Situational Judgement Test

Situational judgement tests have become a common element of the recruitment process in contemporary times. This type of test allows employers the assess a sizeable group of candidates by providing them with multiple-choice questions to analyze their responses to a varied range of these situations. Situational judgement test is among the popular types of aptitude tests that employers utilise to select the best candidates for different job profiles. Through this blog, we have collated a list of top questions asked in a Situational Judgement Test as well as tips and tricks that can help you ace it!

What is a Situational Judgement Test?

In a situational judgement test, the candidates are offered a wide variety of scenarios related to the daily challenges encountered in workplaces and different environments. For every situation, there are an array of responses provided and you’ll be asked to rate the effectiveness of each response in a given situation. The recruiter will assess your response and evaluate your profile accordingly by analysing your problem-solving and critical-thinking skills and how they align with the job profile you are applying for. 

Why is It Conducted?

Similar to psychometric tests, a Situational Judgement Test assists recruiters in critically evaluating how responsive the candidate is to a wide range of workplace situations. It plays a pivotal role in gauging a prospective employee’s reactions to different situations and how effectively they can work in favour of the organisational goals and objectives. It helps the employer understand the candidates as prospective employees and evaluate a varied set of skills from teamwork, critical thinking, and analytical thinking to problem-solving and interpersonal communication skills in the context of the workplace environment.

Situational Judgement Test: Sample Questions 

Situation 1: Many businesses find it advantageous to hire students over the summer. Permanent employees frequently want to take their own vacation at this time. Furthermore, it is very unusual for businesses to encounter peak workloads throughout the summer, necessitating the hiring of additional personnel. Summer work also draws students who may return to an organisation as well-qualified recruits once they have completed their school. Ensuring that students understand as much as possible about the organisation fosters interest in long-term employment. Organizations pay students a flat salary with no rights to paid holidays or bonus programmes.

1. It is possible that permanent staff who are on holiday can have their work carried out by students.

a. True 

b. False

c. cannot say 

2. Students in summer employment are given the same paid holiday benefit as permanent staff.

a. True 

b. False

c. cannot say 

3. Students are subject to the organisation’s standard disciplinary and grievance procedures.

a. True 

b. False

c. cannot say 

4. Some companies have more work to do in the summer when students are available for vacation work.

a. True 

b. False

c. cannot say 

Answers: True, False, Cannot say, True

Situation 2: You arrived at work this morning to discover that everyone in your workplace, except you, had received a new office chair. What are you going to do? Please choose one of the following choices, indicating the most and least effective:

1. Complain vehemently to your coworkers about how unjust the situation is
2. Speak with your boss and inquire as to why you have yet to obtain a replacement chair.
3. Take a chair from one of your colleagues
4. Complain to HR about your unjust treatment
5. Quit your work

Answer: Most effective: option b and lease effective is option e

Situation 3: You’ve been assigned a project to work on alongside a team member who is younger than you. They are in charge of conducting the research, while you are in charge of compiling all of the facts to offer to a customer. The presentation is incorrect since the team’s junior member appears to have made several research errors. You have a customer presentation this afternoon, and you also have other tasks that require your attention today. What are you going to do about it? Please choose the option that you are most likely to do and the option that you are least likely to do:

1. Inform the junior member of staff that they have made a mistake and must correct it immediately.
2. Inform your management that the younger member of staff is incompetent.
3. Present the erroneous information regardless in the hopes that the consumer would not notice.
4. Postpone your other commitments and make the necessary adjustments yourself.
5. Collaborate with the younger members of staff to iron out the errors.

Answer: most likely: option e and least likely: option c

Situational Judgement Test Practice Questions

To be fully prepared for your job interview, you must go through the commonly asked questions in a Situational Judgement Test. To help you further with your research, here are some of the top Situational Judgement questions you must practice before taking the test:

1. You’re heading a management department but lately, you’re thinking to include new ways and methods of working that, you think, would bring considerable and effective change in the work environment. There are certain employees who do not agree with this change. What would you say to them? 

2. You’re an employer of the company where you have worked for five years, and now you suddenly find yourself in the midst of conflict with your supervisor over a project you’re working on. The supervisor isn’t sanctioning the project because it is too risky. What would you do?

3. You’re heading a department and a company has asked you to work in collaboration for a certain project with another person who heads a different department but he is constantly undermining your work? How would you respond to him?

4. As a team leader, you’re constantly engaged in working on different tasks with your team. In the midst of a certain project, the company asks every employee to rate their team leaders. Some of the members of your team rate you as average. How would that affect the project and your relationship with the team?

5. You’re working in a management department and it also employs your friend in the same department. You both work in the same position. You’ve more work experience than him but he is more efficient and qualified. The company has decided to promote him as your supervisor. What would be your response?

6. An employee working in a sales department is providing false information about a product to a client. His performance has recently been on the decline so he wants to improve his employment graph. What would be your response?

7. You’ve established rules for the team but that is making some of its members uncomfortable. But these results ensure great results. If you don’t bend the rules they will quit your team. What would you do?

While exploring these Situational Judgement Test questions, check out Aptitude Questions & Answers!

8. You’re in a company meeting where everybody is proposing different strategies for a marketing campaign. But whenever you propose a strategy a senior employee disagrees with you. He is doing this for a month now in every meeting. How would you respond to him?

9. A person you know is applying for a job opening in the company you’re working for. You know he has forged his credentials but he is going through financial problems. What are you going to do?

10. One of the employees in your department is constantly showing a decline in performance but previously he has achieved great results for the company. He is a loyal and trusted employee of the company. What would you do?

11. You’re working at a contact center, and a client is grumbling about the service they received. They are enraged and yelling. How do you handle this situation? Please rank the following choices in order of most to least appropriate:
    • Tell the consumer to relax since you are not to blame for the terrible service they have got.
    • Hang up on them — it’s not your responsibility to listen to people who are yelling.
    • Pay attention to what they have to say and empathize with them.
    • Pass the call on to management — they’re not going to listen to you.
    • Accept what they’re saying and pledge to offer them exactly what they’re looking for.

12. You work as a team leader at a customer service center. You just overheard a member of your team advising a customer that they were “overreacting” and that they should “see a mental professional.” You’re not sure what the customer’s call was about, but the conversation has ended and you now have the opportunity to talk with the staff. In your opinion, which is the ‘most’ and which is the ‘least’ effective in the current circumstance?
    • Inform the employee that you have no choice except to suggest firing.
    • Inform your employees that you will be collaborating with them to improve their performance over the following three months.
    • Request that the employee repeat the procedure.
    • Ignore the employee’s behaviour and hope they don’t make the same mistakes again.

13. It’s a Tuesday morning, and a coworker in the stationery department is off ill. At 11 a.m., you’re on your way to the staff room for a brief tea break when you notice that the stationery department is in a state of chaos. Things have fallen and been left on the floor, shelves are disorganized, and some products are on the incorrect shelf. Examine the replies A–D and indicate which one you feel is the reaction to the scenario you would be “most likely to make” and which one you believe is the response to the situation you would be “least likely to make.”
    • Take your tea break, and then on your way back, hastily tie up a few loose ends if they are still in a mess.
    • Return to your area and ask your team leader if you may assist out with stationery for 10 or 15 minutes. If agreed, assist the stationery team leader in rapidly cleaning up the area before taking your tea break at 11:30 a.m.
    • Don’t do anything. The head of the stationery team most likely has everything under control and will deal with it soon. It’s reasonable if there’s a bit of a shambles because someone is gone, and you don’t want to offend the stationery team by bringing it up.
    • Inform the stationery team leader that there is an issue with the section’s presentation.

14. On a busy Saturday afternoon, you’re working the till. You are working on the main bank of tills near the shop’s exit, where clients from all across the store may come to buy their products. Suddenly, the credit card transaction system fails, and one of the team leaders informs you that it will be 15 minutes before the system provider can resolve the issue. A large line of customers is forming. Examine the replies A–D and indicate which one you feel is the reaction to the scenario you would be “most likely to make” and which one you believe is the response to the situation you would be “least likely to make.”
    • Speak with the team leader about sending someone down the line of customers to tell them of the situation and how long it will take to remedy it. Customers will not have to wait in line if they do not have cash or a cheque-book with them.
    • Continue to serve clients while apologizing for the lack of credit card payment options.
    • Inquire with the team leader about what you should do.
    • Take advantage of the chance for an afternoon tea break, as it looks like most consumers will have to return later when the system is operational again.

15. Princess Aurora has recently seen a large turnover of nursing assistants, with many departing to work at the privately-owned Sunnyside Hospital & Rehabilitation Clinic on the city’s outskirts. Leavers have claimed in departure interviews that they want to enhance their salary by leaving. Some of the leavers also noted that the private hospital’s picturesque setting and a wide choice of staff facilities, including the use of an indoor swimming pool, are appealing. You’ve been tasked with creating and implementing a recruiting drive to attract and hire ten new nursing assistants and trainee nursing assistants for the Trust. The ‘staying power’ of new hires will be one of your success indicators. You have four weeks until the nursing assistant applicant interviews begin. Examine replies A–D and indicate whether you feel the response is 1 – The most effective response, 2 – The second most effective response, 3 – The third most effective response, or 4 – The least effective response. Each rating can only be assigned once.
    • Place an ad in all relevant local media and online as soon as possible. Then, devote some effort to developing a shortlisting process that will find people with values that will convert into NHS loyalty.
    • Ask a member of the HR team what the procedure was the last time the Trust hired nursing assistants, and then follow that strategy.
    • Determine when you might need to publicize the positions by working back from the date of the interviews. In the meanwhile, use your discretion in creating an advertisement to try to attract people whose values indicate that they are more likely to remain loyal to the NHS.
    • Seek assistance from local recruitment advertising companies on how to write an ad that will attract people who are less likely to quit.

Tips to Ace a Situational Judgement Test

Now that you are familiar with the commonly asked questions in such tests, we have also curated a list of tips and tricks that can help you ace your situational judgement test: 

• Understand the type of questions asked from different scenarios to the varied responses you need to choose from.
• Practice as many mock tests as possible.
• Spend time studying solved situational judgement tests and make notes about how to effectively answer them.
• Analyze the common pattern that can be drawn from your answers as it will portray the type of employee you are and the personality traits you are bringing to the team and the organisation as a whole.
• Comprehend the job profile you are applying for and then find the best responses accordingly as your chosen answers must match the job description and skills the recruiter is looking for.

Also Read: How to Study for an Online Test?

FAQs

We hope this blog has helped you understand the quintessential elements, commonly asked questions as well as tips to crack a situational judgement test. Need professional guidance to actualise your career aspirations? Our Leverage Edu mentors are here to help you in resume structuring and profiling to ensure that you land your dream job and make informed decisions to steer towards a successful career! Sign up for an e-meeting with us today!