We present far-red, intermediate-resolution spectroscopy of 572 photometrically selected, low-mass stars (0.2<M/M_{sun}_<0.7) in the young open cluster NGC 2516, using the FLAMES spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope. Precise radial velocities confirm membership for 210 stars that have published rotation periods from spot-modulated light curves and for another 144 stars in which periodic modulation could not be found. The two subsamples are compared and no significant differences are found between their positions in colour-magnitude diagrams, the distribution of their projected equatorial velocities or their levels of chromospheric activity.