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Planning and Organizing

Reaching goals that are central to organizational success by making and following plans and allocating resources effectively.
Level 1 Plans and organizes own activities

BEHAVIORS

  • Plans own activities according to pre-determined standards or procedures.
  • Monitors the quality and timeliness of your own work.
  • Seeks clarity on priorities as needed.
  • Uses the resources at one's immediate disposal responsibly and efficiently.

QUESTIONS

  • Provide an example of a time when planning and organizing your work tasks was especially critical, for example, to meet a tough deadline or to deal with several priorities.

Probing Questions

* What was the situation?

* Describe how you planned and organized your tasks.

* How did you ensure that your tasks were completed on time/that priorities were met?

* What was the outcome?

  • Provide an example of a time when you recognized that you were overloaded and needed to clarify your priorities and get reorganized in order to get things back on track.

Probing Questions

* What situation were you in, and what responsibilities did you have?

* What caused you to recognize that you were overloaded?

* What did you do to get things back on track?

* How did things work out?

Level 2 Plans and organizes group activities

BEHAVIORS

  • Identifies who needs to be involved and when.
  • Identifies who will do what, when, considering group members' skills, needs and, if possible, preferences.
  • Sets timelines and work steps.
  • Monitors progress and use of resources (e.g., people, supplies, money).
  • Makes needed adjustments to timelines, steps, and resource allocation.
  • Plans the accomplishment of the next steps.

QUESTIONS

  • Describe a specific project or activity in which you had to identify tasks and set priorities for others. Tell us how you went about planning and organizing so that the group would reach the goal.

Probing Questions

* Describe the project or activity.

* How did you assign tasks and set priorities?

* What factors did you take into account in assigning tasks? in setting timelines?

* What was the outcome?

  • Describe a situation where you assigned tasks and priorities and then monitored the progress of others.

Probing Questions

* What project/task was involved?

* What factors did you consider in assigning tasks and setting priorities?

* How did you monitor progress?

* Did you need to deal with any missed deadlines or unacceptable work?

* Was the project completed on time?

* Was the objective met?

Level 3 Plans and organizes major activities

BEHAVIORS

  • Identifies varied resources needed (e.g., different types of expenditures; different skill mixes).
  • Produces realistic and achievable work plans.
  • Develops contingency plans to handle potential obstacles.
  • Breaks activities into smaller components to facilitate completion.
  • Renegotiates commitments or deadlines as circumstances dictate, ensuring "no surprises" at the expected completion.
  • Evaluates the extent to which objectives have been achieved.

QUESTIONS

  • Tell us about a time when you needed to break a large project or major activity into smaller components in order to get it done.

Probing Questions

* What project/activity were you responsible for?

* How did you break it into smaller components?

* How did you go about deciding what needed to be done first, second, third, etc?

* How did things work out?

  • Please provide an example of a time when you developed a back-up plan to handle potential obstacles that could have jeopardized the success of a major activity you were responsible for.

Probing Questions

* Describe the situation.

* What led you to develop a back-up plan?

* What were the obstacles?

* What were the key elements of your plan?

* How did you prioritize?

* What was the result?

  • Please describe a time when, on a major activity, you had to renegotiate a deadline due to circumstances beyond your control or a change in organizational priorities.

Probing Questions

* What was the situation?

* What circumstances required a change in the deadline?

* How did you renegotiate the deadline?

* If the deadline was changed: Did you need to make any other changes once the deadline was revised?

* What was the result?

Level 4 Plans and organizes multiple, complex activities

BEHAVIORS

  • Prioritizes resources across initiatives/programs.
  • Verifies that activities are not duplicated.
  • Implements systems to monitor and evaluate progress and use of resources (e.g. financial, non-financial, historical and prospective information).
  • Implement mechanisms to evaluate outcomes.
  • Monitors coordination, as needed, across related projects.

QUESTIONS

  • Describe challenges you encountered in coordinating a number of complex activities or projects and how your planning and organizing ability proved to be key in keeping things on track.

Probing Questions

* What activities/projects were you responsible for?

* What challenges did you encounter?

* How did your planning/organizing skills prove to be key?

* What was the outcome?

  • Describe a time when you monitored and evaluated the progress and use of resources across multiple projects or initiatives.

Probing Questions

* What projects/initiatives were you monitoring?

* How did you evaluate progress?

* How did you evaluate the use of resources?

* Did you make any adjustments?

* What was the result?

Level 5 Plans and organizes at a strategic level

BEHAVIORS

  • Identifies objectives, priorities and strategies that provide direction for the organization.
  • Implements strategies to monitor programs, tracking progress and optimal resource utilization, making adjustments as needed.
  • Secures program or project resources in line with strategic direction.

QUESTIONS

  • Can you tell me about a situation where you conducted or led a SWOT-like review (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of HR in the organization?

Probing Questions

* What was the reason for undertaking such a review?

* What were your role and contribution?

* What consideration did you give to the information that came out of the review?

* Did you identify any potential longer range impacts or required changes to HR direction, strategies, organization, or operation?

* What changed as a result of this SWOT-like review?

  • Can you tell me about a time when you played a key role in developing priorities and strategies for an organization?

Probing Questions

* What were you developing the priorities/strategies for?

* What priorities or strategies did you identify?

* How did you go about doing it?

* What was the outcome?