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ERA Senior Civil Servant Exam study materials
ERA Senior Civil Servant Exam study resources

ERA Senior Civil Servant Exam: Leadership, People Management and Organisational Performance

ERA Senior Civil Servant Exam · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Leadership, People Management and Organisational Performance

What the exam tests

People leadership and organisational performance: setting direction, managing performance fairly, building capability, and handling change and underperformance within a merit-based public service.

Core rules

  • Public-service leadership is exercised within legal mandates, ministerial accountability and codes of conduct; personal authority never substitutes for lawful authority.
  • Use strategic workforce planning: future skills demand, attrition and demographic data, succession and talent pipelines.
  • Performance management is a cycle - agreed objectives, coaching, review, development - with SMART objectives linked to organisational outcomes and evidence, not activity counts.
  • Engagement rests on autonomy, mastery, purpose and recognition; measure it and act on results. Psychological safety improves error reporting and learning.
  • Manage underperformance early, factually and proportionately: clarify expectations, present evidence, offer support, set timescales, allow the right to be heard and an appeal.
  • Diversity and inclusion are performance issues: diverse teams improve decision quality only when processes are genuinely inclusive.

Worked example

A policy unit has 30% annual turnover and misses deadlines. Reasoning: resist blaming individuals. Diagnose using exit interviews, engagement scores, span of control and workflow data. If the cause is conflicting priorities and an absent deputy, the fix is prioritisation, a decision-rights matrix and a second-line manager - not more training. Set three unit objectives with baselines (on-time delivery, vacancy rate, engagement), review monthly, and evaluate after two quarters. If turnover persists, examine pay, workload and management behaviour using HR evidence.

Traps

Treating training as a universal cure; setting unmeasurable objectives; avoiding difficult conversations until formal action is forced; confusing technical expertise with leadership capability; and treating wellbeing as a private matter rather than a performance risk.