To be baffled by Tesco's screening questions

[Hingeandbracket]

I applied for a job at Tesco but failed their questionnaire, which suggests situations and asks you to choose a multiple choice answer for what you would do in each.

I always struggle with these kinds of tests as it often seems to me that all are good answers - or none - and there isn't an obvious answer.

Does anyone who has passed this test have any tips about how it works?

I want to work and I am prepared to put myself out to help people - but it is very hard to see exactly what Tesco are looking for in these ambiguous questions.

@healththrowawayx

www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/ccnou4/tesco_screening_questions/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_body

For example with these questions, i agree with all of the answers marked with an X, aside from question 2 where I would select B instead. Can you see that the answers are supposed to predominantly be in the interests of customer service, then being a team player. Things like restocking and tidying are the last priority.

Thanks - that's not the same test - each question had four answers and you had to mark them more or less suitable - and you could mark more than one, so it's not clear if they thought there was only one answer.

@MulticolourMophead yeah that was my first thought - I was so annoyed about wasting my time! I don't mind at the final stages maybe when there are only 2 or 3 candidates left! In current job they just asked me to prepare a little newsletter and include a monthly social activity in it that I'd planned (which is actually a part of the job requirement)

It only took me an hour to prepare - fine!

But asking hundreds of applicants to do a big task before they've even met you is dodgy! have to say

i agree with all of the answers marked with an X, aside from question 2 where I would select B instead.

Sorry I meant C, not B

Okay for your question I’m interested in what D was. I think A is the best answer, followed by C I guess- but the area would need to either be closed off before you leave it unattended in case anyone else slips so it isn’t a perfect response. A makes sense because a supervisor would be best placed to attend to an injured customer, deal with complaints, fill in an accident book etc rather than a newbie

Please don't worry, it's totally irrelevant to the job anyway
I can see it is irrelevant to the actual job - unfortunately it seems to be preventing me from getting the job.

it is awful @Hingeandbracket just a computer says no situation - when actually if they met you they would probably see you were more than capable!

I agree that these things are often irrelevant to the job, but they are there blocking applicants (potentially good ones too) from actually getting through to interview stage. They are sooooooo frustrating.

I failed miserably at the Tesco one. My husband had a good laugh and did it "for me" as he worked in retail in his youth (20 odd years ago!) and failed as well although we made sure not to replicate all my answers. It was very odd.
I then did the M&S one and passed and got a job there!

I chose A.

In the absence of D being a better option I would choose A.

The last thing I would do would be C because leaving it unattended would be a huge health and safety risk. The priority for me would be to stop any more customers injuring themselves, so close it off ASAP and then find someone who can (i.e. has been appropriately trained to) clean it up.

God these piss me off, what's wrong with going off someones works experience and references?

I failed one for a temporary womenswear assistant in M and S years ago.

Yet l had a degree in fashion.... says it all really!

These are called situational judgement tests although I am not familiar with the Tesco ones in particular. They are supposed to be more directly related to the requirements of the job than cognitive ability tests but there is some controversy about whether they are actually still measuring cognitive ability but in a different way. I can promise they're not designed to catch you out. If you don't like them, I'm sorry to say that lot of employers will use them as part of screening for high volume roles.

A lot of employers won't give much feed back from early screening stages because they just don't have the resource to do that.

If you are on the autism spectrum and believe these kind of tests don't work for you, you might want to ask for reasonable adjustments and if the employer is signed up to the 'disability confident' scheme then tick the box and if you meet the minimum criteria for the role you should be invited to the interview / first face to face stage.

Good luck OP.

And if you don't get through it absolutely doesn't mean you wouldn't have been able to do the job. There are often many more people who could do the job than there are jobs available.

Oh, and interviews are far from perfect tools at choosing the best person for the job either.

In fact there is no perfect tool. Just trying to improve the odds in a fair way.

@Pelleas

I chose A.

In the absence of D being a better option I would choose A.

The last thing I would do would be C because leaving it unattended would be a huge health and safety risk. The priority for me would be to stop any more customers injuring themselves, so close it off ASAP and then find someone who can (i.e. has been appropriately trained to) clean it up.

That is what I thought.

I think they want to see a bit of initiative- but not too much!

@PeterPomegranate

These are called situational judgement tests although I am not familiar with the Tesco ones in particular. They are supposed to be more directly related to the requirements of the job than cognitive ability tests but there is some controversy about whether they are actually still measuring cognitive ability but in a different way. I can promise they're not designed to catch you out. If you don't like them, I'm sorry to say that lot of employers will use them as part of screening for high volume roles.

A lot of employers won't give much feed back from early screening stages because they just don't have the resource to do that.

If you are on the autism spectrum and believe these kind of tests don't work for you, you might want to ask for reasonable adjustments and if the employer is signed up to the 'disability confident' scheme then tick the box and if you meet the minimum criteria for the role you should be invited to the interview / first face to face stage.

Good luck OP.

Maybe I am on the autism spectrum and I never realised?

When I applied for Sainsbury's (I passed) it was definitely customer first. Ask a colleague, ask a manager. I was astounded that you weren't apparently supposed to use your own initaialtive as a grown adult.

Once I started and was doing the online training, it pissed me off massively with the multiple scenarios whereby you were never supposed to tackle any sort of issue yourself. In one scenario there's a really pissed bloke acting the twat with the assistant. Apparently you're supposed to go and get a manager so the manager can suck up to the drunk person. I get that its supposed to be minimising conflict, but ffs I was working in bars as a teen and I'm an ex copper. I'm leaving next week. Mainly due to personal issues, but also the fact that the whole set up is a bit backward thinking.

I HATE how modern HR has come up with these bizarre and completely unproven approaches to recruitment that sap people’s time and energy, leave them feeling inadequate, and bear literally no relationship to their ability to do the job well. It makes me furious, it’s the same whether you’re applying for Tesco or Ernst and Young. And all the companies just copy their competitors’ recruitment strategies so this kind of crap is getting even more pervasive. I wish someone would do some bloody evidence based analysis of these recruitment tools as I’d bet my bottom dollar that they have no relationship to someone’s performance at the job over the following 3 years.

It’s one of the things I loved about my company from the start - you just submit a CV and one page cover letter, then you do two rounds of interviews which are super transparent about what they will involve and both rounds are the same. No stupid questionnaires or tests, no stupid role plays or group exercises. Just you and a senior manager discussing how you would approach solving a case study of a project. So much more of a valid assessment of your ability to do the work. And this is a company with 10,000s of applications a year in the UK alone for only a few hundred positions, so if they can manage to filter out and hire the right people using this nice, simple, fair and transparent process then so can others.

The latest trend in graduate/professional jobs is to do “institution blind” CV screening, where you don’t put your university or sometimes even your qualifications on your application. The idea is to make it fairer for people who don’t come from Russell Group universities etc. I can see why it would make sense for (a) people who have 10+ years professional experience where their undergrad shouldn’t be held for/against them any longer or (b) incredibly generic jobs like project manager where you can come from any background. But I recently had a friend who was applying for a technical data scientist role in the civil service and he wasn’t able to put that he had a Masters, PhD and post doc from Cambridge. It makes me furious that someone with a super low level qualification from a mediocre institution won’t be identified as any different to him with his demonstrated wealth of intelligence and relevant experience until much later in the process. It’s just bonkers.

It makes my blood boil.

Hi op I work for Tesco and often fill out the questionnaire for dyslexic friends. Just popping out at the mo but more than happy to help you fill it in later

Sorry for crap typos. My phone hates me.

"Maybe I am on the autism spectrum and I never realised?"

That's not what I meant :) Just that a previous poster (I can't remember who) mentioned that they are on the AS and think that they find these kinds of test hard because this means they find it hard to deal with ambiguous situations.

@notalwaysalondoner

There is lots of research into assessment & selection and how to do it better - more reliably, better validity and more fairly. These things aren't bizarre or unproven. What is bizarre and unproven is interviews where the interviewer thinks they can judge 'the cut of your jib' as soon as you walk in the room. And there's plenty of that that goes on.

As I mention, there is no perfect method. Or the closest to it would be to employ people on a lengthy trial to do the actual job. But you can see that might be difficult.

I suppose that when push comes to shove, the store is primarily interested in NOT getting sued, or complaints going to head office or becoming public.

Using your initiative means that they can't anticipate what might happen. That's why they want you to go to an experienced colleague or a manager - someone they've had a chance to train to toe the line.

@PeterPomegranate

"Maybe I am on the autism spectrum and I never realised?"

That's not what I meant :) Just that a previous poster (I can't remember who) mentioned that they are on the AS and think that they find these kinds of test hard because this means they find it hard to deal with ambiguous situations.

I find these kinds of tests hard too.

I disagree with a PP who said they are common sense like the driving theory test. I know for certain that the Theory test is written clearly and in plain English, and I agree that a review of the highway code and common sense can be used to answer it.

The Tesco test seemed highly ambiguous - it is far from clear what the correct answer is and there may be more than one favoured answer in any case, but there is no clue to how many are being sought in the test - in fact it's not even a yes/no (tick box) for each response.

I hate these, they're ridiculous. No bearing on your ability to do the job or your own abilities. They're very black and white too.

Take the cleaning one, the answer I'd actually like would be, "close off the area or coax another colleague to come stand by it if close off tools weren't in sight, go see if I could find the housekeeper or the cleaning stuff, which ever I came across first"

Even if you somehow manage to convince the computer you know the correct answer, different managers have different preferences. Some dislike any level of personal thought, so want you to call them for every issue you're not trained to handle. Others prefer you to work it out yourself, are happy for you to do what you think was justifiable if even if not 'right'.