The Civil Service Success Profiles behaviours
The Civil Service recruits using Success Profiles, and behaviours are the element you meet first in the Fast Stream judgement tests. Knowing the nine behaviours and their official definitions gives you a dependable way to judge any action in a scenario.
The five elements of a Success Profile
GOV.UK sets out five elements in every Success Profile: ability, technical, behaviours, strengths and experience. Four of them carry a published definition:
- Ability: the aptitude or potential to perform to the required standard
- Behaviours: the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job
- Strengths: the things we do regularly, do well and that motivate us
- Experience: the knowledge or mastery of an activity or subject gained through involvement in or exposure to it
The nine Civil Service behaviours
| Behaviour | GOV.UK definition |
|---|---|
| Seeing the big picture | Understand how your role fits with and supports organisational objectives. Recognise the wider Civil Service priorities and ensure work is in the national interest. |
| Changing and improving | Seek out opportunities to create effective change and suggest innovative ideas for improvement. Review ways of working, including seeking and providing feedback. |
| Making effective decisions | Use evidence and knowledge to support accurate, expert decisions and advice. Carefully consider alternative options, implications and risks of decisions. |
| Leadership | Show pride and passion for public service. Create and engage others in delivering a shared vision. Value difference, diversity and inclusion, ensuring fairness and opportunity for all. |
| Communicating and influencing | Communicate purpose and direction with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. Respect the needs, responses and opinions of others. |
| Working together | Form effective partnerships and relationships with people both internally and externally, from a range of diverse backgrounds, sharing information, resources and support. |
| Developing self and others | Focus on continuous learning and development for self, others and the organisation as a whole. |
| Managing a quality service | Deliver service objectives with professional excellence, expertise and efficiency, taking account of diverse customer needs. |
| Delivering at pace | Take responsibility for delivering timely and quality results with focus and drive. |
GOV.UK adds that behaviours are specific to the grade level of the job role and that recruiting managers choose a selection of behaviours best suited to each role: you are never asked to demonstrate all nine for one job.
How behaviours are assessed
GOV.UK lists the ways behaviours can be assessed, at various stages of recruitment:
- an application form requiring written examples
- the Civil Service judgement test
- a personality test
- an interview
- an assessment centre
- job-related simulations such as a presentation, an in-tray exercise, a written analysis, a group discussion, a role-play or an oral briefing
In some assessments you give examples of when you demonstrated a behaviour, at work or elsewhere, such as work experience, volunteering or a hobby. In others, such as situational judgement tests, you are asked how you would behave in a given situation.
Behaviours in judgement scenarios
In a judgement scenario each action either shows a behaviour well or undermines it. Four behaviours decide most keys, and they are the ones CivilPrep trains:
- Making effective decisions: the strong action uses the evidence available and weighs options and risks before acting.
- Working together: the strong action involves the right people and shares information rather than working around colleagues.
- Communicating and influencing: the strong action is clear and honest, and respects the views of the people affected.
- Delivering at pace: the strong action takes responsibility and moves the work forward on time without cutting corners.
Written examples and interviews: the STAR method
For the stages where you describe your own examples, GOV.UK suggests the STAR method, which lets you set the scene, show what you did and how, and give the overall outcome. It also notes that there is no expectation to demonstrate every part of each example behaviour to be successful.
Put the behaviours to work
Every CivilPrep scenario names the behaviour it tests and explains each action against it, so the definitions above become second nature. See it for yourself in the free practice test, then read our situational judgement tips.