SUCCESS FACTOR QUESTIONS – STANDARD LEVEL
THINKING STRATEGICALLY
1. Describe the key aims of the department you currently work in, and how your
individual job contributes to the achievement of those aims.
2. How do you deal with problems that arise at work? Give an example.
3. What do you think are the most important aspects of your work? Why?
4. How do you determine the relative importance of the different tasks that you have to
do in your work?
+ve indicators
 Understands how own job contributes to the
aims of the organisation.
 Anticipates problems by planning ahead.
 Uses analytical techniques to resolve with
problems
-ve indicators
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Takes a short term approach – does not
anticipate
Shows little grasp of the bigger
organisational picture.
EMBRACING CHANGE
1. What has changed recently in your current job? How did you feel about it? Why?
2. What have you done recently in your current job that is new or different? Whose
ideas were they and what prompted them?
3. Tell us about a recent example where you have come up with ideas for doing things
differently, what did you do? What did others think about your ideas/changes?
4. Describe any changes or improvements that you have made in your current job,
How did you go about it? What was the result?
5. In your job/ life how do you demonstrate a passion for making a difference? Give an
example of how you have made a difference (job/life)
6. If you had absolute power what would you change about your current job? Why?
What difference would it make to your customers?
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+ve indicators
 Comes forward with new ideas and concepts.
 Develops and implements new ideas.
 Anticipates change and runs with it.
 Is able to achieve change at a personal/job
level
 Accepts that change is important and
required as part of improving and achieving
 Is supportive of others during change
 Willing to experiment
-ve indicators
Success Factor interview questions
Standard level
7. Give an example of how you have helped to implement changes or new ways of
working in your workplace. What difficulties did you face? How did you help to
encourage others to adopt the changes?
8. Describe a situation that demonstrates how you are willing to be flexible and to
experiment.
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2
Always sticks to tried and tested ways of
working
Feels threatened by change or new and
different things
Focuses on what is wrong rather than how to
improve things
Risk averse
Displays reluctance to get to grips with new
technologies and techniques
Success Factor interview questions
Standard level
GATHERING INFORMATION
1. Give an example of when you have spotted an error at work. What would the
consequences have been if you had not spotted it?
2. Give an example of when you have gathered, sorted and presented information at
work
+ve indicators
 Demonstrates awareness of the external
environment
 Able to sift data to identify that which is
significant, and to present effectively
-ve indicators
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Fails to look critically for information
Shows little awareness of, or interest in, the
impact that the work of others may have.
Does not question
Shows little interest in detail.
COMMUNICATING
Describe a recent situation when you needed to use different communication styles to get
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+ve indicators
Success Factor interview questions
Standard level
your message across and influence people.
How would you define good communication skills? Give an example of how you have
demonstrated good communication skills and how they helped you achieve the results you
needed.
Describe a presentation you have given. What were you proud of/what would you do
differently?
Describe a recent situation where you had to deal with a difficult or tricky situation that
required careful communication. How did you handle this?
What do you understand by the term „two way communication process‟? How do you ensure
that you demonstrate this in your own communication with others.
How do you ensure that people your work with/or your customers know what is expected of
them?
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 Clear and concise; gets the message across to
others.
 Chooses communication tools appropriately e.g.
selective use of emails and other channels of
communication.
 Can hold the attention of others and uses
appropriate techniques such as questioning,
changing tone and pace, animated style
 Tailors content to audience
 Factually correct
 Understands how best to appeal to the other
person/group and correctly interprets the right
way to approach a situation
 Puts forward own view whilst listening and
respecting the views and opinions of others
-ve indicators
o Lacks clarity, confuses messages
o Says different things to different people
o Only uses one method of communication
o Long winded
o Does not listen
o Mumbles is not clear
o Difficult to understand
Success Factor interview questions
Standard level
INFLUENCING
1. What do you do if a work colleague is doing something that makes it more difficult
for you to achieve your objective? Provide an example
2. Why should we offer this job to you?
3. What impact do you have on your work colleagues? What do they think of you ?
Why?
+ve indicators
 Presents a reasoned argument to the
colleague, explaining how a change can
help.

Presents a persuasive argument
 Demonstrates a realistic awareness of
impact on others
-ve indicators
 Does not make direct approach
 Does not provide reasons
 Unable to make a reasoned argument or to
present it in a persuasive manner
 Shows little awareness of impact on others
PROJECTING CONFIDENCE
1. Describe a recent problem at work. How did you respond to it?
2. Describe a recent problem with a customer. How did you resolve it?
3. What are the current challenges in your present job? Do they offer any opportunities
for you?
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+ve indicators
 Demonstrates interest
 Prepared to use intitaive
 Remained calm, but confident in own ability
to resolve issue
 Shows belief in own abilities
-ve indicators
Success Factor interview questions
Standard level
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Uninterested
Lacking confidence to take advantage of
opportunities or to resolve issues
DEVELOPING TALENT
1. Do you have an appraisal process in your current job? What do you get out of it?
2. What have you learnt over the last 12 months? How did that learning take place?
3. Do you have responsibility for the learning of any of your colleagues? How do you
ensure you meet that responsibility?
4. How do you rate your own abilities and performance? On what evidence? How may
it be improved?
5. What are your ambitions? How do you plan to achieve them?
6. How do you acquire a new skill or knowledge?
+ve indicators
 Values appraisal – puts in time & effort
 Positive attitude towards learning, accepts
personal responsibility for own development
 Accepts some responsibility for
learning/development of others
 Reflects on own performance and
acknowledges contribution of learning to
performance
 Keen to learn more
-ve indicators
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Displays little interest in appraisal or learning
Takes no personal responsibility for learning
– relies on training courses
Lacks ambition to learn
TEAM WORKING
+ve indicators
How do you describe effective team work?
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Success Factor interview questions
Standard level
What is the most successful team you have been a member of? What made it successful?
What part did you play?
Who do you involve in your decision making process? Describe an example of how
involving others helped you to make a difficult decision.
Describe a time when you had to work on a project with people outside of your immediate
work group. How were you successful in gaining their co-operation?
Provide an example of how you gain the co-operation of others?
What do you consider to be the advantages of working in a team? - use a real team
situation that you have been involved in to answer this question.
Use a recent example to describe your team working style and relationship with others.
 Shares relevant and useful information with
others
 Willing to help others and share workloads.
 Supportive of team decisions
 Asks others‟ opinions
 Respects the value that different views bring to
the team
 Gets involved with team tasks
 Respects the expertise and contribution of
others even if own opinion is different
 Shares praise with the team and passes on
credit
 Operates in a number of different teams
 Understands that differences in teams are
strengths
 Understands team roles and can adopt a range
of team roles
Describe a situation where you have lead a team on a project. How did you ensure cooperation and common understanding across the team?
-ve indicators
o Dismissive of views and opinions of others
o Opts out of team activities
o Dominating
o Shuns opportunities to get involved with
networks
o Dismissive of views and opinions of others
Outline the things you have done in your current role to improve the team
environment/atmosphere.
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS
1. Have you had to deal with a customer/student/colleague who was upset? What
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+ve indicators
Success Factor interview questions
Standard level
did you do?
2. Does your manager always give you clear instructions? What do you do if not?
PLANNING AND ORGANISING
1. Describe a typical day at work. How do you decide what order to do your jobs
in?
2. Do you sometimes have to change your work plans at short notice to
accommodate an unexpected request from your manager? Describe an
example
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Used open questions to find out the true
problem
 Interprets body language and other signals
at interview
 Clarifies understanding to avoid
misunderstanding
 Able to show empathy
-ve indicators
 Jumps to conclusions
 Does not listen
 Lacks sensitivity to body language etc
 Does not acknowledge value of others
perspective
+ve indicators
 Describes a planned and organised
approach
 Can accommodate change without panic
 Does not react negatively to changes at
short notice
 Attempts to anticipate
-ve indicators
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FINDING SOLUTIONS
1. What do you do if you encounter an obstacle to your work? Give an example.
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Does not plan – disorganized
Resents changes
Does not anticipate
+ve indicators
Success Factor interview questions
Standard level
2. How do you assign timescales to your work objectives? Do these ever change
once set? How do you know?
3. What do you do if you are not sure how to proceed with a task – perhaps you
have received conflicting information?
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Uses initiative to find solutions
Recognizes when situation urgency has
changed and responds appropriately
 Anticipates likely obstacles
 Identifies when given conflicting information
and applies understanding to resolve
-ve indicators
 Is easily put off completing task
 Expects others to find solutions
 Does not monitor the work environment and
information sources
DELIVERING SERVICES
+ve indicators
 Sees other departments and colleagues as
“customers” and follows through on their
What do you do to ensure you deliver quality service/work? Give an example of where you
enquiries and requests
have demonstrated this.
 Has a positive attitude for doing things better
 Strives to deliver high quality results
Give an example of where you have made changes in order to improve a service or product.  Takes responsibility for achieving own results
What did you do? Why did you take the action you did?
 Pays attention to detail
 Is enthusiastic in getting the job done on time
What personal objectives do you set yourself at work? What are you doing to ensure you
 Seeks feedback on own and team performance
achieve them?
 Looks at ways of improving
 Knows who their customers are and
What do you do in order to complete a task or project to the best of your ability? Use an
understands their needs
example to illustrate this.
-ve indicators
What does good customer service mean to you? Who are your customers? What do they
expect from you?
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Success Factor interview questions
Standard level
Describe a rewarding situation you‟ve had with a customer/stakeholder. Why was this?
What did you do to make the outcome a success?
Give an example of when a customer/stakeholder was dissatisfied. How did you
respond/feel/cope?
o
o
o
o
o
Sees no need to improve
Gives up if things don‟t go to plan
Is not bothered if targets are not achieved
Avoids dealing with difficult problems
Gets frustrated with customers
How do you ensure that your customers/stakeholders are satisfied? Use a recent example
to illustrate this.
Give an example of an improvement you have made in the customer service area of your
current area of responsibility.
In your current/recent job how do you go about understanding the needs of your customer?
Who are key people/groups for you in your current role? How have you developed working
partnerships with these people?
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Success Factor interview questions
Standard level