The theme for next year's combined congress is Using Assessment Centre Methodology to Sustain Evidence-Based Talent Management Practices. The reason why this theme was selected is because "evidence-based practice is a radical change from management and HR -as usual-. It entails redoubling our efforts to do what we know works and to develop critical judgement in making decisions that impact the well-being of our organisations and employees. Evidence-based HR means making decisions, promoting practices and advising the organisation's leadership through the conscientious combination of four sources of information: the best available scientific evidence; reliable and valid organisational facts, metrics and assessments; practitioner reflection and judgement; and the concerns of affected stakeholders (Denise M. Rousseau and Eric G. R. Barends, 2011)." In the book "Assessment Centres and Global Talent Management" the editors George Thornton and Nigel Povah conclude that considerable evidence has been accumulated over 50 or more years that the assessment centre method is a valuable intervention to select, promote and develop human resource talent in diverse organisations in diverse countries. We therefore think that Assessment Centre methods can be an important element in evidence-based talent management.

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Stellenbosch, South Africa