Legal & General Candidate Interview Pack

1. Legal & General Candidate Interview Pack August 2014 An information pack to provide detailed information on the Legal & General, the roles and the interview process

2. CONTENTS • About Legal & General and What we do (page 3) • Legal & General products (page 4) • Adverts – CS and PCM (pages 5 & 6) • Hours, Salary & Benefits – range and bens (page 7) • Interview process – telephone screen, role-play, testing, interview (CBI) (page 8) • What is a Competency Based Interview (page 9) • How to answer a Competency Based Interview (page 10)

3. LEGAL & GENERAL, ABOUT US & WHAT WE DO • ABOUT US • We’re one of the world’s largest insurance and investment management groups, with assets under management of £465bn (c.$795bn) at 30 June 2014. • Established in London in 1836, we have been providing insurance for our customers for over 178 years. • With more than 9,000 employees we guard and look after the financial security of over 10 million customers worldwide with a ceaseless desire to provide excellent service • WHAT WE DO • We enable our customers, who range from some of the world’s largest companies and funds to millions of individuals and families, to manage their financial futures whether by protecting against unforeseen events, helping to save for retirement or investing money to deliver growth over time. • We deploy our strong balance sheet, our ability to understand and pool risk, our market insight and our capacity to create good value customer propositions for every customer, large or small. • Our strong social purpose means that we strive at all times to do the right thing not just for our customers and shareholders, but for the broader economy and society at large

4. LEGAL & GENERAL PRODUCTS LIFE COVER • Life Assurance • Mortgage Life Assurance • Critical Illness Cover • Over 50’s Life Assurance PENSIONS • Stakeholder Pension • Workplace Pension • INSURANCE • Home Insurance • Landlord Insurance • Car Insurance • Lifestyle Cover Insurance • Pet Insurance • INVESTMENTS • Various ISA products

5. ADVERT– PERSONAL CLAIMS MANAGER (PCM) • We are one of The Sunday Times Top 25 Big Companies to Work For and one of the UK’s leading financial services companies. We are looking for talented customer service individuals who can join us in achieving our goal to make life better by inspiring more people to protect their lifestyles. We have a strong team ethos where we work together to achieve the best for the Customer • As a Personal Claims Manager, you will put customers at the heart of everything you do. You will be a point of contact to our customers who are looking to make a household claim. You will manage the customer experience throughout the claim process, managing each case from start to finish and delivering a high level of customer satisfaction • We are keen to hear from experienced call handlers and people who are keen to start an exciting career in customer services • You will have: • An outgoing nature and be confident on the phone • Passion for customers and put them at the heart of everything you do • Motivated to deliver great service and have high standards • A talent for making customers feel special • Empathy – able to relate to our customers • Brilliant listening skills • Confidence when working alone but you will also love working in a team environment • Strong IT skills • What’s in it for you: • Competitive salary • Competitive benefits package • Fantastic staff pension scheme • Employee discount scheme • Share schemes • Career development – many of our agents have progressed in to Senior Management roles within Insurance and other exciting roles in the wider company • Other great benefits include a cycle to work to work scheme, childcare vouchers and various share schemes • What happens now: • We review your application • If we feel you meet the above criteria we will contact you to complete a telephone interview, a telephone role play and some online testing • You will be invited to attend a 1 hour interview. You will also get to meet the team and understand more about the role

6. ADVERT – CUSTOMER SERVICE ADVISOR (CSA) • We are one of The Sunday Times Top 25 Big Companies to Work For and one of the UK’s leading financial services companies. We are looking for talented customer service individuals who can join us in achieving our goal to make life better by inspiring more people to protect their lifestyles. We have a strong team ethos where we work together to achieve the best for the Customer • As a Customer Service Advisor, you will put customers at the heart of everything you do. You will be a point of contact to our customers to provide an in-depth high quality service by resolving customer queries on our general household insurance products. Responding to enquiries and quotations at all levels you will ensure the delivery of a fast, effective and technically excellent response to customers • We are keen to hear from experienced call handlers and people who are keen to start an exciting career in customer services • You will have: • An outgoing nature and be confident on the phone • Passion for customers and put them at the heart of everything you do • Motivated to deliver great service and have high standards • A talent for making customers feel special • Empathy – able to relate to our customers • Brilliant listening skills • Confidence when working alone but you will also love working in a team environment • Strong IT skills • What’s in it for you: • Competitive salary • Competitive benefits package • Fantastic staff pension scheme • Employee discount scheme • Share schemes • Career development – many of our agents have progressed in to Senior Management roles within Insurance and other exciting roles in the wider company • Other great benefits include a cycle to work to work scheme, childcare vouchers and various share schemes • What happens now: • We review your application • If we feel you meet the above criteria we will contact you to complete a telephone interview, a telephone role play and some online testing • If you pass; you will be invited to attend a 1 hour interview. You will also get to meet the team and understand more about the role

7. HOURS, SALARY & BENEFITS • HOURS • It is a 35 hour week • You will work a 7 hour shift between 8am-8pm Monday to Thursday (i.e. 8am-4pm, 9am-5pmetc), 8am-6pm Fridays and Saturdays 9am-1pm • You will be required to work 1 in every 3RD Saturday • SALARY RANGE • Between £14,500-£22,500 depending on experience • BENEFITS • Pension - 5% employer 2% default personal contribution (=7%) or 10% company contribution if employee contributes 5% (=15%) • Overtime - 1.5 x hourly rate for PRE AGREED overtime • Holiday - 22 days + 1 every 2 years up to 26 days – option to buy or sell up to 5 days on agreement with your manager (you have to take a minimum of 20 days holiday) • Life Cover - 4 x base salary • Share Schemes - All employee (FTC not eligible) • Annual Pay Review - Annual Salary Review & performance bonus (when eligible) – Review January and paid in March

8. INTERVIEW PROCESS • It is a 4 stage interview process; • Stage 1 – Telephone Pre-Screen – This is provided to you on a separate document • You will be called by a Legal & General Recruiter to talk through your skills and experience, ask your salary expectations, availability, reasons for being interested in the role and Legal & General etc. You will also be asked about any CCJs, IVAs, bankruptcies so please volunteer this information when asked • Stage 2 – Telephone Role-Play – This is provided to you on a separate document • Prior to the call you will be emailed information on the role-play. You will have a one-to-one call with a Legal & General manager going through the role-play, it takes 15-20 minutes max • Stage 3 – Online Testing • If you pass the role-play you will be invited to do an online test which includes - basic numerical and verbal reasoning, attention to detail and a ‘Can Do, Will Do, Will Fit’ (Do you have intellectual ability, Do you have the right attitude, Are you a match with what we are looking for). It takes approximately 30 minutes. Please be somewhere quiet and uninterrupted as it is a timed test • Stage 4 – Face-to-Face Interview (CBI) • If you pass the testing you will be invited to attend a 1 hour face-to-face interview at Legal & General offices. You will be interviewed by 2 Managers. This is a Competency Based Interview (CBI)

9. WHAT IS A COMPETENCY BASED INTERVIEW (CBI) • A competency interview is a style of interviewing often used to evaluate a candidate's competence, particularly when it is hard to select on the basis of technical merit (Wikijobs) • RESEARCH & PRACTICE • It is important that you research CBI’s by doing Google searches. Some sources are; • The information provided on page 11 of this document • www.totaljobs.co.uk • www.reed.co.uk • Practice – once you have some examples of competency questions go through your experience and practice giving answers. Your experience may be from a previous unrelated career or if you have no commercial experience you can use personal or academic examples

10. HOW TO ANSWER A CBI • Congratulations on being shortlisted for an interview with Legal and General! • The structure of your interview will be a competency/capability based and we have provided you with this document to help you prepare in the best way possible. • When answering these styles of questions, the recruiting manager will be looking for specific examples in each of your answers. In order to provide a structured answer and give the interviewer what they are looking for one of the ways to do this is to follow the STAR approach. • The acronym STAR stands for; Situation, Task, Action, Result • STAR is a communication technique designed to enable you to provide a meaningful and complete answer to questions asking for examples. The information will be given to them in a structured manner and, as a result, they will become more receptive to the messages you are trying to communicate. • Step 1 – Situation or Task • Describe the situation that you were confronted with or the task that needed to be accomplished. With the STAR approach you need to set the context. Make it concise and informative, concentrating solely on what is useful to the story. For example, if the question is asking you to describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult person, explain how you came to meet that person and why they were being difficult. If the question is asking for an example of teamwork, explain the task that you had to undertake as a team. • Step 2 – Action • This is the most important section of the STAR approach as it is where you will need to demonstrate and highlight the skills and personal attributes that the question is testing. Now that you have set the context of your story, you need to explain what you did. In doing so, you will need to remember the following: • Be personal, i.e. talk about you, not the rest of the team. • Go into some detail. Do not assume that they will guess what you mean. • Steer clear of technical information, unless it is crucial to your story. • Explain what you did, how you did it, and why you did it. • What you did and how you did it • The interviewer will want to know how you reacted to the situation. This is where you can start selling some important skills. For example, you may want to describe how you used the team to achieve a particular objective and how you used your communication skills to keep everyone updated on progress etc. • Why you did it • For example; when discussing a situation where you had to deal with conflict, many candidates would simply say: “I told my colleague to calm down and explained to him what the problem was”. However, it would not provide a good idea of what drove you to act in this manner. How did you ask him to calm down? How did you explain the nature of the problem? By highlighting the reasons behind your action, you would make a greater impact. For example: • “I could sense that my colleague was irritated and I asked him gently to tell me what he felt the problem was. By allowing him to vent his feelings and his anger, I gave him the opportunity to calm down. I then explained to him my own point of view on the matter, emphasising how important it was that we found a solution that suited us both." • This revised answer helps the interviewers understand what drove your actions and reinforces the feeling that you are calculating the consequences of your actions, thus retaining full control of the situation. • Step 3 – Result • Explain what happened eventually – how it all ended. Also, use the opportunity to describe what you accomplished and what you learnt in that situation. This helps you make the answer personal and enables you to highlight further skills. • This is probably the most crucial part of your answer. Interviewers want to know that you are using a variety of generic skills in order to achieve your objectives. Therefore you must be able to demonstrate in your answer that you are taking specific actions because you are trying to achieve a specific objective and not simply by chance.