In the Civil Service we recruit to fill a wide range of roles. So, we have an approach to recruiting that gives us flexibility and candidates transparency on how we assess their applications.
The framework we use is called the Success Profiles. Now the Success Profiles is made up of five elements: ability, behaviours, experience, strengths, and technical.
We choose a combination of these elements to ensure the best chance of finding the right person for each one of our roles. It would be rare for us to test all five elements of the Success Profiles. So, please check the selection process of the job advert that you are interested in, and you will find the elements that we will be using and testing you on for that particular role.
Now let’s run through the five elements in more detail.
Number one: experience.
Experience is the knowledge or mastery of an activity through involvement or practice. So, it’s about helping us understand what you’ve done that might be relevant for the role that we are advertising for.
Number two is strengths. And the strengths are the things that people do regularly, do well, and that motivate us. So when we’re testing strengths, we’re looking to understand how natural specific activities or approaches are to you.
Number three is behaviours and behaviours are the actions and activities
that people do, which result in effective performance in their job. When we test behaviours, we’re not only interested in what you’ve done, but also how you did it.
Number four is ability. Now ability is the aptitude or potential to perform to the required standard. When we test your ability, we’re not looking at what you’ve done but what you can do.
And finally technical. Technical is where we test how you demonstrate specific professional skills knowledge or qualifications.
We use success profiles throughout our selection process. So, from the initial application through to your interview, the advert will set out the elements
you’ll be tested on at each stage. After the application process, all candidates will be able to see your civil Service Jobs website account where details of how you scored against each element of the Success Profiles framework.
Finally, good luck!