Recruitment FAQs

How do I write a cover letter?

When applying for a role at NPC, we ask applicants to include a detailed cover letter, outlining how their skills and experience meet the requirements of the job description. Reviewing cover letters is a key part of our screening process, so we have created this guide which aims to give you some further advice on what NPC looks for in a cover letter.

Before writing your cover letter:

1) Carefully read the job description—think about whether the job you are applying for matches your skills, experience and salary expectations. If you have any queries about the role before applying, you can contact us by emailing recruitment@thinknpc.org or calling us on 0207 620 4850

2) Do your research—take a look at the NPC website:  https://www.thinknpc.org/  to find out more about NPC, the work that we do and who we work with to deliver social impact. This is useful for demonstrating your knowledge of NPC and your motivations for working for us within your cover letter.

3) Find out more about the team—you may be curious about who you’ll be working with at NPC. You can visit our Meet the team page on our website, which gives information on all teams and staff, including details about their background, the projects they’ve worked on and what their role at NPC entails.

Writing your cover letter:

1) Outline how you are suitable for the role—look again at the job description and particularly, the criteria for the role. We’re looking for applicants who can demonstrate how they meet these criteria, through talking about their previous experience and giving specific examples about where and how they’ve developed their skills and the scenarios where they have used them. Some job adverts may ask you to outline a specific number of points on how your skills and experience meet the job description.

2) Tell us about yourself—let us know a bit more about your background and what you have been working on up until this point. We’re interested in different perspectives, experiences and what makes people want to apply for roles at NPC.

3)  Make it relevant to NPC—we’re looking for candidates who understand and are passionate about NPC’s mission, so consider talking about this and let us know why you want to work with us.

Quick tips:

• Keep your cover letter clear and concise—we ask for a maximum of two A4 pages
• Make sure your examples are relevant—keep revisiting the job description to make sure that your examples are relevant to the criteria
• NPC—we’re looking for candidates who understand and are passionate about NPC’s mission, so remember to mention this and let us know why you want to work with us.

How do I prepare for the interview?

1. Do your research: Make sure you research our charity using our website, as well as our Social Media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
2. Why NPC?: Think about why you want to work for us.
3. Why this role?: Think about why you want this particular role, ensuring you cross reference your thinking with the job description
4. Question time: Our interview questions typically include a mixture of situational and behavioural questions to gauge your skills and previous experience e.g. ‘can you give me an example of when?’, as well as how you would approach different scenarios within the role e.g. ‘you have a list of competing priorities, how would you go about prioritising tasks in this scenario?’. Please note the questions are tailored to each role
5. Sell yourself: The particular skills we are looking for will typically be called out in the job description e.g. Time Management, Project Management, and communicating with others. Identify your selling points for the job, and make sure to include them in your answers
6. Give examples: Back up your answers with succinct, relevant examples. Examples can be from a previous job, from school, university, or a social activity such as a sports club.

What is NPC’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion in recruitment?

At NPC, we want to attract the best talent with a diverse range of skills, experience and backgrounds. We recognise the importance of staff diversity in the widest sense and believe that it will help us achieve our aims. We care about recruiting people who think in different ways and come from diverse backgrounds. We’re committed to a process of continual improvement, with diversity, equity and inclusion part of everything we do. Here’s a summary of some of our recent initiatives from a recruitment perspective.

Our Commitments

We believe everyone deserves a fair wage and that’s why we have continued our accreditation as a London Living Wage Employer. Furthermore, we are signed up to Show the Salary  in order to promote fair wages, stop perpetuating pay gaps and improve transparency. We also are proud to be a DWP accredited Disability Confident employer meaning that we are committed to challenging attitudes towards disabilities, increasing understanding of disabilities, reducing barriers for disabled people and ensuring that they have the opportunities to fulfil their potential.

At trustee level, diversity, equity & inclusion is a standing agenda item for all board meetings with trustee recruitment decisions made based on a skills & knowledge matrix which the board reviews at least annually.

Our Recruitment

 Advertising Roles: We want to ensure that information about our vacancies reach a wide audience.  That’s why we proactively use a variety of job boards and recruitment agencies, tailored depending on the role.  We regularly  engage with talent programmes that aim to improve diversity, equity & inclusion including Change 100, a paid work experience scheme for undergraduates and graduates with a disability, 2027, a 12-month talent programme to bring frontline workers from working class communities into grant-making and Charity Works.  We collect and analyse equal opportunities information from our applicants in order to help us identify underrepresented groups and direct our actions in improving diversity within our recruitment process.  And, in order to remain transparent, we also publish our staff demographics in our annual report.

Application & selection: We are committed to removing unnecessary barriers to applicants.  For example, we have removed a degree as an essential requirement and made all roles available on full time, part time, job share or secondment basis.  All applications are scored independently by two people using objective scoring criteria and we guarantee an interview for all applicants who declare a disability and meet the minimum criteria.

As far as possible, we aim for diverse interview panels and at least two people sit on the interview panel for all roles.  These staff receive a briefing on how to keep the process as fair as possible, including ways to mitigate unconscious bias, using; and we use pre-agreed interview questions.

Onboarding & induction: Our onboarding literature & induction process aims to give everyone the best possible experience in their first 6 weeks with NPC. When you join, you’ll be paired up with an existing member of staff to show you the ropes and make you feel welcome. You can ask them questions about the things you’re unsure about, and they’ll help you get settled in. To ensure this is maintained we have added 3-month and 6-month check-ins for all new starters. We also offer mini-inductions for staff returning to work after a break, for example maternity leave.