HR Manager interview questions and answers

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HR Manager Interview Questions

Find the right HR Manager for your organization using the questions below. These questions are written to help you assess your HR Manager’s knowledge of the field of human resources—especially topics such as regulatory matters, tech tools, and overall strategy.

Ideally, your candidate will be able to discuss, in detail, the HR operations at their previous company. They should also be able to justify any major decisions they’ve made with measurable outcomes, and explain how their work supports big picture business goals.

Strong interpersonal skills, including a high level of tact, diplomacy, and objectivity, are important in this position. Your HR Manager must be able to establish strong working relationships with management, employees, vendors, and other outside resources. They will also be called upon for occasional conflict resolution. In addition, whether your HR Manager is a mid-level employee, or responsible for overseeing the entire department, they will have some responsibilities in staffing and training their team.

Operational and Situational questions

 

• Describe your ideal onboarding process. In what ways would this process provide the best hiring experience? How does the onboarding process support the company’s business goals?
• Describe your hiring approach. How and where do you find talented job applicants?
• Provide an example of a time when you led a complex HR project from inception to conclusion.
• What would be the first employee policy you would draft as a new HR manager? Why is this policy a high priority? How would you ensure company-wide compliance with this policy?
• How do you define company culture? What would you do to help maintain it as the company grows?
• Which HR technology tools do you prefer? Can you suggest one system per function for us—applicant tracking, payroll, onboarding, referrals?
• In your experience, which benefits/perks drive the highest employee satisfaction and engagement?
• How do you stay current and ensure compliance with national labor laws like taxes, industrial laws, social security, health insurance? Have you ever experienced a misstep that resulted in regulatory issues? How did you handle it?
• In your experience, what is the most effective way to resolve employee and upper level management conflicts?

Find and recruit HR managers using Workable’s Boolean search cheatsheets