I don't necessarily see "determining what level of disciplinary sanction to give" as a basic decision - in essence it shows judgement, analysis of the situation and awareness of both employment law and the wider content of the business. It can easily be used to show your decision making ability and more important your wider commercial judgement.

I don't think they really care what the decision was. The thing they are looking for is how you contextualise it, what factors you took into account and how you took the decision forward to a result. Its being able to give that narrative that I would be looking for.

In a work context it could be any of

• Deciding to take a new job or course of study
• Producing a recommendation to a Board or Leadership team
• Getting a manager to change their mind
• Developing a new policy and what went into it
• Being told confidential information by an employee and what you did with it

I assume you are aware of STAR - its probably worth modelling a few answers using it to help you

Claire

Adding to Keith's very good advice. What is the most significant decision you have ever made in your life? Doesn't have to be work related, and the chances are that it isn't.

What was the situation? How did you generate ideas and options for solutions/desired outcomes? How did you evaluate each of those options in terms of likely consequences, leading to your decision to adopt one of them? How did you measure the success of that decision and what lessons were learned?

Maybe put that into a narrative to demonstrate the process you use to make informed and effective decisions.

I wouldn't be surprised if you have taken ( or have been involved in taking) business decisions on any of the following
- what to pay for a product or service
- selecting a candidate
- what to pay the candidate
- selecting a preferred supplier of outsourced services
- what to pay for the service
- where to hold an important event
- what to include in an agenda for an important meeting
- what job to apply for
- what cpd events to attend
fully agree with Keith that the interviewers are most likely to be wanting to find out what your approach was to the decision making process eg gathering data, identifying stakeholders, evaluating/ analyzing options , selecting a preferred solution, identifying advantages and disadvantages, identifying a back up solution, planning implementation, communicating your decision, evaluating it, making adjustments if necessary. Good luck, hope you get the job this time around

You can look outside work, too. A question of mine that I've used for roles that are relatively junior but in which the qualities of judgement and decision-making are required has been "Tell me about a significant purchase you recently made. How did you reach the decision to spend the money?"

It has stumped a lot of candidates because they made significant decisions without going through any sort of articulated process. They didn't weigh up the options. They didn't consider alternative solutions. They didn't consult with other stakeholders. Their decision-making process was "Ooh, shiny!"

So you might look at buying a house or just moving to a new rental, or purchasing a car or a rail season ticket (or a football season ticket!) or a holiday, or buying a pet...

All of these are major, life-changing decisions either because they represent a shift in lifestyle, or because they involve an outlay of cash that might otherwise be spent on other things that you forego for the thing in question. The interviewer in my case or in yours is looking for the same thing: that the interviewee not only had a decision-making process but that he or she is capable of articulating what it was.