Selection techniques

Presentations

Asking candidates to make an oral presentation about a relevant topic can measure both their presentational and analytical skills. For example, if you are recruiting a fundraiser, ask them to devise a basic fundraising strategy for your organisation.

Report writing

If this is an important skill in the job, it can be a powerful measure of performance - provided that you're sure that it is the candidate's own work you are seeing. You can ask candidates to write something on the interview day. Be sure that you are clear whether you are considering writing skills, subject knowledge or both.

Simulation exercises

An interpersonal exercise with a particular agenda and objectives, to observe how the candidates perform in a typical work situation such as a manager faced with an industrial relations issue between volunteer and paid staff in a charity shop.

Group discussions

Typically, all candidates are put together to deal with a particular problem, and are observed and evaluated doing so, such as a planning meeting on next year's appeal.

Psychometrics

These tend to be either aptitude or ability tests, which measure current or potential skills levels, or personality profiling, which shows work styles and preferences, and will demonstrate how well candidates will fit in to the organisation.

Used properly, psychometric measures can be powerful predictors of future job performance. But the key is their proper use. Make sure anyone offering psychometric tests has a licence from the British Psychological Society - the use of dud tests can be branded as unfair discrimination.

Find out more about other staff issues and examples in the In more depth section.