Assessment Centre Practice

This assignment requires students to reflect on their experience participating in a simulated group assessment at an assessment centre. They are asked to analyze the process of forming a team, assigning roles, and collaborating effectively. The reflection should highlight key learnings about team dynamics, individual strengths and weaknesses, and how these experiences contribute to professional development.

MANAGING PEOPLE
AND
CAREER

Table of Contents
COVER-LETTER............................................................................................................................1
APPLICATION FORM...................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

COVER-LETTER
I am writing this letter to express my interest in the position of Business leader which has
advertised in the daily newspaper “The Guardian” by your firm i.e. UNIQLO Manager
Candidate. I am a person who is self motivated and having an experience of 5 years in one of
major competitor of this company i.e. ZARA. After gathering knowledge regarding several
aspects of retail segment in would like to utilise my knowledge and expertise to work for your
prestigious firm. While considering at my academic career I have the degree of Bachelor's.
My abilities to work as a team leader as well as finishing work before the prescribed
deadlines will help to add value to the projects on which I am working upon. This is the reason
that made me successful and handy worker for the retail management with my previous
employer. In the past I had sound background which was a gift of my loyalty and dedication
towards my work. I am trying hard to make things possible to make it happen. I am a dependable
and dedicated employee who had an record of managing high volumes and revenue locations. I
have a diverse knowledge related to retail which includes inventory control, merchandising,
consumer service and purchasing. The other primary knowledge that I have is of bookkeeping
and administration which makes me vibrant in handling several different situations inside the
firm. I always believed in working under ethical consideration.
At the previous store where I gave my services I played a essential role in establishment
of it. I have suggested change of themes on regular intervals which attracted a large amount of
consumers towards store. I was having a close look at products that are arriving at the store
which helps me ensuring that they are of high quality. I was also the in charge of staff
management and inventory control. My good relationship with every other staff members helped
me in this regard. I am an individual who prefers who believes in doing work as a team. In such
workload this can enhance the efficiency of the work. This has helped me in driving profitability
which is an essential requirement for your post.
While I was a business leader I received recognition and awards for my work in bringing
consumer satisfaction through business development plan implemented by me with my previous
employer. I am successful organiser and planner which is possible because I indulge everyone in
the decision making process. Taking them altogether while doing my work helps me in bringing
enthusiasm and motivation in workforce under me. I believe in time to time motivations to the
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employees so that they may not distract from the path they have to move to successfully
accomplish the collective goals and hence it gets completed on time.
I am great supporter for innovation and change as it helps in bringing competitive edge
over other competitors. I also believe in setting and pursuing a mission which helps me in
moving in a perfect direction for achieving targets.
The CV that is attached with this provides you a detailed description regarding my potential for
bringing a handy contribution to the firm where I desired to work. I believe that it will
advantageous for both of us I have been called for this meet up. I would be highly obliged to you
if I get the chance to showcase my skills and abilities at personal interview.
I am comfortable with any time allotted for meeting.
Your Sincerely
XXXX
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APPLICATION FORM
Q1. Why you want to work as a business leader for UNIQLO?
UNIQLO is a worldwide known casual designer, manufacturer and retailer. It is known
for its high quality design of clothes that shares the commitment for advanced lifestyle where I
can utilise my five years of experience in retailing segment which can contribute to the mission. I
have been checking out your plans and advertisements it has a deliberate promise to deliver the
goods of high quality. The reviews related to your clothings at the social media pages have been
excellent. I have also self analysed that the quality of the clothes that you deliver is of superior
quality. You have became an name in the Japanese and many other market in just so less years of
your establishment where your other competitors have took so many years to reach. Your
business and financial model for growth seems to be excellent. Your major policy on which the
progress of any firm depends is employee relations, I have heard from various sources that you
maintain an excellent employee relations. Citing all these positives about your company I can
say that it is an excellent opportunity to work with the firm like you as it provides me with
immense chance of developing my personal and professional skill which can be beneficial for the
firm.
Q2. What is your experience in team working and team leading?
I am great supporter of working as a team player. I understand the importance of its in
making the work process easier as well as effective. At Zara I have worked on various projects
where sometimes I have played a role of team leader and team player. There I have made an
communication platform which facilitated the interaction between team members. I have seen
that in making changes and managing them the role of working as a team was very crucial. I
have also led many teams where I have distributed work effectively so that every team member
can complete their task on time that too without a heavy load on them. I took the personal charge
of working in a form of group having 6 members. The major task that was assigned to them was
to change the overall structure of the retail store. We achieved in 3 days as preplanned. We all
put our plans on the front they decided to move on which resulted in a trendy look to the store
and made it a more comfortable place to shop from. Working as a team leader helped me in
imbibing a greater sense of responsibility which helped me understanding the intricacies of retail
sector as well as the behaviour of the people within a group.
Q3. What approaches you use to resolve any issue in different situations?
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In any season of sale there are many consumers who are coming to the stores to buy the different
clothes. In these times there is a problem that handling such a large range of consumers at the
same time in the same store is difficult. There is one situation where a family was disappointed
for not being attended properly and hence to convince them on the longer run I used an approach
where I called them for the meeting and I took there feedbacks. Then I called up a meeting with
all the staff members at store and briefed them about the situation and the case. I took each and
everyone of theirs to express their opinions as well as views so that their needs and solution to
the problem can be known. It was understood that there was a need to manage shifts in which
every employee can work and allocate their duty as per the skills and abilities they have. The
skills were analysed by checking the previous performance. For achieving better results I asked
them for their support and work harder for this season. I also announced that the performance of
each staff will be monitored carefully and will be accounted at the time of appraisal.
Q4. How to be able to deal with the multitasking and meeting the deadlines?
I understand the need of doing multiple works at the time. This pressure helps me in
moving ahead in difficult times. I prefer to deal with many things at a time. I am able to deal
with such kind of situations in a better way. One of the basic thing that I do for accomplishing
the task is to schedule in a timely order. It helps me in completing all the task within the desired
time frame. Since as a store manager I was having many kinds of responsibilities so
automatically many task arise to me at once. Many a times there is conflicts that arise that which
task to be given more preference other than what is mentioned in the schedule. In such situations
I use the situational decision making where most important is given more preference. I always
give more time to analyses the resources which I have so as to utilise them carefully while doing
all the task. This is prime reason for my success while doing the multitasking. It helps in
enhancing my competency so that from next time I am able to complete all the task more
carefully. The one which is complicated I give more preference so that it can be done with more
appropriateness.
Q5. Tell us your experience in influencing and communicating effectively with others.
When I was working with my previous employer. I saw that the reason for reducing the
business from that store was that there was negativity in the firm. Due to reducing sales and less
availability of chances for the employee growth there was a negative environment that got
developed. I felt that there was a need of setting up a culture that is collaborative so that trust
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among each other can be built which is the most important aspect that is related with bringing
positivity within the workplace. I undertook meeting with them so as to make sure that their
expectations can be understood in a better way which is essential for their motivation. I took the
use of various mediums so as to make sure that I could reach to as many employees as possible. I
urged the senior management to set up a communication platform where staffs can easily
communicate with me at the time of their requirement so that I could assist them in their needs. I
also took the use of reward system where every worker's performance can be measured and they
can be given reward easily. Apart from this there was a structure that was created by me in order
to make sure that feedbacks and suggestion from them can be collected over various issues. It
helped me in influencing their morale which was necessary for the overall productivity of the
firm.
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CURRICULUM VITAE
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PERSONAL SUMMARY
A focused employee who performs all his duties in a better way by understanding the need
of the situation. I believe in acting in a professional manner so as to make sure that all the
activities are completed according to the requirement and as per the set deadlines. I always
take care of the resources that is available to me to make sure that work is done more
effectively without any last moments chaos. I always believe in working as a team so as to
make sure that better decisions can be made regrading any challenge that comes before us. I
am looking forward for any such kind opportunity where I can brush up my current skills
and develop some new ones.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Company Name:- Zara
Location:- Zara Store, 21 Street, London
Position:- Business Leader
Years of Experience:- 5 years
Duties:-
 To allocate work to staff members which is totally based on their skills.
 Make and implement new strategies and help staff members to understand that.
 Providing appropriate informations regarding the worker's performance.
KEY SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES
 Setting the priority for various task and ensuring that those are completed within the
desired time frame that too under the resources available to with me.
 Can work effectively with the Microsoft office tools.
 Create and managing a team.
 Focused towards working as per the desired goals.
 Always available for supporting the staff when they are facing several kinds of
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issues.
 Understand the value of CSR and ways in which it can be linked with the firm
 Great supporter of innovation and always try to do innovative business.
 Destined to promote equal and fair opportunities at all stages within the workplace.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
University of London
MSc Business Management 2009-2011
Bsc Leadership 2006-2009
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
 Proper handling and leading of team members.
 Fulfilling the requirement of paperwork.
 Managing disputes
 Approaches of employee motivation
 Effective decision making
LANGUAGE
 English, German and French
PERSONAL SKILLS
 Dedicated
 Self Motivated
 Positive thinking
 Hard-working and passionate
 Goal centric
CONTACT
21 Baker Street, London, England
DECLARATION
I Hereby declare that all the above mentioned informations are correct up to best of my
knowledge.
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INTERVIEW PRACTICE – COPY AND PASTE YOUR REFLECTION NOTES FROM
YOUR INTERVIEW PRACTICE HERE (MAX 200 WORDS IN BULLET POINT
FORMAT)
During the interview simulation it is required that we must act as a interviewee and interviewer
for hiring the business leaders for stores of UNIQLO. Using these kinds of services I have
gained a lot of benefits and came on various reflections that is mentioned below:
 After the interview, I understood that there are many criteria based on which the
interviewers of UNIQLO were marking and they ensured that using this they can easily
able to look and understand about the personality of mine through different angles.
 Using this practice, I have accumulated understanding regarding my personal and
professional skills which I posses. This has given me the methods adopting which I can
perform better at my next interview. I can state that I was feeling nervous at the time of
interview but now I have generated a higher self confidence which is based on the fact
that I do not have to worry if there is proper attitude in me at the time of interview.
 Apart from this I evaluated that I was unable to provide appropriate answers in the
interview as pre planned. This was due to the nervousness I am facing. I understood that I
have to prepare more from the next time so that I do not lag at the next interview. I also
need to evaluate the motive of an interviewer while they are asking me any question
during an interview and hence providing them response accordingly.
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ASSESSMENT CENTRE PRACTICE – COPY AND PASTE YOUR REFLECTION
NOTES HERE (MAX. 200 WORDS IN BULLET POINT FORMAT)
This is the place where you involve your reflection from the seminar group assessment
simulation.
In the process of practising in team I was appointed to handle the team to make sure that I along
with my team mates ensures the quality of products coming to the stores. After the meeting we
came to a conclusion that each member will help others if they see that performance of other is
degrading. The roles must be clear to all and must take initiatives to understand their
responsibility. Stating this I have made following kinds of reflection:
 When the team was formulated then I was hardly unaware about the abilities and skills of
the teammates. This brought me under the situation where I was unable to take decisions
regarding which kind of role has to assign to whom. I made a personal interaction with
them so as to understand their abilities and skills.
 In this kind of interaction they put their views about their interest, abilities, likes and
dislikes which performing any task. This was the basic learning that I got about how the
team will be formed and structured.
 In future, I will be interested in arranging the group for the task so that I can gain various
kinds of knowledge regarding my potential and hence assisting me in taking appropriate
decisions. This also assisted me in developing my personal and professional skills.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hoefling, T., 2012. Working virtually: Managing people for successful virtual teams and
organizations. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
London, M., 2014. Career barriers: How people experience, overcome, and avoid failure.
Psychology Press.
Martin, G. and Siebert, S., 2016. Managing people and organizations in changing contexts.
Routledge.
Mayo, A., 2016. Human resources or human capital?: Managing people as assets. Routledge.
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences.
Routledge.
Ng, E., Lyons, S.T. and Schweitzer, L. eds., 2012. Managing the new workforce: International
perspectives on the millennial generation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Roche, W.K., Teague, P., Coughlan, A. and Fahy, M., 2011. Human resources in the recession:
managing and representing people at work in Ireland. Final Report presented to the
Labour Relation Commission.
Saxena, P. and Jain, R., 2012. Managing career aspirations of Generation Y at work place.
International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software
Engineering, 2(7), pp.114-118.
Thomson, R. and Thomson, A., 2012. Managing people. Routledge.
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