In most
in-tray exercise you will be provided with an overview
of an organisation and your role within it. Some
assessment centre include the reading of these items and all
overview details as part of the allocated time for reading
through the documents included in the exercise, whilst others
give you 5-10 minutes to read the overview before presenting you
with the in-tray items. The time allocated will vary depending
on the particular exercise but it is usually somewhere between
20-60 minutes.
When you have worked through the in-tray items you will then be
given a series of multiple choice questions and an answer sheet.
For more senior positions the two parts are often followed by a
third section which provides you with an opportunity to explain
your chosen answers to the assessors face-to-face.
The in-tray exercises or in-basket exercise is designed so that
anyone can undertake the exercise and have equal opportunity to
produce maximum marks. You do not need to have specialised
knowledge of the market sector or industry as all the
information required to make a decision and select one of the
multiple choice answers is provided in the overview
documentation. Many of the tests in the instructions will tell
you to use only the information provided in the exercise.
The most important aspect of the in-tray exercise is to ensure
you have fully understood the role you are playing and the
objectives of the organisation. Secondly, it is vital that you
pay attention to the small details as the authors of the
exercise have often included incorrect dates for meetings, old
correspondence, missed spelt names and created double bookings
to test this skill. It is these small details which are
influential in why you select certain options in the answers and
are often during test exercises to show you why a certain answer
reflects poorly on your skills and lack of attention to detail.
It is these small details which are useful to bring out in a
discussion or justification if this is part of your in-tray
exercise.
This type of exercise provides all the information they require
you to evaluate and use when making your decision. Beware of
bringing in additional information from your own experience as
this may cause you to over complicate the issue being presented
in the
in-tray item or document. For example, the items show
that you have problems with a member of staff, when a questions
ask about the individual be wary of trying to solve this
problem.
The question may be asking how you would prioritise the urgency
of addressing this issue compared with others raised during the
exercise. It could also be asking whether or not you would deal
with it personally.
Different questions will test your ability, in terms of:
The exercise is looking at how effectively you can evaluate
information, priorities any required actions and decide on a final
outcome, it is not looking for a solution. It is also assessing
how well you work under pressure and with minimal information.
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