savvy candidates could be deterred, and inconsistent internet access in some, mainly rural, parts of the UK could also inadvertently discriminate against some people. Then there is the fear that candidates are simply trying to manipulate any system, either by asking someone else to work with them or by tactically responding in terms of what they understand about employers’ expectations. There is also the risk that candidates feel disconnected due to the perceived barrier between them and the employer.
Despite these potential problems, companies don’t have the luxury of making the wrong hiring decisions, so it’s perhaps not surprising that online screening has become more attractive to employers. The Test Center methodology continues to provide the highest selection validity of all recruiting methodologies, and a virtual solution makes this high validity method more accessible and cost-effective. Online screening systems allow companies to attract applications from around the world and screen them cost-effectively and in a timely manner. More importantly, they offer a tangible way to assess an individual’s skills for a particular role and how they would fit within an organization. Meanwhile, for potential employees, the online assessment can be taken at a time and place that suits them best and can give them a better idea of what the job is likely to entail before deciding whether to proceed with the application.
Given these arguments, virtual assessment centers are a very likely high-growth medium. However, there is also the possibility that companies have the technology but lack the materials. Accordingly, I have created a current event business simulation suite. eventsY ‘exercises.’ My evaluation event template fully editables (including up to four exercises attached to the same background topic) would attract a flat fee of £240. This can be changed by internal management or professionals to reflect specific circumstances, modified to produce parallel forms and used indefinitely, all within the flat fee. This is in contrast to an ‘out-of-the-box’ unit cost approach (ie fee per exercise per person). Typically, 4 “off-the-shelf” single-use exercises are used in an assessment center. At a cost of £75 per exercise (or £300 per person tested), a 12-person testing center costs £3,600 for materials. Additional consulting fees are likely to be charged when materials require editing or redesign to reflect a new context.
The editable business simulation material is managed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial Licenses, and not controlled by copyright. This is the largest number of A&D materials released in this way in the UK to date. Anyone who completes the application stage can download a full portfolio of A&D events or choose from a variety of exercises. All materials can be used indefinitely. More importantly, if they don’t exactly fit the company culture or corporate standards, they can be freely edited or placed in virtual testing environments. This allows people assessment professionals to create a common currency and language for talent that leads to a legacy of development that they will own.
Join us in the A&D business simulation materials revolution!
