Over the last few months, we have had lots of conversations with officers who are receiving conflicting advice on the style and process of how their boards are being marked and assessed.
Essentially, they are being advised that they are not solely being assessed against the CVF, but that the board is also considering values, motives, a degree of operational knowledge and even the forces own ‘plan’ or ‘vision’ in how they assess candidates.
This is creating confusion and frustration as officers are unsure where to focus their preparation and how to structure answers to these much broader requirements – especially the when the advice is often to focus less on the competencies in the CVF.
Officers are in a tailspin. Sound like you?
In our opinion, using our 20 plus years of expert interview coaching, this advice is a red herring, serves little purpose and certainly doesn’t help officers perform at their best in a board.
We strongly advise you to still approach your board as if it were a full competency-based assessment. Remember, this is prescribed by the College of Policing NPPF Stage 3.
Most officers know that the STAR structure should be used in a competency-based interview and this never changes whatever the style of interview you are facing.
Where a difference in approach can come is in the additional information that you may need to include to cover and satisfy extra assessor needs. This may include ensuring that your examples;
• are using situations that resonate to ‘live’ issues within your force
• are at a ‘rank’ appropriate level
• demonstrate that you have a broader awareness of the current focus or priorities in your force
• have an increased focus of your own values and motives
Remember – these are in ADDITION to providing appropriate evidence against the CVF competencies.
At bselectedpolice we have essentially been advocating this approach since we started coaching – nothing has changed. Our model of the ‘5 Key Elements of a High Scoring Answer’ will help you include all the requirements of any board, manage their expectations and enable you to deliver a well-structured, evidenced based and effective answer.
Incidentally, using our ‘5 key elements’ model is exactly the same advice that our sister company bselected gives to corporate clients who are facing non competency-based interviews. i.e. WHATEVER the style of interview you must use STAR and the 5 key elements models.
Our advice can be summarised easily:
👌🏻 If the interview is competency based – the STAR & 5 Key Elements approach is essential
👌🏻 If the interview is less structured – the STAR & 5 Key Elements approach makes you sound like a super star!
If you are feeling a little unsure in how best to prepare for your board – feel free to give us a call and we can help clarify what is required.
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