Round 1: Form

The form should be the first round of interaction with participants wherein they are providing their personal information, as well as answering those questions that will help you understand them and their thought process better. 

A few considerations for preparing the form are provided below:

1. Ease of applying:

The form should be easy to access and apply, both in terms of its technical aspects and the questions being asked. This is not to say that you need to “dumb down” your questions, but that you should make sure they are easily understandable. 

2. Hosting the form:

The form could be hosted on Google Forms since it is a free platform. Additionally, one should look at ensuring that the questions being answered are also easily viewed on the excel sheet, to help you shortlist applicants more easily. 

3. Recording email IDs:

It is important to add validations to ensure that the right email IDs are being collected. For example, on Google Forms there is an option in “Settings” to “Collect emails” which automatically ensures that only valid email IDs are recorded. This is important for further communication.

4. Sections in the form:

The form should be divided in sections and a summary of each of these sections, along with the answers that candidates should prepare for, should be provided in the form description. This will help participants understand what they should have prepared before they start filling out the form. 

5. Questions in the form:

The questions in the form should be straight forward and should include instructions where necessary. While there should be questions regarding personal information, there should also be questions that will help you assess the thought process of the applicant. These questions can include:

1. What would your ideal position be with respect to the way the world looks at any of the 8 goals of Eight Goals One Foundation? The goals are: Well-being, Gender Equality, Peace, Environment, Hygiene, Nutrition, Education and Employment?
2. According to you, what is the biggest challenge our world faces today, and why?
3. Which human achievement are you most proud of, and why?

6. Audio/Video submissions:

Applicants should be given the option to submit the responses to the questions mentioned above via audios or videos. This would help you better understand the applicant and their tone.

7. Guidelines:

Providing guidelines to ensure that responses don’t include discriminatory or derogatory content is key to prevent such submissions. Additionally, program guidelines should also be clarified in the form itself to give candidates a clear picture of what they should expect.

An example Form is provided here. Additionally, here is a sample rejection email to be sent to those applicants who are not selected after review of the Form responses.