UK civil service behaviour question

[MyLoftyTiger]

Does anyone here work for civil service HR and could score my answer for working together

Assuming you are applying for a regular job, applications are scored by the recruiting manager and maybe one other, who is unlikely to be from HR. It also depends on the grade and the type of role. As with all processes like this, one person might score you differently from another. But if you post then those of us who have been recruiting managers in the civil service might be able to give you some comments. Definitely need to know the grade and role though.

Working Together
Situation: In my role as a trainee kitchen team leader and kitchen porter, we
faced a challenging period where we experienced a surge in customer phone
inquiries due to the online ordering system failing which stretched our
capabilities.
Task: The task entailed managing the increased volume of customer phone
inquiries effectively, ensuring every customer received a timely response, while
maintaining team morale during this high-pressured period.
Action: I used social media to communicate with customers telling them, they
could order on social media and by emailing us. I initiated briefings to facilitate
open communication among team members, ensuring transparency and a shared
understanding of our challenges and goals.
Result: Despite the surge in customer phone calls our team-maintained
customer satisfaction. The strategies implemented ensured effective workload
management and enhanced effective workload management and enhanced our
collective ability to navigate through challenges and deliver customer’s orders
on time.

Executive Officer apprenticeship

It doesn’t have a big working with others/teamwork focus in your answer. I think you need to emphasize the collaboration part more, you say at the end it helped to enhance the collective ability to navigate, but you don’t describe how this was done in the action. The action says shared understanding of challenges and goals, but where the collaboration, taking in each others ideas, using people’s strengths and ideas, working together to solve this?

Only problem is email and social media was the only options since the online ordering system failed

Then can you pick a different scenario that does show how you worked together with others?

I got limited work experience as I leave school during a financial crisis

Do they look at the applications and not just the interview answers when deciding on the successful candidate?

They’ve already looked at the applications when deciding on interview candidates. They will be used but the scores are the important part here. Your answer would be ok if you could bump up the team working aspect, there must be other situations too during your role there as you were working as part of a team?

The application gets you the interview. The interview will be the main decision making point.

On your answer, I’d expect some follow up questions around whether other teams needed to be aware of your new ordering process eg accounts payable. And about the security of your new process - did you check with anybody that they were confident that orders placed on social media would
be from genuine customers and backed up by a PO etc?

Can you say 'I directed my team members to the correct social media sites and advised them on response and replies to customers ensuring all staff were comfortable and able to work together sharing the new roles assuredly'

I've no idea about this stuff

One of the questions I got asked was how I would manage my workload. Can't remember the question but it was like that and I said I would get the most important task done first and least important task last.

So you’ve already had the interview, OP?

In that case I wouldn’t keep going over it in your head. Good luck for a successful outcome!

If you unfortunately don’t get the job, do ask for feedback on your interview performance and answers. It will help for next time. I know lots of employers don’t give much feedback (if any) but it will give you useful pointers if they do.

I found teamwork in a restaurant hard work because everyone has their own job to do and once it opens, it's fast paced.

Examples could be if there were busy times or short staffed you worked together to come up with solutions, listening and taking others ideas into account. In the situation you described could you have worked together in the team briefings to come up with appropriate wording for social media?

I didn’t realise you’ve already had the interview. This won’t be very helpful now then, forgot about it for now and wait until you hear the outcome.

Your answer is a better answer for the problem solving / creative thinking questions. Put some numbers in for increase in customer orders and how much the customer satisfaction improved.

For working together you are better finding a we were all in it together and I pulled my weight to get through it.

If you are struggling to have enough examples break the example you have into parts.

From the one you gave use the increase in customer numbers putting team under stress. You identified that there were novel ways of working that took the pressure off the team. You communicated your new ways of working, the team love you.

Then using the same customer surge... You realised the customer ordering system was pants. You identified that the improvements, new way of working adopted by management and now they and the customers are happy.