Prior to the interview all communication was by email. The first stage was a group interview with about 10 other candidates. There was a mixture of presentation style questions (why do you want to work for ToolStation, where do you see yourself in 12 months, what does great customer service look like) - you are given time to prepare for all of these. Next there was a numerical assessment which was really straight forward. After that there was another exercise where you had to pick 3 words out of a list that were most important as a retail manager. Again these were presented back to the group. Finally there was a written exercise with more competency based questions- what have you achieved in the past year, what strengths could you bring to ToolStation, etc. After a couple of days I was called for a phone interview. Not sure if this is standard or not but the HR recruiter wasn't able to make our assessment day. This consisted of more of the same kind of questions as well as talking through my experience. This was done on Friday. On Monday I heard the outcome of the interview.

Online is ok. In person - there are no privacy in interview as the table and chairs are by the open planned staff area where noises, people passing by, lots of distractions.