We're experts on all things Management & HR
Recruitment, Search and Selection: get it right
Written by John Berry on 31st May 2017. Revised 13th February 2025.
5 min read
When assessing job candidates, a manager is trying to predict which candidate will perform best in a specific role. It makes sense therefore to use a selection process that will give an optimum prediction and it should come as no surprise that a thirty minute friendly chat and other ‘light’ selection methods come well down on the effective prediction league table. Here's a comprehensive discussion on how to get recruitment right.
Volunteer leadership: a never-ending machine
Written by John Berry on 22nd January 2025.0
6 min read
Leaders cause followers to do stuff – stuff that they might not do but for leadership interventions. Leadership is often promoted as a one-on-many phenomenon with the leader espousing policy or plans. It is best thought of, and best done, one-to-one. It’s best thought of as dyadic and done leader to follower. Leadership is a never-ending machine where the leader sets goals, selects leadership interventions, acts, monitors success & failure, and repeats: forever.
Surely interviewing is normal? Surely you must enter the relationship having formed some view if the volunteer will do well in the job? Why is there any doubt about the need for interviews? The answer is complicated. Here we explain. By telling candidate volunteers they must face an interview, the manager puts a block in the volunteers’ paths. They are sending the message to the candidates that volunteering is just like employment. Volunteering is declining. Managers might want to think carefully here.
Volunteer recruitment and selection life cycle
Written by John Berry on 18th December 2024.0
4 min read
Once the job description and person specification is available, recruitment and selection of volunteers can start. There is no prescriptive ‘best practice’. Here we discuss the elements of the process that are key to success. The seven steps of our process are shown in the diagram.This process is somewhat more scientific and considerably more robust than that done by most CSOs. Critically, we demand definition of both search criteria and selection criteria. And creation of an ideal profile.
Get your (management) house in order before seeking volunteers
Written by John Berry on 6th September 2024.0
7 min read
For managers searching for volunteers there are three interacting variables: trigger, image, and opportunity. Work starts with image. Would-be volunteers must have a good positive attitude toward the organisation based on a positive image. Start now. Strip away all the crap. Do the acid test. But your management policies, procedures and practices may take months, even years to fix. Employees might tolerate poor management because the job pays the bills, or it's a career stepping stone, but volunteers won’t.
One volunteer must inevitably work with another volunteer to achieve a result. And one group of volunteers must inevitably work with another group to achieve a more significant result. The effectiveness of these interactions in getting things done depends a lot on the how the manager of volunteers designs the organisation. Managers must take the contract with the beneficiaries for products and services and break it into what must be done. Here are some examples of organisation structures to enable action.
