Payroll assistant at Larkfield Care Homes
About 55 minutes. Included in Plus.
Payroll closes at noon tomorrow. Check a week of extra hours against timesheets, approvals and the policy, answer a worried colleague honestly, and give your manager the exceptions she must decide.
Skills: Check extra hours against timesheets, approvals and policy; Calculate normal and time and a half pay correctly; Explain held pay honestly to the person affected; Keep decisions within payroll authority and escalate the rest
Quality technician at Pennant Precision Components
About 75 minutes. Included in Plus.
A batch for the morning truck failed its final check on a machine that has just failed calibration. Decide what the results really show, contain the batch, and tell the customer the facts.
Skills: Interpret inspection data from a suspect measuring instrument; Hold product within quality authority under schedule pressure; Define a containment from in-process records; Write a factual nonconformance report and customer notification
Outage planner at Northvale Electricity Networks
About 60 minutes. Included in Plus.
A failing transformer must be swapped by crane before winter, with 2,168 customers kept on supply through a neighbouring feeder that can carry only so much. Find a window the load allows, look after the people who depend on medical equipment, and replan when a pre-check cuts the backfeed.
Skills: Read demand profiles against network capacity; Choose a work window within safety and field rules; Plan support for customers who depend on medical equipment; Replan quickly and within authority when capacity changes
Duty operations controller at Skerry Air
About 80 minutes. Included in Plus.
Fog has held twelve morning flights and three crews whose duty limits are running out. Build a recovery plan that stays inside the limits without leaning on captains' discretion, look after the passengers, and replan when an island airport says it will close early.
Skills: Rebuild a flying programme within crew duty limits; Choose which service to protect when not all can run; Refuse to plan on discretion under pressure; Arrange passenger care and priority help through the right team; Replan quickly when a new constraint arrives
Legal operations assistant at Kittering Homes
About 60 minutes. Included in Plus.
A supplier has sent back your company's contract with fifteen changes and the sales team wants it signed by Friday week. Sort the changes against the playbook, escalate what you cannot agree, and answer the supplier without giving away more than you may.
Skills: Review contract changes against a playbook; Spot a change of meaning hidden in a definition; Escalate with a clear risk and recommendation; Negotiate in writing within your authority
Audit associate at Hartwell and Achebe LLP
About 70 minutes. Included in Plus.
Twelve expense claims sit in your sample. Test each against the client's policy, tell control deviations from misstatements, query the client without accusing anyone, and project what you found to the whole year.
Skills: Test transactions against a client policy, attribute by attribute; Tell a control deviation from a misstatement; Query a client for evidence without accusing anyone; Project sample errors and compare them with audit thresholds
People advisor at Fenwick & Hale Insurance
About 55 minutes. Included in Plus.
Run the monthly absence review for one team, advise a team leader who wants to start a formal process for the wrong reasons, and arrange a fair stage 1 meeting for someone who does meet a trigger.
Skills: Apply attendance triggers using the policy, not the export; Advise a manager on disability and reasonable adjustments; Push back on a manager within your role and escalate; Arrange a fair formal meeting with correct notice
Security risk and compliance manager at Brackenfield Retail Group
About 80 minutes. Included in Plus.
Marketing wants a fast growing analytics vendor live before Black Friday, and it wants 1.2 million customers' names, emails and card digits. Assess the vendor's evidence, score the risk, design the controls that would make an exception acceptable, and keep the gate shut when the vendor reveals an old incident.
Skills: Assess vendor controls on evidence, not answers; Score third-party risk by a defined method; Design compensating controls that change the risk; Route a risk decision to the right approver; Hold a security gate under commercial pressure
Facilities and procurement coordinator at Marlow Street Studios
About 85 minutes. Included in Plus.
The office cleaning contract ends in six weeks. Reconcile a year of invoices against the contract and the sign-in log, recommend to your manager whether to renew, negotiate or retender and what needs approval from whom, and put the practice's position to the supplier.
Skills: Reconcile invoiced work against contract terms and site records; Evaluate commercial options under budget and authority constraints; Respect approval limits and escalate the right decision; Communicate a negotiating position to a supplier honestly
Assistant restaurant manager at The Gannet Kitchen
About 55 minutes. Included in Plus.
The weekly food cost has jumped from 31 to 40.5 percent and head office sees it on Wednesday. Find what is wrong in the records, query the supplier, and explain what is really driving the cost.
Skills: Check purchases and stock records for errors; Calculate a weekly food cost percentage; Query a supplier politely and within authority; Explain the cause of a cost rise with figures and options
Fundraising officer at Kestrel Valley Wildlife Trust
About 75 minutes. Included in Plus.
Check two months of donations for the Gift Aid claim, then tell a major donor that the project she funded has been cancelled and give her a real choice, and report both to the fundraising committee.
Skills: Apply Gift Aid rules donation by donation; Handle restricted funds within charity rules; Give a major donor bad news and a real choice; Report figures and decisions to a committee
Communications manager at Orchard Gold Drinks Ltd
About 70 minutes. Included in Plus.
A mother's video of glass in your best selling juice is spreading, a second customer has posted a photo, a supermarket wants an answer by one, and the managing director wants to say the product is completely safe. Read the situation, issue a careful holding statement, and communicate the recall when it comes.
Skills: Assess the severity of an incident from evidence; Write a holding statement that is accurate and kind; Advise a senior leader against words that will backfire; Communicate a recall clearly to consumers, retailers and media; Work within legal approval and decision rights
Procurement officer at Eastmoor District Council
About 85 minutes. Included in Plus.
Four bids for a three year grounds contract. Score them exactly as published, deal with a price that looks too low and a panel member's late declaration, recommend an award within the rules, and handle the people who want to know the result early.
Skills: Apply a published evaluation method exactly; Investigate an abnormally low bid against the specification; Handle a late conflict of interest and recalculate; Recommend an award within budget and approval rules; Handle councillors and bidders within procurement rules
Operations assistant at Millbrook Bakehouse
About 55 minutes. Included in Plus.
Work out the week's supplier order from the records and the rules, cover a barista shift without breaking the hours limit, then send the order and fix the rota so the week runs from the records.
Skills: Work out an order from records, rules and pack sizes; Read a lead time against a date; Find the cover that fits the rules, not the easiest one; Turn an approval into records other people run from
Data analyst at Kibble and Co
About 70 minutes. Included in Plus.
The dashboard says repeat purchases have halved since June and marketing wants 50,000 pounds to win customers back. Check what the number measures, find out what changed in June and what is incomplete, and tell the board what the data really says before it spends the money.
Skills: Check what a measure means before trusting its trend; Separate a mix effect and incomplete periods from real change; Combine rates correctly from counts; Write a board note that leads with the answer; Disagree with a colleague's figures constructively
Site safety advisor at Pellow Construction
About 75 minutes. Included in Plus.
Twelve findings from the weekly safety walk. Decide which work stops now under the procedure, deal with a roofing contractor who wants to keep working, and tell the client the truth about the scaffold she has come to see.
Skills: Apply stop work criteria consistently; Enforce permit to work conditions under pressure; Say who must act and by when on every finding; Report safety matters accurately to a client
Clinical research coordinator at Hallam Road Clinical Research Unit
About 80 minutes. Included in Plus.
Fourteen trial participants to check before the monitor arrives. Find the visit and eligibility deviations, report a major one honestly while the investigator and a nurse push for a softer version, then beat the 24 hour clock on a serious adverse event without making a medical call.
Skills: Check participants against a protocol; Report a deviation honestly and on time; Protect source records under pressure; Meet a safety reporting deadline; Stay inside delegated authority
Supply planner at Thornbury Kitchenware
About 70 minutes. Included in Plus.
The lead time from Portugal has jumped from six weeks to nine, and the best seller has a big promotion before Christmas. Project the stock, recommend what to do with the costs, and help sales tell the biggest customer the truth.
Skills: Project stock week by week and find a shortfall; Compare supply options on cost, timing and risk; Request approval within purchasing limits; Support honest customer commitments with numbers
Team leader, Supplier Payments at Brackwell Supplies
About 95 minutes. Included in Plus.
One of your team has met the quality trigger two months running. Read his error rates like for like, plan the foreign-currency work for November, and decide what to tell him and your manager.