Ever wondered what the STAR method everyone talks about it when it comes to writing Selection Criteria? Here are some examples and a brief overview of the method and how to make it work when writing your own criteria.
First up STAR in selection criteria stands for:
Situation – describe the situation Task – describe the task Action – describe the action taken Result – describe what the result was It’s an effective way to address selection criteria because it gives a specific example of how you meet the criteria.
Let’s use customer service as our first example:
Demonstrated Customer Service Skills: Situation – unhappy customer
Task – to make the customer happy
Action – offer a refund and apologise
Result – happy customer that became a repeat buyer.
In criteria form that looks like this:
During my employment with Harry’s Snack Station I resolved an incident where a customer complained about a fly in her soup. Harry’s Snack Station has a policy that the customer is always right and that every step necessary should be taken to swiftly resolve the problem to the customers satisfaction. Using this policy as a guideline I apologised for the incident, offered the customer a full refund and replaced the soup. I then asked the customer if the situation had been resolved successfully and if she needed me to do anything further to regain her trust. The customer stated she was extremely happy with my response and went on to become a repeat customer.
Ok, for our second example let’s use organisational skills.
Criteria: Demonstrated Organisational Skills Situation – administration work due for tight deadline with one team member off sick. Task – to get the work completed on-time. Action – delegate responsibilities, track progress, work overtime Result – report in on time.
In criteria form it looks like this:
During my employment with Sandy Administration Services I was responsible for managing a small team of (3) administration members. The end of financial year is our busiest time as we needed to make sure all financial reports were ready for the accountant by the 1st of July. Twenty-four hours before the financial reports were due one of the team members called in sick which meant that the rest of the team had to pull together to handle her regular workload, their own workload and the additional reporting requirements. To ensure the reports the accountant were provided on time I halved the absent team members regular work load and designated it to the remaining staff while I worked on the financial reports. I identified which remaining reports were needed, wrote a list and estimated the amount of time required for each task. I checked this list off as each report was prepared. I also worked back late to ensure that the report was submitted before I left the office. The end result was that the accountant received the reports on time, the absent team members work was completed, the team’s regular workload was completed and my own personal workload was completed with 100% accuracy in time for the deadline.
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