Royal Mail Assessment Tests

Careers at Royal Mail

Working at Royal Mail is more than just delivery of post. There are roles available for both early careers and experienced professionals across the following business areas:

• Posting and sorting
• Drivers
• Operations management
• Facilities
• Technology
• Head Office
• Fleet maintenance
• Engineering

Early Careers at Royal Mail gives school, college and university leavers the opportunity to follow a structured development plan in their chosen career path. The Early Careers options include:

• Apprenticeships
• Summer internships
• Graduate programmes

Royal Mail applications are straightforward, and for most permanent roles there are several well-defined stages that must be passed to progress.

At each stage, it is beneficial to bear in mind the values that Royal Mail want to see in employees:

• Be Positive
• Be Brilliant
• Be Part of It

Throughout the application process, you will be kept abreast of your progress via email, and the process itself is relatively short.

One of the most important parts of the Royal Mail application process is the online assessment, so this is where you should focus your preparation. Royal Mail runs it on its own branded assessment portal, published by Clevry, formerly Criterion Partnership. It pairs a situational judgement test and timed reasoning tests with an untimed personality questionnaire.

Royal Mail online application form

The online application form will take about 20–40 minutes to complete, and is used to gather information about your experience and qualifications, as well as contact information.

In the form you can expect to find text boxes where you will be asked some questions about why you have applied for the role, as well as details about the experience that you have and how it relates to what the role is looking for.

The details of the role are provided in the job description, and this is a great source of information to allow you to highlight the most appropriate parts of your CV and experience in the right way.

Royal Mail Aptitude Tests

Royal Mail numerical reasoning test

The numerical reasoning test is not about your maths ability, but rather your ability to interpret data and find a conclusion.

You will have 90 seconds to look at a presentation of numerical data in the form of a table or graph. Then, you will have just 75 seconds per question to find the right answer from a number of possibilities.

Basic mathematical operators based on simple maths knowledge are used, but this assessment is more about how you can use numbers to make reasoned decisions.

Royal Mail logical reasoning test

Logical reasoning tests assess your ability to reach conclusions about non-verbal information. In these tests, you will be presented with a number of shapes in a sequence, and you need to find the missing shape from a number of possible answers.

This assessment requires you to quickly find the pattern that informs the sequence, so speed and accuracy are important.

Royal Mail verbal reasoning test

The Royal Mail verbal reasoning test is an assessment of a candidate’s ability to read, understand and apply information presented in text to answer questions related to the text.

Two or three passages with facts, figures and information are provided. These might be business-related or not (there is no necessity to have learned anything beforehand). All of the information needed to answer the question is provided in the given text; you just have to find it.

Royal Mail personality test

The personality test is the only Royal Mail test that is untimed, and there are no right or wrong answers.

Here you will be provided with a number of statements describing personality traits and behaviours, and you’ll have to mark them on a scale depending on how much you agree with them. The scale is marked from “Completely Disagree” to “Completely Agree”.

Every candidate will take a personality test, and the answers given are compared to an ‘ideal candidate’, a persona based on the behaviours and personality traits that Royal Mail seeks in its employees.

Royal Mail error checking test

An eye for detail is what is being assessed here; hence the Royal Mail error checking tests are usually used for posting and sorting office roles.

In this assessment, you will be provided with a postcode or address, and need to find the one that matches it amongst a number of very similar options. Performed under test conditions and time pressure, this skill is something that is vital for certain positions.

Royal Mail assessment centre

The assessment centre is the final part of the application process. Around a dozen applicants are invited at a time to one of the Royal Mail offices, to complete several in-person assessments.

The assessment day lasts between four to six hours, and the contents of the day will depend on the role you have applied for. Listed below are some of the activities that you might take part in:

Royal Mail group exercise

Assessing teamwork and leadership, the group project is usually based on a case study where a problem needs to be solved. This might involve a Royal Mail-related issue or something else, and candidates will be assessed on how well they work with others and take control to find a solution.

Royal Mail individual exercise

Following the group exercise and using the same case study, each individual needs to prepare and present their solution to the group. This is an assessment of public speaking and communication, as much as it is a way to see how each candidate motivates themselves.

Royal Mail role play

Depending on the job description, dealing with the public (and colleagues) means being able to provide excellent service. Through a role play task, the assessor can get an idea about how you might approach a complaint or a difficult question.

At the start of the exercise, you will be provided with a packet of information about the scenario that you will be dealing with.

Royal Mail interview

The final interview of the Royal Mail application process usually takes about an hour, and is led by a hiring manager as well as a senior member of the team you have applied to.

The majority of the questions asked in the interview will be competency-based, but you can also expect some job-specific and technology questions too. This is a great time to ask considered questions that demonstrate both your interest in the role, as well as the research you have completed about Royal Mail in general.