Sift your applicants

As many Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) adapt their selection processes to include multiple stages, VCA has developed a Presentation Role-play as an additional candidate assessment tool for individuals seeking to join the FRS as a Firefighter.

The Presentation Role Play

This exercise combines comprehension, presentation, and role-play to evaluate competencies, leadership qualities, and other relevant criteria. Candidates have 20 minutes to read and assess information on a relevant topic (typically outside the FRS context) before delivering a short presentation to an assessor who plays the role of the audience. The information provided on the day ensures equal preparation time for all candidates.

Usage

The exercise has been successfully implemented by Northamptonshire FRS in two campaigns and Shropshire FRS, following online ability testing and physical assessments, prior to final interviews.

Options

Clients can buy the exercise for internal use, priced per candidate or can out-source the assessment to our expert team of FRS experienced assessors. The exercise can be managed either face-to-face or to reduce costs delivered online i.e. via a telephone interview.

VCA is proud to be the leading assessment provider for the UK Fire and Rescue Service (UKFRS), offering the most extensive portfolio of assessment centre exercises tailored for fire service personnel. With nearly twenty years of experience in designing and delivering assessments for firefighter recruitment, promotions, and senior officer selections, we are committed to excellence.

Our products and services are continuously updated to align with national frameworks, role profiles, and delivery methods. We adhere to best practices to ensure fair and accurate outcomes in all assessments.

Our assessment centres have played a crucial role in assisting numerous UKFRS organisations in selecting the most qualified candidates for their teams.

Most organisations use an application form somewhere in their recruitment/ selection processes. And most also realise that one size does not fit all.

We work with clients to create bespoke application forms.

These can be based on existing formats or designed from scratch.

Our methods ensure:

  • Your preferred style of questioning is covered e.g. Behavioural/ competency or leadership based; strengths-based
  • There are clear criteria to measure responses against
  • Straight-forward assessment techniques to make marking easier
  • There are no hidden biases or errors in the form
  • Updated versions of questions are at a consistent level with previously used ones
  • Questions are relevant to the role
  • Questions are correctly written to obtain reliable and valid results
  • Scoring is streamlined and efficient

Job vacancies often attract a high volume of applications. Outsourcing the sifting of these is an effective use of resources. Your organisation will obtain final results more efficiently and easily than handling this in-house.

Our reliable marking service offers:

  • A quick turnaround of results from closing date to short-list
  • Accurate assessments delivered by our specialist Occupational Psychology and HR team
  • Evidence based decisions
  • Easy to interpret results spreadsheets
  • Freeing up of your internal staff resources
  • Brief feedback supplied if required
Online realistic job previews (RJP) are increasingly popular as a means of reducing high volume applications to a manageable number.

How it works:
Applicants are directed to an online tool where they answer a number of multiple choice questions relevant to the role.
Designed to provide an accurate overview of the role through sample statements, this test will provide users with the information of their suitability before beginning any job applications.

The benefits:

  • Applicants get a realistic idea of what the job will entail
  • They can ‘self-select’ i.e. if they don’t like what is covered in the preview they may decide the role isn’t right for them
  • The tool will give a rating to inform applicants if they are a ‘suitable fit’ for the role
  • Poor performing applicants will be discounted from further stages of the application process
  • Staff resources can then be focused on applicants with higher potential/ suitability
  • The test will appear professional, relevant and fair
  • The test will be user-friendly, interesting and informative, providing a positive impression of the organisation

Existing interview questions can’t be used forever, and eventually they will need to be replaced.

We can write new interview questions to fit with your existing process, making sure they are:

  • based on the appropriate competencies and leadership behaviours
  • are user friendly for the interviewer and simple to interpret by the interviewee
  • consistent in language and complexity with previously used questions
  • sufficiently different from previous questions
  • work with the existing scoring mechanisms
  • straightforward to evaluate to deliver final results

In addition to competency style questions we can also write items to assess Motivation, Values Fit, Understanding of the role plus others.