10 selection criteria examples, with model answers you can adapt

Most Australian selection criteria are variations on about ten themes. Once you recognise the theme, you stop starting from nothing every time.

Below are the ten that turn up most often, each with a model answer of roughly the right length, and a short note on what a panel is looking for that applicants routinely miss. The structure throughout is the same: claim, evidence in Situation, Task, Action, Result form, then a measurable outcome. If you want the reasoning behind that structure, start with how to address selection criteria.

Adapt these. Do not copy them. Panels read hundreds of applications and generic phrasing is obvious from the first line.

1. Communication skills

Demonstrated high level written and verbal communication skills.

What is really being scored: whether you adjust to your audience. Everyone claims to communicate well. Almost nobody shows they changed their approach for a particular reader.

I adapt how I communicate to who is receiving it. Our team's quarterly compliance report was written for auditors and ran to 40 pages, and the operational managers who most needed it were not reading it. I interviewed four managers about what decisions they actually made from the report, then restructured it around those decisions with a two page summary at the front and the detail moved to appendices. I trialled it with one business unit before rolling it out. Within two quarters all six units were using the summary in their planning meetings, and the audit team confirmed the underlying detail still met their requirements.

2. Working in a team

Proven ability to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team.

What is really being scored: what you personally contributed, and how you handled friction. An answer where everything went smoothly gives a panel nothing.

I contribute to teams by making the handover points work. On our discharge planning team the nursing, allied health and social work streams each held information the others needed, and delays were almost always caused by something not being passed on. I proposed a five minute structured handover at the start of each shift using a shared template rather than adding another meeting. Two colleagues were sceptical about the time cost, so I ran it for a fortnight on one ward and measured the result. Average discharge delay attributable to missing information fell from just over a day to under four hours, and the format was adopted across the other two wards.

3. Managing competing priorities

Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities and meet deadlines in a high volume environment.

What is really being scored: a method, not stamina. Panels want to know how you decide what gets dropped.

I triage against impact rather than urgency. During a system migration I was carrying my usual caseload of roughly 60 active files plus a migration workstream, and both had hard deadlines in the same fortnight. I sorted the caseload into three groups: files with statutory deadlines, files where a client was waiting on me to act, and files that could safely sit for two weeks. I negotiated revised dates on the third group with my supervisor in advance rather than missing them silently, and I blocked two hours each morning for migration work before opening my inbox. All statutory deadlines were met, the migration went live on schedule, and no client complaint was received during the period.

4. Problem solving and judgement

Demonstrated problem solving skills and sound judgement.

What is really being scored: that you found the real problem, not that you worked hard on the presented one.

I check that I am solving the right problem before I start. Our branch was asked to reduce the time taken to process grant acquittals, and the assumption was that we needed more staff. I sampled 50 recent acquittals and found the median file spent nine days waiting for one missing document, and that the same three documents accounted for most of it. Rather than requesting resources I redesigned the initial request email to list those three documents explicitly with examples of what an acceptable version looked like. Median processing time fell from 21 days to 12 with no change to staffing.

5. Customer or client service

Commitment to providing high quality customer service.

What is really being scored: how you handle the customer you could not satisfy.

I stay useful when I cannot give someone what they want. A resident called about a development application on the neighbouring block that had already been approved, and there was no avenue to reverse it. Rather than repeating that the decision was final, I explained what had been assessed and why, sent her the conditions of consent so she knew what the builder was and was not permitted to do, and gave her the direct line for compliance if those conditions were breached. She called compliance twice during construction, both times about genuine breaches, and both were resolved. She wrote to the general manager describing the process as fair even though the outcome was not what she wanted.

6. Attention to detail and accuracy

High level attention to detail and accuracy.

What is really being scored: whether you built something that catches errors, or whether you just try hard.

I build checks in rather than relying on care alone. Our payroll adjustments were manual and an error in one pay period had resulted in eleven staff being underpaid. I mapped where the errors were entering, which was almost entirely at the point of transcribing from the approval form, and built a validation step that reconciled the entered figures against the approved totals before submission. I also introduced a second person check for any adjustment over a threshold. In the eighteen months since, no underpayment has occurred, and the reconciliation catches an average of two transcription errors per cycle before they reach staff.

7. Using technology and systems

Demonstrated experience using relevant information systems and technology.

What is really being scored: that you improved how a system was used, not merely that you logged into it.

I get more out of the systems we already have. Our team used the client management system purely as a record store and kept a separate spreadsheet for reporting, which was always out of date. I learned the reporting module, rebuilt our monthly figures as saved reports inside the system, and ran two short training sessions for the team. The spreadsheet was retired. Monthly reporting went from roughly six hours of manual work to under thirty minutes, and the figures now match the source data because there is only one source.

8. Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Demonstrated understanding of, and commitment to, culturally safe practice.

What is really being scored: evidence that you adjust your practice. An answer that says you treat everyone the same misses the point of the criterion and scores poorly.

I recognise when the way I am working is the barrier. An Aboriginal client had missed three appointments and the file was heading toward closure for non engagement. Before closing it I called and asked what would make attending easier. The appointments were mid morning in a building he associated with a previous negative experience, and he had no transport. I moved the appointment to our outreach location, offered a later time, and asked whether he wanted a support person present. He attended that appointment and the next four. I now ask about location and support preferences at intake rather than after a pattern of non attendance.

9. Workplace health and safety

Knowledge of and commitment to work health and safety principles.

What is really being scored: that you acted on something, including something inconvenient.

I raise hazards even when it is unwelcome. During a busy period our loading dock was being used for temporary storage, which narrowed the walkway and put pedestrians into the forklift path. It had been that way for weeks and there had been no incident. I reported it formally rather than mentioning it in passing, proposed a marked pedestrian route as an interim measure that did not require the storage to be removed immediately, and raised it at the next toolbox talk. The marked route went in within the week and a permanent storage solution followed the next month. No near miss was recorded in that area afterwards.

10. Continuous improvement and adaptability

Demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement and the ability to adapt to change.

What is really being scored: that you changed your own practice, ideally after something did not work.

I treat a failed attempt as information. I introduced a fortnightly team newsletter to improve communication about policy changes, and after two months I checked and found the open rate was under 30 per cent. Rather than persisting, I asked the team what they actually wanted and found the problem was timing rather than format; the newsletter arrived on Friday afternoons when nobody read it. I moved it to Tuesday mornings and cut it to five items. Open rate rose above 80 per cent and stayed there, and policy related questions to me dropped noticeably.

Using these properly

Three things separate an adapted example from a copied one.

Your numbers. Every model above has a measurable outcome because that is what earns marks. If you do not have a figure, use a comparison you can defend: before and after, or against what was expected.

Your voice. If a sentence does not sound like you, it will not sound like you in the interview either, and panels frequently ask you to expand on a written example.

Your actual work. These are structural templates, not stories to borrow. Public sector panels check references and probation exists.

Build a document with six to eight of your own examples in this form and every future application becomes selection rather than invention.

For the Commonwealth pitch format see the APS pitch guide, for NSW roles see writing to the focus capabilities, and for health and education see the state government guide.

Once the criteria are written, the resume attached to them should speak the same language as the ad. Score it free against the ad, no account needed.