DWP Recruiting Again - 2012

JessStar

Someone in my office got promoted and they used an example of booking a holiday: they're not interested in where you studied/worked etc, just your thought processes.

I've done one below: really quickly - there's not a huge amount of 'how' in this as I've literally just rattled it off, but hopefully you can see how it fits with all the points in the framework...



So, very brief example, competency would be called something like PROBLEM SOLVING.
Framework would be something along the lines of:

• Collects and analyses all relevant information to an appropriate level.
• Draws on other's expertise and ideas.
• Homes in on key issues and principles.
• Identifies and evaluates all possible solutions.
• Takes a balanced view and uses sound judgement to make timely and considered decisions.
• Looks beyond the obvious to generate realistic and practical solutions.
• Consults with key players with a variety of views to negotiate and agree effective solutions.

So...

I was arranging a holiday for myself and a group of friends. A member of our group has limited mobility so in addition to considering location and cost, access was also a factor. I researched destinations on the internet paying particular attention to reviews from disabled travellers, and spoke to a number of travel agents about our requirements. I considered a European destination initially, but having discovered that there would be a surcharge for a wheelchair user on scheduled flights, discounted that and refocussed my search on the UK. I was, however, concerned that some of the group would be disappointed so I discussed with the group my findings and encouraged feedback from them as to where they wished to travel, making them fully aware of potential difficulties. I located a bungalow on the South Coast that was fully accessible and also has easy access to beaches and a pleasant climate - the group agreed that this was the best course of action. We travelled soon after and enjoyed a pleasant holiday.

thunderplex

Pixiechick, if you don't mind me asking, is your surname in the first few letters of the alphabet? I'm an H, and still for Manchester showing as awaiting review. Just worried that there may be a problem with the system.

vwgirl

Hi everyone I have got my competency scores back today 4,6,6,6,6- which at first I thought was good until I phoned the recruitment line and they said that it should be ok for interview but cannot be exact as as of 8am this morning them still had 30,000 competencies to mark and due to this the pass mark for them may rise to 6's . Please could I get some feedback on my competencies in case I get an int particularly building capability one as this was my lowest score?

Building Capability - Behavioural
Enter your statement describing your skills and experience against the stated competence. (not to exceed 200 words)

As a manageress of 12 stylists in a hairdressing salon I was asked by my supervisor to identify where I could increase quarterly profits by 25% and put these in place within four weeks. After looking through the last twelve months accounts I decided to increase the profit margins in the following services as they could be the most profitable : - Colouring - Retail sales I Organised staff training days in sales and product knowledge to increase staff knowledge and confidence. I Introduced a pyramid style commissions target to increase staff incentive. I had a white board installed in the staff room to show a running total of products sold and colouring services booked so shortfalls could be identified and prevented. I also held one to one meetings to discuss targets with individuals so extra help could be given where it was needed with one to one training. After the four months I had increased salon profits by 33% and introduced an additional product range - so exceeded target by 8%, increased staff moral and loyalty through increased commision and earning opportunities . Looking back I would have introduced additional product lines earlier to further increase profits.


Delivering a Customer Focused Service - Behavioural
Enter your statement describing your skills and experience against the stated competence. (not to exceed 200 words)

I was manager of a team of six stylist in a busy high street salon. My supervisor had asked me to implement a customer feedback system to make changes that would increase and retain existing clientele after receiving complaints. I had 6 weeks to implement this around my normal duties. I gave out a customer survey in the salon and out on the street to the public and held a staff meeting to discuss ideas that I felt would increase salon client base from the feedback given : I explained customers had expressed they were interested in alternative ways of booking, discounted offers for loyalty and extended opening hours. So I arranged a rota and increased opening hours to accommodate extra bookings for early mornings and evening appointments, advertised new discounts for existing and new customers loyalty eg. After 3 haircuts get 25% off, bought a salon mobile phone for text reminders of offers and appointments and to get an 0800 number so calls from customers were free. At the end of the six weeks I ran another survey to check this had worked, it showed customers were happy clientele had increased by 20% and complaints were significantly lowered.


Leading - Behavioural
Enter your statement describing your skills and experience against the stated competence. (not to exceed 200 words)

I was a manageress of 12 staff in a hairdressing salon, I wanted to change the path in which the salon was going and make it more profitable and change the overall image. I decided to replace the product and retail range we had. I put my ideas forward to my supervisor highlighting the positive areas such as increased profit and different. I held a staff meeting to discuss it with the team as wanted them feel involved. I wanted them to see which range they preferred from the choices I had made based on budget restrictions. I used a voting system so everyone had an input and no preferences were made between staff. Some staff were unhappy with changing the range but I explained how the business was moving forward and how long term it would be of benefit eg. increased earnings. As one of my team had worked with the range before I encouraged her to take charge and give the training and encouraged the rest of the team to help and support her, I felt this increased staff commitment moral and loyalty. The range had a higher profit margin so increased profits and bought a different client


Managing People and Performance - Behavioural
Enter your statement describing your skills and experience against the stated competence. (not to exceed 200 words)

Whilst working as a salon manageress I had a member of staff that had not met her monthly retail selling target and I had noticed her reluctance for answering the salon telephone. In a one to one meeting we discussed the shortfall and I set in place an improvement plan and discussed the businesses policies and practices over not meeting targets. To try to resolve this I booked her out time to shadow senior stylists for product knowledge and sales training, (to save money instead of getting an outside training provider) I spent time letting her shadow reception staff with customer service and telephony work. I decreased her targets and increased them gradually over a 3 month monitoring period and increased her reception duties so she could increase confidence with telephony. I felt this improved her work and commitment and results showed her sales met target. Looking back I could have implemented training from day one to prevent the shortfall in profit and low moral and could have explored some NVQ training if my budget had allowed.


Operational Delivery - Delivering a Professional Service
Enter your statement describing your skills and experience against the stated competence. (not to exceed 200 words)

Whilst working as an adviser with Jobcentre Plus I saw a customer who was 20 years old with no work history, no qualifactions and poor literacy and numeracy. This was identified through an initial assessment carried out at my first meeting with him where I could see he was very agitated with being unemployed and receiving little help so had I to gain his trust through using my knowledge of services available to help him and regular contact every fortnight. I identified he had no CV or covering letter so booked him an appointment with an outside provider for one- I directed him to a course with a training provider for literacy and numeracy help and learnt he was interested in becoming a fitness instructor. I liaised with my team and other organisations and searched for a provider (The Princes Trust) to help him gain funding for a course with YMCA that we could not pay for as our budget didn't allow - and shared this information with my team to use with their customers and liaised with team members for other resources. After he completed his course he went on to gain full time employment.

JessStar

vwgirl wrote: »

Please could I get some feedback on my competencies in case I get an int particularly building capability one as this was my lowest score?

Building Capability - Behavioural
Enter your statement describing your skills and experience against the stated competence. (not to exceed 200 words)

As a manageress of 12 stylists in a hairdressing salon I was asked by my supervisor to identify where I could increase quarterly profits by 25% and put these in place within four weeks. After looking through the last twelve months accounts I decided to increase the profit margins in the following services as they could be the most profitable : - Colouring - Retail sales I Organised staff training days in sales and product knowledge to increase staff knowledge and confidence. I Introduced a pyramid style commissions target to increase staff incentive. I had a white board installed in the staff room to show a running total of products sold and colouring services booked so shortfalls could be identified and prevented. I also held one to one meetings to discuss targets with individuals so extra help could be given where it was needed with one to one training. After the four months I had increased salon profits by 33% and introduced an additional product range - so exceeded target by 8%, increased staff moral and loyalty through increased commision and earning opportunities . Looking back I would have introduced additional product lines earlier to further increase profits.

• How would you have delivered the additional one on one training?
• What were the benefits to the staff of the whiteboard? How did it motivate them?
• How did you find out if the extra help was needed by individuals? Did you monitor their performance for a period to ascertain?
• Personally, I wouldn't have put the 'looking back' part in, as it ends on a negative, and everything else you did was really positive.
• Did you perhaps DEVELOP and intruduce the incentive scheme?

I'd think that this was worth more than a four, to be honest. If it fell down anywhere it's that old chestnut "not enough evidence of how'". I've got feedback sheets coming out of my ears with that on lol

vwgirl

ah OK excellent- ill take note of that - I really tried hard with them so a bit surprised at the 4 score but not the end of the world but do you think this is relevant to building capability as the feedback said :

Building Capability - Behavioural Rating 4

Building Capability - Behavioural Comment The example provided is more relevant to managing people and performance.

The score given relates to evidence drawn from other competences
Delivering a Customer Focused Service - Behavioural Rating 6

Delivering a Customer Focused Service - Behavioural Comment

Consistently demonstrates the skills and knowledge to the required standard for the role

Leading - Behavioural Rating 6

Leading - Behavioural Comment
Consistently demonstrates the skills and knowledge to the required standard

Managing People and Performance - Behavioural Rating 6

Managing People and Performance - Behavioural Comment
Consistently demonstrates the skills and knowledge to the required standard

Operational Delivery - Delivering a Professional Service Rating 6

Operational Delivery - Delivering a Professional Service Comment The examples provide across the five competencies demonstrate this competence consistently

JessStar

Building capability and managing people and performance are very similar, only as I understand it: capability is more about the business side of things, and managing people is about the people side.

I think, with a bit of tweaking, that would clearly demonstrate how through a series of measures you developed workforce more motivated and capable of meeting assigned targets... so I don't know what they're on about, to be honest.

My 'capability' example was about retraining someone so they became a more productive member of the workforce. Which is basically what your saying that you did, and no one has mentioned there being anything wrong with it... scored a 7. So I don't really know what to say about that mate

Arsh

thunderplex wrote: »

Pixiechick, if you don't mind me asking, is your surname in the first few letters of the alphabet? I'm an H, and still for Manchester showing as awaiting review. Just worried that there may be a problem with the system.

I wouldn't worry about it, i'm the first letter of the alphabet and I've not had my scores back for the Northwest.
The sifting has been split between a few different offices so i'm afraid it's just a matter of when they get around to it.

sherrilou

Hi all

Very interesting reading on what some have got through on and others havent,

VWgirl i think your examples have met the star method really well and unless ultra picky cant think why you wouldnt get through with those. good luck.

All those in Gloucs and West of england - application still awaiting review - no havent heard anything either although i am aware of only one person on this forum heard back from this area and she had online testing in the 80s. Out of interest what did you both score in online testing as my reasoning is they are looking at the high online testers first and then going down if they dont hit the amount required for sifting. I got in the 60s so probably at the bottom of the pile

Good luck all and keep em coming so at least we all know what to do next time - or can build on where we went wrong and maybe help out for peeps lucky enough to get an interview

drwho2011

Thought I'd give an update for others who may have applied for London districts.

I'm not sure if this applies to all of them but I have a friend who's made some enquiries internally for me.

Basically they will make a decision by the end of next week who is being called in for interview, I've been told they won't be sifting based on the competencies due to the sheer number and time constraints.

Instead it will be based on your test and the panel will have your competencies available during the interview but will also want additional examples.

Bear in districts have autonomy so it may vary with the others.

sherrilou

drwho2011 wrote: »

Thought I'd give an update for others who may have applied for London districts.

I'm not sure if this is applying to all of them but I have a friend who's made some enquiries internally for me.

Basically they will make a decision by the end of next week who is being called in for interview, I've been told they won't be sifting based on the competencies due to the sheer number and time constraints.

Instead it will be based on your test and the panel will have your competencies available during the interview but will also want additional examples.

OMG it gets worse - not that im in this area but for those people who spent hours and hours on their competencies not to even have them looked at. This surely has to be the worst
recruitment exercise ever

good luck