Civil Service behaviour interview questions, how to improve my answers

[intervieww]

I'm not great at interviews anyway and I'm find civil service interviews hard to navigate. I've had EO/HEO level non-CS jobs before. I'm a current civil servant interviewing for an EO role with a blended interview of behaviours/strengths/experience. The behaviours are managing a quality service, working together and changing and improving.

I had an HEO interview last year where the feedback was that the answers were too short and I only scored 2s on behaviours. How much information do I need to put in? Do I need to talk about every single step down to who I emailed about a task? I can't find any example answers to give an idea of what they are looking for in practice, and the example answers aren't any longer than the examples I gave in the HEO interview.

HEO behaviour answers for interviews is about 2 A4 pages- 5 minutes long PER question. Spent at least 3 of those minutes on the A and R part of the star method. Tell them about barriers and how you overcome them. Any feedback you received and how you have adjusted for the future.

"I can't find any example answers to give an idea of what they are looking for in practice"

That says to me that you arent reading the Behaviours properly and thus not demonstrating HEO level capability.

Suggest you re-read the CS Behaviours for each grade and tailor your response to fit that structure - no point going for a HEO role if your examples at interview are scraping EO-level or below.

I would concentrate more on the action and result...as already mentioned. Do you take notes in with you?, if not do. Its perfectly acceptable to refer to them. Try and have a couple of examples for each behaviour that you can tailor a bit to fit! Is the interview pre recorded or live?. Mine was all recorded and there was a countdown clock on the screen which I found helpfull in managing timing.

You are probably not providing enough detail, use the star method and set the scene for the situation and task. Next concentrate on your actions demonstrate considerations that you gave to impacts and risks not only on self but to wider team/organisation. You don't need to say that you emailed or spoke to every person you did in the example but you do need to say that you communicated and took on board other view points. Clearly state what actions you took use I not we. Finally cover the outcome/result and learning points.
I would suggest knowing your examples back to front and having a few extra ones. Do not take in your full application but use bullet points for each behaviour example to remind you of what you want to cover.
Write down each question as it's asked this gives you a bit of time to consider your answer. Try not to pigeon hole your examples it may be that when they ask about delivering at pace you can provide an answer you used for another behaviour in which you can expand upon aspects of delivering at pace. (Try not to generalise your answer but be specific and detailed)This is called flipping your answer.

The biggest thing is to really listen to the questions what are they asking you? Don't be afraid to ask the panel to repeat the question, they want to hear what you have to say.
I am an SEO in CS and an experienced chair and panel member.

Really, finally do read through the CS success profiles behaviours and strenghts.

Thank you for the advice. I will go back and look at the behaviours again, I though I'd aligned them, I did spend ages preparing and I must have missed something last time. I'm looking at the job advert and making sure I'm picking out the themes.

What is the best course of action if you don't have an answer to a question and none of the examples fit? I'm getting questions about conflict and my previous roles didn't have any.

Think on your feet and make something up!!! But on a serious note, for conflict there must be a situation where you didnt agree with something / said no due to policies or laws / took on another point of view. I think I talked about an angry customer, eye contact,body language, calm tone, confirming understanding, explain solution or reasons for upholding/ making the decision. Is that any good for an idea??

If you have a question without an answer then ask to come back to it at the end, but really you should be able to answer this kind of question. Hence my point about flipping your answers. As PP said but also consider time conflicts and priorities

Thanks, I've thought of some new examples. I have the experience and score well on application, I struggle with the civil service interview format. I'm trying to prepare good behaviour examples, while being flexible if the question is very different to expected on the day. Do I need to hit every point on a behaviour if the question is different from the behaviour description?