What are in-tray exercises?
How would you cope with an in-tray full of real work and a set time limit to deal with it? You’ll need to prove that you can prioritise under pressure to impress recruiters in this task.
It’s Monday morning, the work has piled up and you have to prioritise your tasks before the big meeting at 9.30 am. The in-tray exercise is designed to discover how you’d deal with it.
In-tray exercises simulate a real work situation. You’ll be given a desk with a full in-tray of typical paperwork and asked to work through it within a time limit (often between 30 minutes to an hour). Some employers prefer an e-tray exercise, which is the same thing but uses an e-mail inbox instead. You have to sift through them and decide what you do first, second, third and so on. Once again, the subject matter is usually related to the job. According to Bob Stead, author and occupational psychologist from the University of Hertfordshire Business School, ‘Research appears to support the notion that tests that sample what is actually done in the job are the best predictor of future job performance – so take them seriously.’ It’s all about how you react under pressure, and therefore your analytical and prioritisation skills. Have a look through the whole in-tray first before starting, so you know what order you should deal with things.
Bob Stead’s top five in-tray tips
- Negotiate.
- Delegate.
- Prioritise.
- That’s technically three tips but…
- …it’s best to keep your strategy simple.
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