Situational Judgement Tests
Measure Situational Judgement skills. Off the shelf solutions cater for Graduate, Junior Management, Sales, Admin and Customer Service roles. We also offer Bespoke SJT creation.
Features
- Cost-effective online sifting – saves time and budget.
- Realistic – SJTs provide an effective measure of potential work performance.
- Helps candidates to build a picture of the role and self select.
- Off-the-shelf and Bespoke SJTs available.
We offer a bespoke SJT service for larger volume projects, plus an established range of off-the-shelf online work simulations designed to assess candidates against a broad range of behaviours or skills required for effective performance in customer service, graduate, junior managerial, administrative and sales roles.
What is a Situational Judgement Test?
SJTs assess work-based behaviours and decision-making; underpinned by skills, motivation and abilities commonly required in the workplace. Candidates are placed in realistic work scenarios and required to deal with a number of situations that are likely to be faced in a particular role. Each scenario is task-driven and so provides realistic content for these roles, whilst being relevant across organisations.
The tests measure how effective someone’s decision making and judgement is when faced with the sort of situations they will routinely experience. Those whose judgement is not what is expected are unlikely to perform well in the role.
Our research identified that those in certain roles e.g. call-centres, customer service or those new to junior management positions face and encounter similar situations and scenarios irrespective of the sector. Our off-the-shelf SJTs are likely to be suitable for these roles.
Why use Situational Judgement Tests?
They are appropriate for a wide range of jobs, including customer service, entry level, sales, graduate and junior management roles.
The exercises can be tailored to make them more relevant to particular industries or organisations if required (see our bespoke offering below). Plus, because the exercises can be administered on-line they are particularly useful in short-listing from large applicant pools.
- SJT exercises can be used as part of a development process for staff, or during career or outplacement counselling.
- The initial score indicates the level of an individual’s performance. Whilst working through the scenarios and dilemmas in greater detail provide opportunities to discuss the individual’s work style and how his or her approach might be improved.
- The tests can also be used to evaluate training. For example, staff who are new to a customer service role could take the customer service SJT prior to the training and then again following the course.
What does the test involve?
Candidates are presented with a context description reflecting real life job circumstances followed by a number of realistic scenarios that might occur. They would then rate a number of potential actions in response to the scenario according to how effective they would be in dealing with the situation.
Tests although untimed take around 20-45 minutes to complete. They are fully automated and can be taken online supervised or unsupervised.
Following completion of the test online, an interpretation report is generated which will support the user in understanding the results.
Benefits of SJTs to the Candidate
- Positive perception – Candidates are more often able to immediately recognise the job-relevance of SJTs and have greater understanding of why they are being used in the assessment process.
- Enhanced employer brand – As candidates have better insight into the recruitment process and its application, the SJTs can enhance their impressions of the employer’s brand.
- Realistic expectations – SJTs allow candidates to decide whether the job is in line with their expectations and if they wish to continue with the application process.
Bespoke or Customised Situational Judgement Test (SJT)
Whilst Pearson TalentLens offers cost effective, reliable, off the shelf options for measuring a candidates ability to react in realistic work scenarios, we recognise that a customised or bespoke test can sometimes be preferred and/or required to map to a particular job role, for example, emergency services roles such as firefighter, police and paramedic. Or a role that covers multiple disciplines.
Some organisations like to customise the SJT in a way that reflects the company’s behaviours, whilst identifying a person’s ‘Fit’ to task and role. They may also find it helpful to use an SJT alongside a personality/values psychometric tool such as the SOSIE 2nd Generation. This provides them with an overall picture of the individual in terms of task ability and suitability to role alongside a person’s fit to the organisation’s values. These can be mapped beforehand making the result process more succinct and effective.
Our team develop bespoke SJTs according to best practice guidelines and in accordance with the criteria set out for test reviews by the British Psychological Society.