An assessment centre is where a number of candidates participate together, undertaking exercises as selection tests while being observed and rated by multiple assessors. The candidates are effectively in competition. Assessment centres can replace interviews and a host of other tools as methods of employee selection but they are misunderstood and controversial. Here's why.

It’s only when managers come to rely on a job description at some point of impending opportunity or catastrophe that the importance of that simple document becomes apparent. Coupled with that, most JDs are just a list of duties and measuring performance against them is impossible. Here's guidance on fixing that.

There’s a curious notion amongst managers of volunteers that a person changes when they move from being paid for the work they do to become a volunteer. But, the motivation is the same - it's just that older managers forget that the employment environment has changed. Today’s volunteers and employees are not so different.

A supervisory board holds the management team to account. Since having good governance is important to all organisations, whether profit-focussed or not, it begs the question as to why more firms don’t adopt the two-board model in the UK . It does happen when required by law, and also in a few cases where the MD is enlightened. Could it work for you?

It’s imperative that managers implement a COVID-19-guidelines-compliant plan. This will involve the now-familiar controls such as limited numbers, distancing, screens, face-coverings and contact details for track and trace. But how can senior managers be sure that the plan is adhered to? We argue that the answer is though audit.

Getting enough volunteers with the right skill-set is huge problem for volunteer-reliant organisations. Here we describe a simple three-step model that is useful in understanding the volunteer recruitment problem, and its solution. Managers of volunteers must continually engage in recruitment. Their aim must be to get ‘the right people in the right jobs, always’.