In-Basket Technique

What Is the In-Basket Technique?

The in-basket technique is the most popular technique used in assessment centres and management training programs to assess managerial skills, decision-making ability, and organizational skills in simulated environments. This exercise places participants in a situation wherein they are the manager confronted with an inbox consisting of various tasks, emails, memos and requests, usually mirroring real-life problems. Participants are to look through the in-basket contents, prioritize the tasks depending on importance and urgency, decide what needs to be done, delegate tasks, if necessary, and respond to the items within a given time frame.

Assessors, as observers, delve into participant's work style, looking at how they organise their time, cope with stress, rate the importance of various tasks, make decisions, and resolve conflict. Analysis of the In-Basket Technique allows us to detect any managerial weaknesses or strengths of an individual and helps develop managerial skills.

Example

The assessment center for managers involves putting the candidate in a department manager position in the retail company. The candidate is given an in-basket exercise. The candidate is sent to an inbox with emails, memos, and reports detailing problems like low on inventory, staff scheduling conflicts, complaints from customers and promotional events.

An emergency message telling about a defective product attracts their attention, but a memo reminding them about a staff person's wish to have time off during a busy sale weekend also does. Moreover, the report depicts slang in the sales figures for a specific product line and the need for a strategy to improve the sales.