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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is SAMAE?
SAMAE or the Surveillance and Monitoring Assessment exercise is a program to assess core competencies of CCTV or potential CCTV operators. It uses three exercises to evaluate different abilities which are required for effective CCTV performance.
How was SAMAE developed?
SAMAE grew out of an initial intensive job analysis of 12 control centres over three countries to identify competencies required for effective CCTV operation. The exercises (Scanning, Dynamic Attention and Incident Detection) were developed to address key competencies in this analysis. These competencies cannot be evaluated through traditional assessment techniques such as interviews, and even previous work expereince in the area is no guarantee that the person will have these skills. SAMAE exercises simulate the kind of tasks that people do as part of their surveillance.
Will SAMAE be relevant to my industry?
As long as the core competencies required for surveillance in a CCTV control room are involved, SAMAE should be relevant to your personnel. The extent to which each seperate exercise measures the competencies related to your operation may vary, but overall it should prove an effective measure. It is currently being used in town centre surveillance, retail, the diamond and gold processing industries, policing across four continents.
Is SAMAE the only assessment instrument I need to use?
Any assessment needs to look at an overall profile. SAMAE measures essential characteristics required for performance, but job performance is influenced by a range of other factors including personality, experience etc. SAMAE should therefore be used within a standard assessment process. Also, given the time required to assess people, it would be cost effective to use SAMAE on personnel who have already gone through some screening.
Will SAMAE give me an idea of development needs?
SAMAE gives an overall profile of a person and is particularly useful for placement. Training needs should come out of this process but there is a lack of training material to deal with issues such as surveillance skills. Leaderware are working on how SAMAE is related to training needs and is currently looking at developing training course content on surveillance skills and incident recognition.
Can I use SAMAE to evaluate current job performance?
No, job performance is best measured by how well the person performs and what outputs the person delivers. SAMAE may be able to indicate why the person is performing well or badly, but there are also other factors such as control room ergonomics, motivation and management style which influence actual job performance.
Does SAMAE work?
Yes - Leaderware have conducted extensive research to show that SAMAE delivers results. Check out the SAMAE information page to see more in this regard.
Please feel welcome to contact Leaderware with additional questions. Email your questions to sales@leaderware.com .