Interdepartmental Higher Executive Officer 2020 - (Serving Civil Servants ONLY)

ilovethistles wrote: »

I don’t think there is any need to make fun of this person’s statement.
It is exactly what I understood happens from previous competitions.

It is known as positive discrimination and is used all the time as a method for inclusivity and equality.

Positive discrimination is an oxymoron but it can be legal.
However it is only considered appropriate when other 'soft options' have been exhausted such as targeted advertising and is for a protected characteristic that is under represented.

Good luck arguing that positive discrimination is appropriate for HEO positions where the benefitting gender already makes up the majority of employees.

Anyway, this is way off topic, perhaps the discussion should be started in a new thread and leave this for those wanting to get information on the competition.

Goodlucktoall wrote: »

Numerical not being scored is nothing to do wit gender balance ... it is to do with the fact that some people were getting 100% in maths .... all of the high math scorers ended up top of panel ... but lacked people skills .... civil service ended up wit mgrs that had not good people mgr skills ... that is why numerical score is not counted ...

Well, that's another theory, which on the face of it would seem to make some sense.

But surely you could say the same about verbal, such that the Civil Service would end up with managers who are good with the written word, but who also lack people skills. So why not disregard that as well, and just rank people on the SJT tests that we're doing?

I hope it’s ok to ask but what format are the questions in? Are they highly undesirable - highly desirable or are they pick the best answer

Just for those talking about perceived sexism, that may well be the case at PO level and above to address massive under-representation of women at those grades but I'd say* 60%+ of HEOs are already women, so it makes no sense and frankly doesn't exist.

*ESRI study in 2017 had it at 58%. It's probably clicked up a few points since then.

doc22 wrote: »

But I'd say the CS 70+% of the CS are women:pac:

Not far off it, but 60% at HEO level isn't an issue. There are something like 73% proportion of CO's, but I think it's fair to say a higher proportion of female CO's have no interest in entering promotion competitions anyway.

This thread has gone off topic a bit.

I have a question for anyone who has sat the SJT already. How accurate is the example given in the pre-test information booklet? Do you get the 6 options to rate from 'Highly Undesirable' to 'Highly Desirable'? This means you could give two statements the same rating if you wanted to.

lucat wrote: »

This thread has gone off topic a bit.

I have a question for anyone who has sat the SJT already. How accurate is the example given in the pre-test information booklet? Do you get the 6 options to rate from 'Highly Undesirable' to 'Highly Desirable'? This means you could give two statements the same rating if you wanted to.

Yes this is correct you can give two or more statements the same rating. It was quite straightforward, only one scenario's responses threw me a bit.

lucat wrote: »

Thanks, that's a relief! My default position would be that you can give the same rating but you shouldn't. Was that your impression? Or were there some that were obviously meant to be the same one?

I had one scenario where I gave three the same rating. I don't think they should all have different but that is just my view, I'm no expert and it's my first HEO competition.

Dublintigger wrote: »

Hi Folks

Staying on track here - I have just completed the sample test in Sova, can I ask those who have done the online test - is the layout/format the same?

Or is the layout/ format the same as the Info booklet on page 9?

Also - when I did the test, there was no feedback as how I did in the sample? So how will I know if I am on the right path?

Sorry I didn't do any tests ones so I'm not much help. All i can say is there is a scenario followed by a number of statements of actions you would take based on the scenerio. You rate each scenario with one of 6 options-
Highly undesirable, undesirable, slightly undesirable, slightly desirable, desirable, highly desirable. Best of luck.

RC01 wrote: »

Sorry I didn't do any tests ones so I'm not much help. All i can say is there is a scenario followed by a number of statements of actions you would take based on the scenerio. You rate each scenario with one of 6 options-
Highly undesirable, undesirable, slightly undesirable, slightly desirable, desirable, highly desirable. Best of luck.

Thank you.

Did anyone do the pre test samples?

Dublintigger wrote: »

Thank you.

Did anyone do the pre test samples?

I did pretests but like yourself no results from the shl one 🀷*♀️

Did the 1(b) just there. Some questions I had same answer for one or two of them like others have mentioned previously. Hopefully I did enough to pass. Would anyone have a rough idea of how long we will have to wait before getting results for 1(a) and 1 (b)?

Dublintigger wrote: »

Well done - how did you find it and did it take you long to do it?
Any hints or tips that you can share?

I did practice ones but they were a different format to what the test actually was so not sure if it was much use.
The scenarios are you as a manager so you have to think what scenarios are most desirable, desirable, slightly undesirable, etc., if you were already a heo. Hope this helps

In relation to the link that is in the email we received from PAS, can you access it more than once, as in, can I go look at the material today and then do the actual test tomorrow? Also, just wanted to double-check, is this test timed? MTIA.