2024/25 INFORMATIONAL GUIDES13 min read

Role-Play Exercises 2024/25. Practice Exercises. Complete Guide.

Are you a recruiter or hiring manager looking for candidate pre-employment assessment tests and tools including aptitude tests?
We invite you to visit our Assess Candidates website.

What are role play exercises and how to prepare for them? Which industries use role play exercises in recruitment? Get your answers in our complete guide below to accelerate your assessment centre practice.

The text below provides a full guide to role play exercises many employers use in their recruitment, assessment and hiring process.

Our website provides assessment centre practice exercises that can be used to prepare for role play assessment tests used by top employers in their recruitment processes around the world.

1. Introduction

Not sure if you should practice to prepare for your assessment centre exercises? A recent study found that around one-third of employers use assessment centres in their application processes (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2020).

We offer a complete package of assessment centre practice tests to help you prepare for the assessment centre exercises, a part of many recruitment and assessment processes around the globe including the UK and the US.

Continue reading to get answers to the following critical role-play questions:

What is a role play exercise?
What do role play tests measure?
Which employers use role-play assessment tests?
Why do employers use role-play exercises?
How to pass role play exercises?

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

2. What is a Role Play Exercise?

A role play exercise is an assessment used to evaluate how you handle real-life work scenarios. It simulates a situation where you assume a role and interact with another person who plays the part of a colleague, client, or stakeholder.

What do role play exercises measure?

Role-play exercises are commonly used for jobs that rely on high elements of teamwork and interaction with customers. Role-play tests assess various competencies, including:

Communication
Problem-solving
Decision-making
Interpersonal skills
The ability to think on your feet

Good to know: Role-play exercises are usually timed, ranging from 15 to 40 minutes. You must manage your time effectively, addressing key issues within the allotted time frame.

Role Play Assessments – Key Facts

Role-play tests assess how you would navigate a potential work scenario with a colleague, a superior, or a customer.
Role-play exercises are often used for roles that involve high levels of interaction with people such as sales, consultancy, managers, etc
Role-play exercises are often open-ended, giving you flexibility in how you handle the situation. Employers use role play interviews to see if you would naturally handle a situation in a way that aligns with their ideals.

Did you know? Experiencing the office environment is also a significant factor for candidates in recruitment (Institute of Student Employers, 2020).

Role-play exercises are typically used during assessment centres along with other exercises such as group exercises, presentation exercises, written exercises, e-tray exercises, and in-tray exercises.
Role-play exercises are widely used in industries where communication, negotiation, and problem-solving skills are important.

Good to know: Role-play exercises can now be virtual as companies and more big employers are choosing to conduct their assessment centres online. This means virtual assessment centres may also include role play online tests.

Watch our short video below to find out why employers are now using virtual assessment centres:

Now that you know what a role play test is and its key facts, let’s move on to find out which employers and industries tend to use it more.

Which Employers Use Role-Play Tests?

Employers use role play assessments to assess applications for roles that require varying levels of interaction across all industries. Examples of industries that use role playing exercises to hire include:

Human Resources	Consulting	Customer Service
Healthcare	Sales & Marketing	Finance

The following global companies have used assessment centre role play scenarios as part of their recruitment process include:

Barclays	McDonalds	JP Morgan
BMW	RBS NatWest	Bank of America
E.ON	Hilton Worldwide	Jaguar Land Rover

Read on to find out why large employers around the world are using role play exercises to assess your potential on the job.

Why Do Employers Use Role Play Exercises?

Employers use role play exercises as they give valuable insights into your abilities and behaviours. Below are some key reasons why employers use them:

Assess Your Skills and Behaviours: Recruiters use role-play to evaluate your competencies that are relevant to the job you are applying for, such as good communication.
Simple And Efficient: Role play exercises make it easy to see what you can do in the role. With employers now adopting role play online assessment, it becomes easier to do from anywhere and increases hiring efficiency.
Gauge Cultural Fit: How you handle the role play situation provides insights into whether your working style aligns with the company’s culture and values e.g. how you interact with others indicates if you would be a good fit in a team.
Competence Over Knowledge: Role-play moves beyond knowledge and examines soft skills such as how well you work with others, your empathy, and your confidence, all of which are crucial in most professional roles.
Objective Comparison: Role-plays provide a standard format where all candidates face the same scenario, making it easier to objectively compare how different people handle the same situation and determine who stands out.
Minimise Hiring Risks: Using real-world tasks and interactions, role play exercises help employers reduce the risk of hiring wrongly. Seeing you in action gives a more complete view of your abilities, beyond resumes or interviews.
Enhances Diversity in Hiring: Role play scenarios assess practical abilities, which can help reduce bias in hiring as it allows people with problem-solving or communication skills to shine better.

Good to know: The goal of a role play assessment centre exercise is to see how you would handle a work situation, reveal your competencies, and evaluate your potential in the role you applied for.

Role Play Exercise Example

Source: Freepik

Many employers from different industries use role playing exercises to recruit. But what are they looking for? Read on to find out.

What do Employers Look for in Role Play Exercises?

Role-play exercises examine a variety of skills and competencies to identify your potential performance in a given role, such as:

Organisational Fit

Employers tend to use role play scenarios to see if you align with their approaches, culture, and values which are most often reflected in good teamwork and communication skills.

Communication Skills

Employers want to see if you can communicate clearly by evaluating different aspects of your communication skills such as active listening and adaptive communication.

Problem-Solving and Decision-Making

Employers aim to uncover how you break down complex situations and identify key issues and how you approach them with decisiveness and actionable solutions.

Interpersonal Skills

Employers use role playing exercises to assess how you respond, react, and interact with others around you in different situations.

Emotional Awareness

Employers often use role play interviews to check how well you maintain composure and handle stressful situations. They look to see your tolerance level and self-awareness.

Adaptability and Flexibility

Employers want to see how well you adapt to unexpected changes or new information in role-play exercises. Flexibility in adjusting your approach shows that you can think on your feet.

Time Management

Role-play exercises often have time constraints, so employers look for how efficiently you prioritise tasks and complete the scenario.

Customer Service Orientation

Employers look for your ability to handle clients’ concerns professionally and ensure customer satisfaction, especially in customer-facing roles.

Critical Thinking

Employers assess how well you evaluate the information presented during the role play, including how you distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information.

Good to know: Role play online tests aim to simulate the types of situations that employees may encounter in the virtual workplace, and provide a way for assessors to evaluate how well you can handle these situations.

Now that we understand which employers tend to use role play assessments and why, let’s go ahead and find out what happens during a role-play assessment test.

3. What Happens During a Role Play Exercise?

During a role play assessment test, the recruiters will pair you with other candidates or a recruiter to act out situations described in a brief containing contextual information and specific scenario instructions.

Your role play assessment will typically include the following steps:

Candidate Brief

Your assessor or recruiter will provide you with a candidate brief. This candidate brief will contain information and outline the details of the scenario you are about to encounter and act out.

Scenarios

Popular scenarios commonly used are conflicts between co-workers, a difficult customer or customer with a complaint, a problem that needs solving, etc.

Your Counterpart

This could be another candidate, your assessor, or a hired actor, who will play a key stakeholder, such as a difficult client, a dissatisfied customer, or a colleague with whom you need to negotiate.

Preparation Time

You will be given time to review the scenario and any supporting documents (e.g., emails, reports, client requests) to prepare for the upcoming interaction.

Role Play Exercise

Once the time allotted for reviewing and understanding the situation is up, you will engage in a live interaction of the situation in the brief. You will need to address the issue or challenge presented in the scenario.

Challenges

The role-play may include unexpected developments to test your ability to think on your feet. For example, the client may become more demanding, a new problem might be introduced, or time pressure could increase.

Scoring

During the exercise, your behaviours, communication style, and decision-making will be evaluated. Employers may be looking for specific skills such as how you handle objections, manage conflict, or negotiate outcomes.

Conclusion

At the end of the role play, you need to bring the conversation to a close, summarising key points or confirming the next steps (e.g., agreeing on a resolution or making a final decision).

After The Role-Play

There may be a feedback session where you will discuss how you handled the situation. You might be asked to reflect on what went well, what you could have done differently, and how you felt during the interaction.

Good to know: During role play online assessments, your body language, eye contact, and overall demeanour are also in consideration, as these can reflect confidence, professionalism, and emotional intelligence.

Watch our short video below for body language tips you can use during your role play online test:

Now that you know what to expect during a typical role-play test, let’s take a look at an example role play test question and answer tips.

4. Role Play Exercise Example Question and Answer

Check out a role play assessment example question below based around a common customer service scenario.

Scenario	You are a customer service manager at a delivery company. You have received a call from a customer who is extremely upset because their order was not delivered on time. They are threatening to leave a bad review and cancel their account with your company.
Task	In this role play assessment test, you will play the role of the manager and must handle the situation. Your goal here is to calm the customer, win them over, and ensure they retain and continue using your delivery service.

Below is a list of the typical requirements while handling this role play question:

Listen actively to the customer and acknowledge their concerns.
Be empathetic and show that you understand the customer’s frustration.
Take responsibility for the mistake and apologise for the inconvenience.
Offer a solution, such as providing a discount on their next order.
Use positive body language and maintain a calm and professional tone.
Reassure the customer and retain their patronage.

How are role play exercises assessed?

In a role play test, assessors use an assessment form listing the key competencies they’re evaluating which are relevant to the scenario and the role. They then evaluate and score you based on how well you demonstrate these competencies.

So, how do we ace these role playing exercises? Read on to find out more!

5. How to Pass a Role Play Exercise

Below are quality actionable role play tips you should consider using to help you prepare for and pass any role playing exercise:

Top 10 Tips to Pass a Role Play Exercise

Research your potential employer and the role. Role play assessments score you based on competencies required by the employer for the role. Your research will enable you to know what they are looking for.
Focus on demonstrating the core skills employers are evaluating, such as communication, decision-making, and problem-solving. Tailor your approach to highlight these competencies.
Carefully read the brief containing information for the scenario. Understand the objectives, the problem you’re expected to solve, and the stakeholders involved. This helps you interpret the role properly and use the right approach.
Play the scenario like you are actively filling the role. Employers will often have you role play the position you applied for to see how you would perform in the role.
Pay close attention to what your counterpart says. Ask clarifying questions if needed, and show you’re listening by responding thoughtfully to their concerns or objections.
Communicate clearly and confidently. Present your thoughts and ideas in the simplest way possible to ensure your partner understands you well. Also, adapt your communication style based on the situation and the role you’re playing.
Be flexible in responding to new developments or unexpected challenges in the scenario. Employers are looking for your ability to think on your feet and adjust your approach as needed.
Show emotional intelligence. Empathy is key in many role plays, especially in conflict resolution or customer service scenarios. Acknowledge the other person’s perspective and work towards a win-win solution.
Manage your time wisely. Role plays are often time-constrained. Try to address key points efficiently and expertly move the conversation towards a resolution.
Be ready to reflect on your performance if asked. Showing self-awareness and a willingness to learn from feedback can strengthen your overall evaluation.

Looking for more role play practice? Get started with our assessment centre package that includes several role play examples.

And with this, we have covered everything you need to know about role play tests.

Before you go, don’t miss even more answers to key frequently asked questions about role play assessment tests below!

6. Role Play Exercise FAQs

1 What is a role play interview?

A role play interview is another name for a role play exercise. It involves you acting out a scenario that you would likely face in the role you’re applying for. Employers may refer to this as a role play online assessment if the interview is to occur virtually.

2 How long do I have to prepare for a role play exercise?

To prepare for a role play you are usually given around 20-30 minutes. Some employers will also inform you beforehand that you will be required to partake in a role play test. This is why it remains important to research your potential employer.

3 What are examples of role-play in assessment centres?

Common examples of role play situations used in assessment centres are customer complaint resolution, handling an uncooperative team member, client relationship management, managing a workplace conflict, and leading a team meeting.

4 Are role-play exercises good in recruitment?

Yes, role-play exercises are good as they are highly effective for both employers and candidates. They provide more accuracy in assessing people for employers and give candidates the best opportunity to showcase their skills.

5 What are the benefits of a role play exercise in an assessment centre?

Role play assessments are beneficial as they provide a simulated work environment for you to understand your role and for assessors to evaluate your suitability. You can also use the feedback from the exercise to improve your skills for future roles.

Do you want to pass your role-play assessment test the first time? Do you want to get access to role play practice questions? Start your assessment centre exercise practice today with GF, the only aptitude practice test expert providing practice test solutions to over 150 UK universities and their students, and also across Asia and continental Europe.

Practice with peace of mind without commitment to a full 100% money-back guarantee if you do not pass your job tests.