PowerDMS Tests for Assessor Questions

Let’s talk assessor questions.

If you’re like many accreditation managers, one of the biggest worries before an assessment is whether staff will know how to answer an assessor’s questions confidently.

And honestly, I think most staff anxiety comes from the fear of “getting it wrong” or somehow causing the agency to fail accreditation.

But here’s the important thing:

In my opinion, staff do not need to memorize standards or know standard numbers.

They need to understand:
• their job
• their responsibilities
• their agency policies
• and how they carry those responsibilities out in practice

That’s it.

If an agency is accredited, its policies should already align with the standards. It’s the accreditation manager’s job to connect policy and practice to the standards—not the line-level employee’s job to recite them.

In fact, I personally believe assessors should avoid asking standards-based questions like:

“Tell me about Standard 22.1.3.”

Instead, interviews should focus on operational, policy, and practice-based questions that allow employees to answer naturally from their own knowledge and experience.

And preparation helps with confidence tremendously.

One easy way to help prepare staff is by using the PowerDMS Test feature to create potential assessor questions specific to employee responsibilities.

This allows staff to:
• refresh their knowledge
• build confidence
• identify gaps
• become familiar with likely assessment topics
• and practice thinking through questions before the assessment

A few quick recommendations before getting started:

• Keep tests simple — ideally 10 questions or less (hint, you can make more than one and should!)
• Use true/false or multiple-choice questions
• Create tests specific to responsibilities or divisions
• Selectively assign tests only to the appropriate groups
• Focus on practical operational questions, not memorization

Here’s how to set it up:

1. Create or gather potential assessor questions relevant to units or positions.
2. Create a new PowerDMS Test and publish it.
   If this is your first time creating tests, check out the PowerDMS success community for helpful tutorials:
3. Create a new document and choose “Web” as the document type.
4. Add a title such as:
   • Accreditation Potential Assessor Questions
   • Patrol Edition
   • Communications Edition
   • Supervisor Questions – Part I
5. Save the document, then go to:
   Manage Document → Revisions → Test Attached
   Attach the test from the dropdown menu.
6. Assign the document to the appropriate group(s) and publish it.

One quick tip: I’ve found photos don’t always render correctly in the PowerDMS mobile app, so I generally avoid photos for this purpose.

One final thought…

While PowerDMS tests are a great structured way to prepare staff, I’ve also become a big fan of more dynamic preparation methods.

For example, my Accreditation Readiness Coach custom GPT allows staff to practice realistic assessor-style conversations, answer questions naturally, and receive feedback in real time.

In my opinion, that conversational approach feels much more realistic than static test questions alone.

Because confidence comes from understanding what you do — not memorizing what to say.

Who do you know that could benefit from these accreditation-friendly tips and resources? Consider sharing this link with a colleague so they can sign up:https://www.accreditationacademy.net/signup 

Areaka P. Jewell

Accreditation Academy

areaka@accreditationacademy.net

(305) 360-1075