Civil Service Behaviours: All Nine Explained

Civil Service behaviours are the actions and activities that lead to good performance in a role. There are nine, and each job advert lists the ones it will assess, usually three to five. You show them with specific examples of what you personally did, structured with STAR, at the level of the grade you’re applying for.

Behaviours are one of the five elements of the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, alongside strengths, ability, experience and technical skills. They’re also the part most applicants find hardest to write. This guide explains all nine in plain English, what changes between grades, and how to write a behaviour statement a panel can actually score.

Always check the job advert. It tells you which behaviours are being assessed, at which stage (application, interview or both) and the word limit. Everything here applies within what the advert asks for.

The nine Civil Service behaviours

These are summaries. The full descriptors for every level are on GOV.UK in the Success Profiles: Civil Service Behaviours document. Read the descriptor for your level before you write anything.

The six behaviour levels

Each behaviour is described at six levels, and the level matches the grade of the job:

The level matters more than most applicants realise. A “Seeing the Big Picture” example at EO can stay close to your own work: understanding how your tasks affect your team’s goals. At HEO or SEO, the panel expects you to look beyond your team: how your area’s work connects with others and with wider priorities. At Grade 7 it’s about shaping strategy and anticipating what’s coming. Same behaviour, different scale. Echo the language of your level’s descriptor, and pick an example big enough to match it.

How behaviours are assessed

Depending on the advert, a behaviour might be assessed:

• In the application, as a written statement, often with a word limit (250 words is common, but the advert sets it, not a central rule).
• At interview, where you’re asked to talk through an example.
• Both, sometimes with a different example at each stage.

Your examples don’t have to come from paid work. Volunteering, education, caring responsibilities or community roles all count, as long as they show what you did. Recent examples are stronger than old ones.

How to write a behaviour statement that scores

Use STAR, but weight it towards the action

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. The most common mistake is spending most of the word count on the situation. A useful split for a 250-word statement:

• Situation and Task (about 20%): the context in a sentence or two. What was happening, and what were you responsible for?
• Action (about 60%): what you did, step by step, and why. This is where the marks are.
• Result (about 20%): what changed, ideally with something measurable, and what you learned.

Write “I”, not “we”

The panel can only score what you did, which is why “we” costs you marks. “We introduced a new triage process” tells them nothing about you. “I proposed a new triage process, tested it for two weeks and trained three colleagues to use it” does.

A quick self-check: underline every verb that has “I” in front of it. If there are fewer than four in a 250-word statement, the action section is too thin.

Match the descriptor, not just the behaviour name

Read the indicators for your behaviour at your level and make sure your example clearly shows two or three of them. If the Level 3 “Making Effective Decisions” descriptor talks about analysing and using a range of evidence, your example should show you doing exactly that.

Keep it specific and honest

A specific, modest example beats a vague, impressive one. Use real numbers if you have them, and never invent them. You may be asked about the example at interview.

Example: Delivering at Pace (Level 2, EO)

This is an illustrative, fictional example to show structure. Write your own from real experience.

Situation: Our team’s quarterly returns deadline moved forward by a week after a system change, with three of the five processing staff on leave.

Task: As the officer responsible for the returns tracker, I needed to make sure all 140 returns were checked and submitted on time.

Action: I reviewed the tracker the same morning and sorted the returns by complexity, so the simplest 90 could be cleared first. I agreed a revised daily target with my manager and flagged the risk to the two caseworkers likely to be affected. I set up a short check-in at 4pm each day to reallocate work, and when two complex returns stalled I contacted the submitting organisations directly for the missing information instead of waiting for replies by email. I kept the tracker updated daily so my manager could see progress at a glance.

Result: All 140 returns were submitted a day before the new deadline, with no errors returned. My manager adopted the complexity-sorting approach for the following quarter, and I learned to raise capacity risks on day one rather than mid-week.

Notice: one example, “I” throughout, the action is the longest part, and the result is concrete.

Common mistakes

• Answering a different behaviour. A “Working Together” example that is really about your own deadline is “Delivering at Pace”.
• Using the same example everywhere. If an application asks for several behaviours, use a different example for each unless the advert says otherwise.
• Going over the word limit. Online forms often cut you off; panels may stop reading.
• Writing at the wrong level. An HEO application with an example that stays inside your own task list will score low on “Seeing the Big Picture”.
• Pasting in AI text you can’t back up. Panels read hundreds of statements, and generic phrasing stands out. If you use a tool, make sure every claim is yours and true.

Quick answers

How many Civil Service behaviours are there?
Nine: Seeing the Big Picture, Changing and Improving, Making Effective Decisions, Leadership, Communicating and Influencing, Working Together, Developing Self and Others, Managing a Quality Service, and Delivering at Pace.

How many behaviours will I be assessed on?
The job advert tells you. It’s usually a handful of the nine, chosen for the role.

How long should a behaviour statement be?
Whatever the advert says. 250 words is common but not universal, so check the advert and use the full allowance.

Can I use examples from outside work?
Yes. Volunteering, study, caring responsibilities and community roles all count, as long as the example shows what you personally did.

What level should I write at?
The level that matches the grade: Level 1 for AA and AO, Level 2 for EO, Level 3 for HEO and SEO, Level 4 for Grade 7 and Grade 6, and so on. Read that level’s descriptor before choosing your example.

A Faster Way

Everything above works by hand. Read the advert, read the descriptor for your level, pick one real example per behaviour and give the action most of your words. Plenty of people get through the sift doing exactly that.

Zappli does the reading for you. Paste the advert and it pulls out which behaviours are assessed, at which level, and the word limit, then builds each STAR statement only from examples you have given it, inside that limit, ready to paste into the form. It will not tell you that you meet a behaviour, and it will not write an example you have not given it: if you have no evidence for one, that box stays empty. The empty box is the feature, because it shows you exactly where your application is thin before a panel does.

A free account includes one public-sector check. Passes are £9.99 for 7 days, £24.99 for 30 days or £49.99 for 90 days. One payment only, never auto-charged, and nothing to cancel. Zappli is paid by candidates, never by employers. To start, pick the framework you are applying under.