Situational Strengths Test

What is a situational strengths test?

A situational strengths test puts you in a realistic workplace scenario and asks how you would respond. Some versions ask you to pick the action you are most and least likely to take. Others give you several possible actions and ask you to rate how effective each one would be.

The word doing the work in the name is strengths. The UK Civil Service, which publishes its own guidance on strengths-based assessment, defines a strength as something you perform to a high standard, do regularly, and feel motivated and energised by. All three have to be true at once. Being competent at something you quietly dread is not a strength by that definition, and these tests are built to tell the difference.

That is why the assessment cuts both ways. It is measuring whether you fit the role, but it is also, if you read your own answers honestly, telling you whether the role fits you. Scoring well on a profile you would not enjoy living in is not a good result.

Why do employers use situational strengths tests?

Because they predict fit for a specific role better than a CV does, and because they can be run at volume early in a process.

Results are reported differently from employer to employer, quantitatively, qualitatively or as a mix of both, and are used to see who is likely to perform well in that particular role rather than in the abstract.

There is a fairness argument as well. Every candidate answers the same scenarios and is measured against the same profile, so the assessment is less exposed to differences in background, education or interview polish than a conversation is. The UK Civil Service builds strengths into its Success Profiles recruitment framework for that reason, and says strengths can be assessed through interviews, recorded video interviews, bespoke situational strengths tests, simulation assessments and personality tests.

What format does a situational strengths test take?

There is no single standard format. Test publishers build each version around the strengths one employer has chosen, so the number of scenarios, the response style and the length all vary. Anyone quoting you a fixed question count is describing one employer’s test, not the format.

What is consistent is the response style. You will either rate how effective each possible action would be, or choose the actions you are most and least likely to take. Delivery is usually online, occasionally as part of an assessment centre, and some employers use video scenarios in place of written ones.

Two versions are published in enough detail to be useful reference points. The Civil Service Work Strengths Test is the first, and its structure is set out in the FAQs below. BT Group is the other name candidates ask about most: its own graduate careers pages describe an online assessment of five text questions and one 90 second video question, aimed at understanding your potential and your approach to learning and working. BT says it typically takes 30 to 35 minutes, has no time limit, and can be paused and resumed, and that candidates receive a personalised feedback report covering their key behavioural strengths. BT does not itself call it a situational strengths test, so treat that name as candidate shorthand rather than an official label.

Which strengths do situational strengths tests assess?

The strengths being scored are chosen by the employer, and they are usually stated in the job advert or role profile. Read it before you sit the test. It is effectively the mark scheme.

The ones that recur across employers:

Communication. Explaining something clearly in writing and in person, and adjusting how you say it to suit who is hearing it.

Analytical thinking. Working through complex or incomplete information and reaching a conclusion you can defend, rather than the comfortable one.

Collaboration. Working with people whose approach differs from yours, and being straightforward with them when it matters.

Organisation. Handling competing deadlines and telling people about a problem before it lands on them.

Commercial awareness. Understanding what the organisation is trying to achieve, and letting that shape the decision.

Resilience. Staying effective when something goes wrong or your decision is challenged.

The Civil Service assesses different strengths depending on the level of the job, from analytical and problem-solving strengths through to strategic ones, so the same test name can mean a different profile at a different grade.

If a strength is named in the job description and you cannot recall a time you used it willingly, that is worth noticing before you apply rather than after.

Three worked situational strengths questions

For each scenario, decide which of the four options you would be most likely to take and which you would be least likely to take, then read the reasoning.

Question 1

You have been at a client’s site all week as part of an audit team. You have been working long hours but the team has made a lot of progress. It is now mid-afternoon on Friday and you check your emails before leaving. There is one that stands out as it is from a small but growing client that you have been working with very closely for the last 6 months. You have a good relationship with the person who sent the email. They have a question which they need the answer to as a matter of urgency. The response will require you to access a number of files at your own office before you can respond in full. What would your next step be?

A) Respond to the email as best you can before leaving without having access to the key files and tell the client that you will double check everything first thing on Monday.

B) Call the client immediately to find out exactly when they need the information by. If they do need it this evening you can pop back to the office and talk them through the key information and then provide a more in-depth written response on Monday.

C) Reply immediately telling the client that you need to get more information for them before you can give them an answer in full and with that in mind you will get back to them first thing on Monday morning as a priority.

D) Leave the email for now and deal with it first thing on Monday morning. The client will have received your out of office response anyway and may have contacted a colleague already.

B for most likely. Calling establishes what the client actually needs and by when, which the email alone does not tell you. It also recognises that even a verbal answer has to be correct, and the files you need are back at the office.

D for least likely. You have worked closely with this client for six months, so it is you they are asking. Leaving the email until Monday is the one option that answers neither the deadline nor the relationship.

Question 2

You are a trainee teacher doing a placement at a secondary school and you have been asked to devise a healthy eating initiative that can be deployed across years 6 and 7. You have slots in your timetable that you can use for this work, however, the head of year 7 approaches you and asks if you would support one of her students on a one-to-one basis for the next few months as a matter of urgency. You know the student in question and in your experience, the time you have been asked to support her is likely to increase. Working with her would eat into the time you have available for the healthy eating initiative but you think it could all be achievable if you do some work in your own time and if nothing else comes up.

A) Explain that you have other priorities right now but suggest that as soon as you complete the healthy eating initiative you could start working with the student in question.

B) Tell the head of year 7 that you would love to work with this student on a one to one basis and look for other opportunities to work on the healthy eating initiative.

C) Agree to support the student but say that if the time required to support her should grow then the head of year 7 will need to find someone else to work with her.

D) Explain that you have a lot on at the moment but suggest that you could help the head of year 7 to find someone else who may be able to support this student.

B for most likely. Both pieces of work are feasible if you plan the time, and taking on the student does not mean abandoning the healthy eating initiative. What is being tested is whether you commit and then monitor, keeping your manager informed if the student turns out to need more of your time.

D for least likely. The head of year 7 asked you specifically, which means she thinks you can do it. Offering to find someone else looks helpful but solves a problem she does not have, and it declines the opportunity without saying so.

Question 3

A recommendations report you have been working on for your manager has given you the opportunity to really understand how the commercial side of the business is structured and how it operates. As you draw your conclusions you have a feeling that there may be scope to apply the new practices you have recommended more widely across the business.

You have been working on the same project for some time now and will be glad to move on to something else plus, you know your manager is keen to get the report from you so that the new practices can be implemented. The likely impact and benefits of the changes across the wider business are smaller than in your own area and you are not completely sure whether it will work anyway. Which of the following options would you choose to do?

A) Conduct some extra research in your own time to try and look at the likely benefits before discussing with anyone else.

B) Ask your manager what they think and whether it is worth investing any more time.

C) Dismiss the idea as it is only a feeling and you are all keen to get the project finished anyway.

D) Tell other managers in the business about your ideas so that they can choose whether to implement them in their own areas.

A for most likely. At this point you have a feeling, not a finding. A little extra research either confirms it or does not, and either way you enter the conversation with more than an instinct behind you.

C for least likely. Dismissing the idea because it is only a feeling ignores the research you have already done, and it treats your own work as though it stops at the boundary of your project.