HR Adviser and HR Business Partner Behaviour Statement Examples

Civil Service HR behaviour examples for EO, HEO, SEO and Grade 7

HR behaviour examples work best when the people issue is specific and the applicant's judgement is visible. A difficult employee case can still produce a weak statement if most of the words describe the employee, the manager or the policy instead of what the applicant did.

Return to the HR Adviser and HR Business Partner Applications hub for personal statement, CV and interview guidance.

What strong HR behaviour evidence looks like

The behaviours selected for an HR vacancy will vary. The examples on this page focus on three behaviours that can be highly relevant to advisory and business partnering work: Communicating and Influencing, Making Effective Decisions and Working Together.

• Communicating and Influencing: giving clear advice, adapting the message, handling sensitive conversations and influencing a stakeholder without hiding difficult information.
• Making Effective Decisions: gathering the right evidence, assessing policy and risk, considering options and reaching a proportionate recommendation.
• Working Together: bringing the right people into an HR issue, sharing information appropriately and resolving competing priorities while maintaining trust.

Other HR roles may assess Leadership, Seeing the Big Picture, Changing and Improving, Developing Self and Others or another behaviour. Use the behaviours named in the vacancy.

Common reasons HR behaviour statements score poorly

• The statement explains the policy in detail and gives little space to the applicant's actions.
• The manager makes every important decision while the applicant only attends meetings or records advice.
• The result is simply that the process was completed, with no evidence that the problem was handled effectively.
• Sensitive information is included for drama even though it adds nothing to the behaviour being assessed.
• The applicant claims responsibility for legal, disciplinary or dismissal decisions outside their authority.
• Senior examples remain individual casework examples and never show wider workforce influence or strategic judgement.