How the SHL situational judgement test works
Each item sets out a situation you could meet in the job, as text or as an animation, followed by several possible courses of action. SHL’s candidate site says you select the response that most effectively deals with the situation, and its example question uses a rating scale instead, so expect one of those two formats.
SHL either writes the scenarios for the employer’s role and culture or takes them from its own bank, and some versions use 3D animation and interactive video. Employers usually set it early in the process, and SHL scores responses against its Universal Competency Framework.
How to judge the responses
Work through each scenario in the same order:
- Work out what is at stake: the task, the customer or colleague affected, and any deadline.
- Put yourself in the role the scenario gives you, with the authority that role has and no more.
- Favour responses that deal with the problem early and directly, with the person concerned, before escalating.
- Mark down responses that ignore the problem, hand it to someone else without reason, or break a rule to save time.
- If you are rating rather than choosing, rate each response on its own and use the whole scale.
Worked example
Scenario: you work in a customer service team. A customer emails to say an order promised for today has not arrived, and the tracking page shows it is still at the warehouse. Your shift ends in 20 minutes. Possible responses:
- A. Reply that orders sometimes run late and ask the customer to wait another day.
- B. Call the warehouse to find out what happened, then tell the customer what you found and when to expect the order.
- C. Leave the email for a colleague on the next shift, without a note.
- D. Offer the customer a refund straight away, without checking the order.
- B is the most effective: it gets the facts and gives the customer a clear answer. D may please the customer but acts before checking. A leaves the problem with the customer, and C is least effective, because the customer waits longer and your colleague starts from nothing.
Tips for the real SHL SJT
- Read the job description and the employer’s values before you start. SHL tailors many of its scenarios to the role and the company culture.
- Answer as the person in the scenario, not as their manager, unless the scenario puts you in charge.
- Some versions use animation or video, so use a quiet room, headphones if you need them and a stable connection.
- Read every response before you choose or rate any of them. The best one is often not the first that sounds reasonable.
- Try the free situational judgement test on SHL’s practice page to see the format.
Practise the SHL SJT on CogniPrep
Our SHL SJT gives you 20 scenarios from a bank of 35, each with five responses to rate from 1 (Very Ineffective) to 5 (Very Effective). It is untimed, and you cannot go back to a scenario once you submit it. We compare your ratings with our own expert key across eight competencies, with partial credit for a near miss. Agreement with the key makes up 60% of the score, and the rest rewards even performance across the competencies and telling the best responses from the worst. It trains the rating format, not any one employer’s test.