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 of 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 critical research sharing—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. You can quickly boost collaboration, where every common customer can use, copy, remix, and redistribute everything, thanks to copyright terms that are far more liberal than those pursued by most organizations that ‘own’ material.
The rights granted through the CC license can only be in addition to those already present in copyright law, such as fair use or fair dealing, and you can 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 developing 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 sources of business analysis and reporting reveal the need to drive efficiencies in business infrastructure. Human resources (HR) and recruitment processes are not immune to this need for streamlining, and the ongoing 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 recruiting is the norm and has been for some time and it is arguably rare to see a pen and paper psychometric, most tools have gravitated online. The Internet has enabled companies 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 publication advertising and reducing the need to to resort to agencies. Additionally, it is more cost effective to test multiple participants remotely than in a live environment.
However, while electronic recruitment and online psychometric testing are well established, translating the assessment/development center processes into a virtual environment is more challenging. There are systems out there, but there are still plenty of opportunities for further development.
A powerful strategic response to virtual test/development 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 into 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 testing/development requirements.
Applying a CC license to A&D’s trading 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, clients can not only purchase business simulation templates that they can edit relative to requirements; if they have the software capability in-house, the absence of copyright restrictions allows professionals to put the materials online, developing their own virtual test center capability. This is not possible with current ‘off the shelf’ exercises under copyright, since professionals cannot adapt and share (in any medium or format).
For those organizations currently publishing E&D business simulation materials, the idea represents a very clear mindset transition that many will be unwilling to make. This leaves the choice between purchasing 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 practice of people assessment and development; sustainable in terms of allowing materials to be changed in relation to the needs of the user. It is also a true exchange of knowledge and best practices within which a self-managed, viral 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 do testing and development, should we do it? Putting a new materials ownership philosophy into key strategic changes to identifying and evaluating talent creates its own complexity. The material could be diluted and/or misused. Lack of expert knowledge could compromise best practice or breach equality legislation, which in turn could lead to legal challenges and damage to corporate reputation.
Furthermore, a virtual testing environment 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’s the fear that candidates will simply try to manipulate any system, either by asking someone else to work with them or by responding tactically in terms of what they understand about employers’ expectations. There is also a risk that candidates may feel disconnected due to the perceived barrier between them and the employer.
Despite these potential problems, companies can’t afford to make the wrong hiring decisions, so it’s perhaps not surprising that online assessment has become more attractive to employers. The test center methodology continues to provide the highest selection validity of all recruitment methodologies, and a virtual solution makes this highly valid method more accessible and cost-effective. Online evaluation systems allow companies to attract applications from around the world and screen them cost-effectively and on time. 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 is most convenient for them and can give them a better idea of what the job is likely to entail before they decide whether to proceed with the application.
Given these arguments, virtual test 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 events business simulation suite. eventsY ‘exercises.’ My fully editable evaluation event templates (including up to four exercises attached to the same subject matter) 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 single-use “out of the box” exercises are used at an assessment center. At a cost of £75 per exercise (or £300 per person tested), an assessment center of 12 people costs £3,600 for materials. Additional consulting fees may be charged when materials require editing or redesign to reflect a new context.
Editable business simulation material is managed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial Licenses, and not controlled by copyright. This is the largest amount of A&D material 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 enables people assessment professionals to create a common language and currency for talent that leads to a development legacy they will own.
Join us in the A&D business simulation materials revolution!