How To Avoid Saying ‘You’re Fired’

Or Caliper's Version of The Apprentice

Sir Alan Sugar knows that to find the best person for the job you have to see them in action. By simulating the type of environment and activities potential employees will face in the role it is possible to observe how people behave and make reliable predications about how they will perform in similar situations in the future. By providing a variety of situations which require different skills and creating a challenging and pressured environment Sir Alan can see how his potential recruits interact, their decision making capabilities and their ability to lead what can often be an un-cooperative team.

So no matter how much we may shout at the TV screen when the budding Apprentices look set up to make an appallingly bad decision or interrupt their ‘project manager’ once again to tell him or her how useless he or she is, we cannot deny that it is a great way of seeing what people are truly capable of when the pressure is on.

Once our clients have whittled their candidates down to a short list, how do they find out who is the best person for the job? Well, Caliper cannot offer a series of televised competitive activities at some of the best locations in London but we can create an opportunity for managers to observe their candidates in action and assess how they behave in challenging situations which simulate your working environment. We firmly believe assessment activities are most likely to produce accurate measures of what it takes to succeed when they expose people to the most realistic and pivotal challenges that are likely to occur in their roles.

The success of The Apprentice as a selection process lies in the creativity of the exercises and how closely they mirror the demands of managing in one of Sir Alan’s businesses. These are also two factors which our clients tell us are our strengths when it comes to designing and running assessment centres. So our typical exercises will include case studies, presentations, group tasks, interactive and one to one exercises with business actors, rather than running a laundry for a night or providing the food for a pub.

The purpose of our assessment centres is not to give candidates TV exposure but to provide an opportunity for them to demonstrate their skills in an enjoyable, challenging and objective environment, with the additional benefit of gaining a positive insight to your organisation.

The best assessment centre in the world cannot make up for poor quality candidates though, so before selecting those who go through we would always use the Caliper Profile to assist us.

If you would like to talk to us about running your own, objective and less high profile version of The Apprentice please contact Jennifer Ibbetson-Revell on 01622 767880 or @ jenniferi@caliperhs.co.uk