Gaining confidence when applying for Civil Service Jobs Introductions Melanie Wedgwood (Recruitment and Resource) And Rhian Morgan (HR Business Partner) Vehicle Leadership Academy Where do I find about about a job • Civil service jobs • Jobs of the week • How do I sign up? Vehicle Leadership Academy The CV How to format and structure your CV Content: • Detail your career history detailing the responsibilities and duties which should demonstrate relevance to the role you are currently applying for. • Showcase yourself include a section on significant achievements or projects you have taken a significant lead on • You may be asked to detail any qualifications and relevant training you have completed • The CV section should be relevant to the role you are applying, I recommend no more than one side of A4. • Ensure you have a clear understanding of the role and requirements • You will be able to expand your suitability for the role within the personal statement section Vehicle Leadership Academy How to format and structure your CV Structure: • Language which is clearly linked to the advertised role will grab the shortlisting panel’s attention • Put yourself in the Vacancy Holder’s shoes • The shortlisting panel are looking to assess your capability for the role • Bullet points are a great way to detail information Example: Original: My duties included managing staff, negotiating contracts, and supporting departmental policies, goals, objectives and procedures. Suggested: Duties: • Managed a team of 100 employees • Negotiated contracts with a wide range of stakeholders • Established and implemented departmental policies, goals, objectives and procedures Vehicle Leadership Academy DVSA (Aug 2020 – Present) VSA – Vehicle Standards Assessor • Conduct annual test inspections • Record results digitally and issue documentations • Offer advice on vehicle safety and maintenances • Ensure larger vehicles are safe to be on Britain’s roadss • Contribute to the safety of all road users • Travel to a number of 3rd party testing facilities Kwik Fit (Jan 2014 – Jul 2020) Workshop Mechanic • Diagnosing vehicle faults manually or with the aid of software and digital tools • Preparing cost and time estimates for work done • Repairing and replacing faulty vehicle parts • Performing test drives to check repairs • Carrying out scheduled servicing and maintenance • Updating vehicle service records • Installing and fitting new vehicle accessories • Maintaining a database of spare parts in the repair garage Massey Wilcox (Mar 2010 – Jan 2014) Class 1 Articulated Driver • General haulage class 1 driver for timed collection and delivery of palletised goods Wiltshire Concrete (Jan 2008 – Mar 2010) Class 2 Tipper Driver • Making timed collection and deliveries of aggregates in the Wiltshire area whilst adhering to strict health and safety regulations Profile: • Excellent understanding of the principles of vehicle mechanics • Knowledge of engineering technology • Working knowledge of repair tools and machinery • Manual dexterity • Good physical fitness and stamina • Experience of problem - solving • Excellent Customer service skills • Attention to detail • Qualifications • BTEC/ City and Guilds in Vehicle Technology • IRTEC – Inspection Technician, Advanced Technician Achievements: • Involvement in any projects • Developed and implemented any new initiatives • Contribution to any pilot schemes Dyson (Aug 2006 – Present) HR Administration Team Leader • Leading a team of 7 HR administrators, organising rota’s of work and being the first point of escalation • Auditing HR data, looking at solutions and training for repeat issues • Leading payroll activities • Driving process changes and improvements • Pension system and benefit administration • Worked alongside HR Ops, Business Analysts and other stakeholders (commercial, digital...) to map out processes and lead on implementing changes to improve efficiency • Jisc (Jul 2000 – Jul 2006) People Services Officer • Delivering a proactive service relating to the entire life cycle of people matters • Ensuring issues are spotted ahead of time and resolved in a solution - based manner and processes are executed appropriately and in a timely manner • Assisting people services partner in providing streamlined, modern, professional and flexible people services aligned to business plans and needs • Ensuring pay related matters and transactions are managed accurately and efficiently for around 500 employees • Ensuring a first - class service is provided to internal customers • Delivering a pro - active, progressive, innovative and customer - focused recruitment and administration function, ensuring that all new staff have an excellent on - boarding experience • Assisting and delivering project work as required Profile: • Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and influencing skills combined with good technical knowledge of HR Administration • Builds collaborative relationships via credible, sustained engagement • Strong and engaging stakeholder relationships with senior management working alongside and liaising directly with the whole organisation • Relationship - focused with expertise managing particularly challenging situations, stakeholders and programmes; acts with integrity and candour to function as a trusted professional; uses operational experience to challenge existing thinking • Strong advocate of using industry information/trends to identify issues and trends and find operational solutions to ensure successful operational delivery • CIPD Level 5 Qualified Achievements: • Changed and improved staff rota system, more efficient logging of hours and less errors which resulted to payroll issues • Process recording; Set up tracking of types of processes HR cover, provided links to information available, documented where process notes exist and who is trained on them • Successful completion of project to ensure each HR process has desk instructions • Payroll activities; Set up process flow charts and documents and created communication documents Lets have a go Start to draft a CV based on your skills and experience Vehicle Leadership Academy Personal statement Personal Statement • A personal statement allows you to outline your suitability for the role • It should expand on the CV, adding your personal qualities. • The statement should include examples of ‘how’ and ‘what’ you have done, but not as a behaviour example. • A personal statement usually has a word count of between 250 and 1250 words. Vehicle Leadership Academy Personal Statement • Read the job advert thoroughly, it may include the specific points that the vacancy holder wants your statement to cover. • Tailor your personal statement to the role and to the essential criteria detailed in the job description • Consider the structure of the statement • Get a someone you trust and who will be honest with you to read your application. • Check that spelling and grammar mistakes have been corrected • Make sure that you have anonymised your statement Vehicle Leadership Academy Good example of a Personal Statement My prime objective is to ensure we deliver fair and consistent driving tests, consistently, from each team member. I have als o e nsured that my sector remains as efficient and effective as possible. Your experience of using your effective leadership skills to lead a team to meet a common objective My wealth of experience in Operational and Administrative roles has equipped me with the skills to be an effective and inclusive leader. I improved the performance of my team, with 90 % exceeding their targets. The ways in which I achieved this were: One of my team continuously failed their call monitoring t arg ets, delivering incorrect information to customers and not doing daily checks. I addressed this by having an open/honest 121, identifying areas for improvement, I designed a Personal Develop me nt Plan, supporting them to meet objectives successfully. I went back to basics, simplified processes and learning materials and checklists. I a rra nged additional training with our and temporarily reduced the queries they dealt with to help alleviate pressure. I considered the potential impact on the end user; ensuring q ual ity over quantity. Reducing duties ensured more time for upskilling and development to help mitigate some of the issues. I assigned my colleague a Mentor. I documented and d isc ussed in great detail SMART goals, this would help to create realistic and achievable goals in a formatted way. I also signposted information for a Wellbeing champion and details of the EAS support mechanisms. The Development plan was a success, the monitoring scores increased (93%) and they met their objectives within the specified 3 mo nth s. I strive to incorporate inclusion, diversity and fairness to all, working hard to create a talented workforce by leading and sup porting my team to meet our common objectives, whilst my passion for public service improves the service we offer. Your experience of dealing with and handling customer complaints and taking them through to resolution Dealing with/handling customer complaints was a substantial part of my previous Managerial role, dealing with approx. 3 - 4 compla ints daily. An unsuccessful candidate claimed an examiner ‘pulled them up, far too many times; trying to catch them out.’ I used my Examiner expertise/knowledge when dealing with test complaints. I actively listened to the candidate, obtained their point of view and considered my Examiner view - point before reaching my decision (based on evidence, logical and factual information). It became apparent that they had not been practicing ‘pulling up in a safe place’ and that their ADI had not explained that this was normal practice. I apologised that they felt this way, assured them that our examiners are trained to an extremely high standard and explained each legal requirement carried out on test. I signposted the customer to our DVSA Driving videos to prepare them for their next test. The complaint was withdrawn. Numerous complaints regarding similar scenarios also came to light. To improve awareness, I liaised with Senior Management to de velop, implement, maintain and review current complaints systems. To ensure the consistent delivery of professional excellence, I: held focus groups, team - briefings a nd Q&A sessions to develop suggestions for improvements. Establishing ways to find/respond to customer feedback regarding the service we provide. A new policy was intro duc ed, signposting unsuccessful candidates to DVSA Driving Test resources, resulting in a reduction of complaints. Vehicle Leadership Academy Low scoring example of a Personal Statement Your experience of using your effective leadership skills to lead a team to meet a common objective I am a team player and have experience of leading a team. I have had many opportunities to lead a team to help them complete a p roject or piece of work. I feel I am a great leader and have the skills and experience to successfully deliver objectives. Working on various projects in the past, I have been given substantial feedback on my role and how I helped to make it a succ ess Being a leader is an important role, without leadership people have no direction and I ensure I work with my team to ensure t his Your experience of dealing with and handling customer complaints and taking them through to resolution I regularly deal with customer complaints on a daily basis, from beginning to end. It’s integral to my role to ensure these a re handle efficnelty and effectively, resolving at the first given opportunity. I use the complaint process to work through complaints to make sure I do them correctly. I have received thanks from customers on how I have dealt with their complaints. Having a thorough complaint procedure is a benefit for all organisations. Vehicle Leadership Academy Top tips • Give yourself enough time to put together a well thought out application • Bring the most relevant skills or experience to the top of your CV, choose your most powerful and relevant examples that demonstrate your suitability for the role • Tailor the CV and personal statement to the role and align to essential criteria; don’t use the same version for all roles • Avoid using Jargon and Acronyms • Check your spelling and grammar before submitting • Clearly state how you completed the tasks/roles/responsibilities listed. Shortlisting panels will want to know what you personally did within the examples provided, avoid using WE. • The use of verbs – Developed, delivered, negotiated, established and implemented. These make for a better overall impression • Ask someone to review your application before submitting, giving their opinion on the content, flow and structure Vehicle Leadership Academy Lets have a go Lets go back to the advert and pick one of the criteria listed and see if you can do a 250 word example. Vehicle Leadership Academy Lets have a go For your personal statement, please use the word count of 1000 words to provide evidence of when you have: • Experience of handling and resolving customer complaints. • Knowledge of Vehicle Testing; schemes and processes. • Data analysis skills; able to interpret data and information to make sound decisions. • Expert knowledge of technical components and their operation, in sufficient depth be able to test the technical knowledge of others: Vehicle structure, Vehicle braking systems, Suspension systems, Steering systems (including geometry), Running Gear/Power Train, Chassis, Tyres, Lighting/electrical Vehicle Leadership Academy Success Profiles What are Success Profiles Vehicle Leadership Academy What are Success Profiles • Information can be found at Success Profiles - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) • Read the Behaviours dictionary, for the Behaviours you are being tested on. • Keep examples of work that you have done, so that you don’t have to think later. Vehicle Leadership Academy