Ridiculous tests on Sainsbury's recruitment site

LucyHigginson111

Sainsburys customer-facing employees are, in my opinion, world class, they must be doing something right. I visit Sainsburys in Braehead and you always end out coming away bedazzled....how do they manage to employ, so consistently, such nice and decent people, when the supermarket down the road (both of the majors) employ such louts. Really...Asda staff member barked at me for asking where something was 'when there are plainly signs'.

1886

I'm world class

:beer:

laidback

a lot of these jobs such as delivery drivers,postmen ,shelf stackers come shop assistants etc are quite basic and require a reasonable level of fitness and more importantly people skills and basic manners.Why cant these companies just interview the candidates and the right people will soon shine through,20 year olds who are polite will be polite for the rest of their lives,60 year olds who are rude will have been rude all their lives,a good friend of mine was interviewed to be a postman and when asked why he thought he would be suitable he replied "I can walk,read and know what a letterbox looks like" he got the job and is a as reliable as a swiss clock.

chocdonuty

Age doesn't come into it, our local sainsburys has staff in their 80's .
I'm assuming sainsburys are after the best of the best, why settle for less and employ just anybody?
I think the online test are like a previous poster mentioned, they want you to use your inititive and strike a good balance between customer service and decent business sense, no right or wrong answers as such.
No need to get all het up about it if you do not pass, try other places and hope for the best

Takeaway_Addict

LittleMissMuffet wrote: »

Yesterday evening my OH applied for a 12 hour a week job as a general assistant at Sainsburys. At 02:10 today he got an email saying he "did not meet the required benchmark at the initial screening stage for this role". I guess it's an automated reply, or they have people marking tests all day and night!

He filled in all the tests in a very sensible way, and they say there are no right or wrong answers anyway. I'm very worried that, although they obviously didn't say it, he was rejected on the grounds of age. You have to tick a box giving your age group, and unfortunately he just gets into the 46-55 age group. He goes to the gym every day and is fitter than the majority of people!

It does say to apply again if another vacancy becomes available. Has anyone found any way around this issue of age, as I didn't think employers were allowed to ask it at all!

Employers are allowed to ask the age, they just are not allowed to make their decision based on it.

You cannot prove (and I seriously doubt Sainsburys would) that they used this as a criteria in choosing. If anything they would probably use it to show that they hire a range of people of all ages, gender etc

sniggings

Hermia wrote: »

The questions the OP listed don't seem that much different from the questions I have been asked at every job interview I have had. As fiscalfreckles said they are generally not looking for a "right" answer, they are just interested in how you arrived at the answer you gave. I think they are looking to see how you will balance the needs of the business with the customer service side of things.

seeing as they are multichoice how on earth can they get anything else from a ticked box, apart from whether it's correct or not!

I agree OP, I have done a couple of these tests and a lot of the questions/answers are dependent on the companies policies.

When the job is a basic driving job knowing the rules is about all you need, anything else is just because the HR department has to much time on their hands.

sniggings

Hammyman wrote: »

Sale of Goods Act


Common sense. No wonder you failed.


"I know the roads of Lancashire well" and "professional driver" tells me you've been a taxi driver and your inability to answer the questions above supports that TBH. I've been a proper professional driver for over 16 years. I know the roads OF THE ENTIRE UK well.

what about the sales of goods act? each shop has it's own policies that the sale of goods act doesn't cover.

CelticRugger

I would not worry. I've seen people apply common sense to these questions, and still not get through. Some questions one or two answers could technically be correct or perceived similar depending on the way people think.

For me, I remember I sat an Aptitude test for Safeway many years ago, and didn't get through. However I'm glad as it would have been bad for my career. Now I have a top job, award winning author, I speak at events, and I even influence global vendors. Also I earn 3-4 times what the Safeway wage was back then. My point is, half of these organisations miss great candidates think their schemes are clever. Many of them are bull, and they screen out good candidates even though Sainsbury's think its looking for a certain type of person, I would prefer to hire people who think rather than act like Sainsbury robots.

So my message is forget them. If they are so clever they would have seen the Aldi and Lidl thing coming and lets face it they have no answers. I was on a call with some senior bod at Tesco and he was quite arrogant. No realising who I was he tried to say Tesco was a leading brand and choosy. Well Mr Tesco, that's why you had f**k ups on your banking and mobile division. Also that's why your trying to figure out how to take on Lidl and asking for outside help. Full of themselves like all the super market chains. I don't think any of them are good employers and personally think there are far better employers and careers to be built that putting a tin of chilli con carne on the shfl, or pushing a trolley. Nothing wrong with that but still get out there are do better things with your life.

armyknife

Martin2008 wrote: »

.....
A Sainsbury’s driver who delivered our groceries today said that they pick the first three who are successful and employ them in store and don’t look at their qualifications or experience. The last 3 apparently left which has resulted in more jobs being advertised.

Once the test is unsuccessful the candidate can’t apply again for 6 months. I think this kind of recruitment is very dodgy when no one can provide answers on how the test results are achieved.

.....

Companies wouldn't need to employ so many HR 'professionals' if the hiring process was lean and efficient would they?

creased-leach

Companies look for aquiescance bias in the responses to these tests. Appearing too perfect can get your application binned.