Making Effective Decisions EO Example — 250-Word Statement
At EO, assessors expect you to analyse information, not just collect it: comparing options against policy, cost and risk, then deciding promptly within your remit. Your statement should show judgement on work that matters to a team or service, with a clear rationale and a quantified outcome.
Example statement
SI coordinate same-day deliveries for a regional courier firm. One morning the main bypass closed without warning after a lorry fire, threatening 14 timed deliveries on three vans.
TI had to decide, within the hour, how to complete all 14 deliveries without breaking the drivers' legal hours or the fuel budget.
AI established the real position before choosing anything. I rang the highways authority's information line, which estimated a four-hour closure, and checked live traffic maps to see which alternative roads were already gridlocked. I then pulled up each van's remaining driving hours and the promised time windows for all 14 drops. I mapped three options: divert all three vans onto the long rural route, adding about 90 minutes each; hold two vans and complete their drops after reopening, accepting late deliveries; or consolidate the eight urgent, penalty-carrying drops onto the two vans with most hours left and return one van to base. I costed each against overtime and late-delivery penalties. The rural route was safest for timings but put one driver 40 minutes over his permitted hours, so I rejected it. Consolidation kept everyone legal and protected the priority deliveries, so I chose it. I phoned the six affected customers myself to agree revised afternoon slots, rebriefed the drivers, and logged the decision for the depot manager.
RAll 14 deliveries were completed the same day, only two arrived late with the customer's agreement, and we avoided £180 in penalties. The depot kept my rerouting checklist for future closures.
Use this as a model, not a script. This is an original example written for this site. Adapt the structure to your own experience — copying it word for word risks plagiarism and will not reflect your evidence.
Why this scores well
- Gathers the right evidence under time pressure (closure estimate, live traffic, driver hours, time windows) before choosing a route plan.
- Compares three costed options and rejects one on legal grounds, showing judgement that weighs rules alongside service.
- Uses numbers to prove the outcome (14 deliveries completed, £180 penalties avoided) and creates a reusable checklist.
What EO level requires
| Grade | What assessors expect |
|---|---|
| AO | At AO, making effective decisions means using the information in front of you, following guidance and policy, and making sound day-to-day decisions within your own role, escalating anything outside it. |
| EO ← this page | At EO, making effective decisions means gathering and interpreting information from several sources, weighing options within policies and procedures, and making timely decisions on your own caseload or area of work. |
| HEO | At HEO, making effective decisions means analysing information from a range of sources, identifying the real options, weighing evidence, cost and risk, and making sound judgements on issues affecting your team or service. |
Common mistakes at this level
- Listing every fact you gathered without showing how you interpreted it or what it meant for the decision.
- Describing a team decision where your personal contribution is impossible to isolate from everyone else's.
- Choosing an example with no time pressure or trade-off, so the decision looks automatic rather than judged.
Frequently asked questions
Decisions affecting a caseload, a process or a small team's day: rerouting deliveries after a closure, handling a stock shortage, settling a disputed invoice or prioritising a backlog. The decision should be yours to make, involve weighing at least two genuine options, and have a consequence you can measure.
For each piece of information you gathered, say what it told you and how it shaped the choice. Phrases like 'this showed the surge was structural', 'which ruled out the cheapest option' or 'that changed the decision' turn description into analysis. Assessors mark EO statements down when facts are listed but never used.
Yes. At EO, decisions are usually made inside a policy framework, and assessors want to see you used it intelligently: finding the clause that applied, checking the limits of your authority, and recording your reasoning. A decision that ignores policy, or one that hides behind it without judgement, both score poorly.
Next step
Get the free EO statement template pack — the same STAR structure used in this example.
Download the template pack