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Civil Service Behaviours by Grade: EO, HEO, SEO and Grade 7

·CVCircuit

Most Civil Service jobs are recruited using Success Profiles, and for many of them the written part of the application is a set of behaviour statements. The advert tells you which behaviours are being assessed, which one leads, and the word limit. What it doesn't always spell out is that the same behaviour is judged differently at different grades: what's excellent evidence at EO can look thin at SEO.

The short answer: find the behaviour level that matches the grade you're applying for, pick a recent example that shows that level, and write it with the STAR method, spending most of your words on what you did. Below are the nine behaviours, which level goes with which grade, and a worked example at HEO.

The nine behaviours

  1. Seeing the big picture
  2. Changing and improving
  3. Making effective decisions
  4. Leadership
  5. Communicating and influencing
  6. Working together
  7. Developing self and others
  8. Managing a quality service
  9. Delivering at pace

An advert usually assesses a handful of these, not all nine. Behaviours are one of five parts of Success Profiles; the others are strengths, ability, experience and technical skills, and a job may use any mix of them.

Which level applies to your grade

The official Civil Service behaviours document describes each behaviour at six levels:

LevelGrades
Level 1Administrative Assistant (AA) and Administrative Officer (AO)
Level 2Executive Officer (EO)
Level 3Higher Executive Officer (HEO) and Senior Executive Officer (SEO)
Level 4Grade 7 and Grade 6
Level 5Deputy Director
Level 6Director and Director General

Read the descriptions for your level before you choose your examples. They tell you the scope you're expected to show.

What changes from grade to grade

The main difference is scope. At EO, the descriptions are mostly about you and the people you work with day to day. At HEO and SEO, they're about running work: priorities, milestones and the people you depend on. At Grade 7 and Grade 6, they're about setting direction and standards for others.

Two behaviours as examples (paraphrased from the official descriptions):

BehaviourEO (Level 2)HEO and SEO (Level 3)Grade 7 and 6 (Level 4)
Delivering at paceReviews progress to spot problems early, sets clear goals and makes sure colleagues have what they needKeeps the team focused on the top priorities, tracks work against milestones and rebalances work when demands conflictMakes sure everyone understands and owns their role and priorities, and sets clear standards for performance
Working togetherBuilds contacts beyond their own team, listens genuinely, and is clear that bullying, harassment and discrimination are unacceptableEncourages joined-up working across teams, builds relationships with stakeholders and seeks input from people with different backgroundsBuilds networks, challenges assumptions while staying open to compromise, and creates an inclusive environment

So an example about getting your own work done on time is a good EO example. At SEO the same story needs to show how you organised other people's work to hit a deadline.

Writing a behaviour statement with STAR

The official guidance suggests the STAR method:

  • Situation: a sentence or two of context.
  • Task: what you needed to achieve.
  • Action: what you did, step by step. This is where most of your words should go.
  • Result: what happened, with numbers if you have them, and what you learned.

A few rules that make a big difference:

  • Use "I", not "we". The panel is scoring you, not your team.
  • Match the level. Choose an example where you worked at the scope described for your grade, or close to it.
  • Stay within the word limit in the advert, often 250 words per behaviour. Short, concrete sentences fit more evidence in.
  • Make the lead behaviour your strongest. If a lot of people apply, the advert may say the first sift will be on the lead behaviour alone.
  • Avoid unexplained acronyms. The panel may not be from your team or department.
  • Examples can come from outside paid work (volunteering, study, caring) if they show the behaviour at the right level.

Worked example: Delivering at pace, HEO

This is an example to learn from. Write yours from your own experience.

Situation: Our team had six weeks to process 1,200 grant applications before a funding deadline, and two of our five caseworkers were on leave for part of that time.

Task: As the team's HEO, I was responsible for getting every application decided on time without lowering the quality of decisions.

Action: I split the applications into straightforward and complex cases, so experienced caseworkers took the complex ones and newer colleagues could clear the rest quickly. I set a weekly target for each person and tracked progress in a shared tracker that the whole team could see. When we fell behind in week three, I agreed with my SEO to pause a lower-priority audit task and arranged two days of help from a neighbouring team, briefing them myself. I checked a sample of decisions each week and shared common errors at our Monday meeting so they didn't repeat.

Result: Every application was decided four days before the deadline, and quality checks found an error rate below 2%, lower than the previous year. My SEO asked me to write up the case-splitting approach, which the team now uses for every funding round.

It's about 190 words, the actions are all "I", and it shows Level 3 scope: priorities, milestones and rebalancing work when demands conflicted.

Common mistakes

  • Describing the team, not yourself. If the panel can't tell what you did, they can't score it.
  • No result. End with what changed, ideally with a number.
  • The wrong level. A great EO example can still score low at SEO.
  • Reusing statements unchanged. Adverts weight different behaviours, and the lead behaviour changes from job to job.
  • Going over the limit. Words past the limit may simply not be read.

The rest of the application

Behaviour statements are the part only you can write. The rest of a Civil Service Jobs application (the eligibility questions, your personal details, the diversity questions and your job history) is the same each time. CVCircuit's free Chrome extension fills those in from your Career Bank, and with Pro it can draft behaviour statements against the advert's behaviours for you to edit and make your own.

Applying for the Fast Stream? See our Civil Service Fast Stream CV guide.

Sources

Spend less time on long application forms

The free CVCircuit Chrome extension fills application forms on NHS Jobs, Trac, Civil Service Jobs, Workday and more from your Career Bank, tailors your CV to each job and flags listings that look like ghost jobs.