As you read through the numerous
in-tray exercise items – memos, emails and messages – that
make up the exercise in-tray you must not be tempted to try and
solve each one as you come across it. This is not the purpose of
the exercise, you must note down or highlight the bits of the
information that you think are key and have implications for other
areas of the organisation or personnel. It is only once you have
been given the questions to answer that you must draw on this
information and make your decisions and select the answer that
best fits your decision.
Frequently conflicting or contradictory items are included to
assess how well you as the candidate evaluate information and
their ability to prioritise. It will also gauge your ability to
spot mistakes and conflicts, as well as your attention to detail.
These are used by Assessors to ascertain how effective you are
when working under a severe time restraint and does this impact on
your ability to manage, or think, strategically. Where you find
such a conflict do not try to find a resolution just be mindful of
it and use this knowledge when selecting you answers.
For example, the best answer could be for ‘you to switch
production from one item to another to meet the strategic business
needs’, the in-tray exercise is not asking you to solve how to
meet current production requirements or decide how this is
reallocated. The question is testing your ability to weigh up the
important issues and prioritise what needs to be done, you are not
expected to solve the problem in this exercise.
Many
in-tray exercises
include items which have:
-
Incorrect dates for meetings or events,
e.g. 30th February;
-
Spell names incorrectly from that on
the organisation chart in the answers, e.g. the chart spells the
name Mary Clarke, but the memo you’ve been asked to approve has
Mary Clark on it;
-
Use the wrong gender e.g. Mr Smith
instead of Mrs Smith – in the item the person was referred to as
Pat Smith, but the candidate did not pay attention to the use of
the female pronoun later on in the item;
-
Miss off key data in an item or reply
that would be needed by the recipient to perform your required
action, e.g. product identification number, distribution depot to
be used etc.
You will only need to consider what to do with conflicting or
contradictory information if a question asks you to decide how to
respond to, or how you would handle it. This often takes the form
of double bookings within your diary and the question aims to
assess, by your answer, how you would prioritise such an item as
if you were in the role. The more you practice this type of
assessment centre exercise the more familiar you will become
with its workings.
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