2024

10 HR Manager Interview Questions

Are you looking for the top HR manager interview questions? We have got the best collection for you.

So, you’ve been working in the HR department for a while and are ready to take your leadership skills to the next step as an HR manager. It’s no surprise that human resources, and to be more specific, HR manager, is a highly sought-after career, given that there are over 25,000 positions available with a median income of around $78,000. If this is one of the most prestigious jobs in America, then being an HR manager is an accomplishment.

However, getting this job to use the position’s privileges is best. If you’re an HR professional, you already understand that the most incredible method to improve your interview performance is to understand how the HR job works and practice more.

Practicing typical interview questions and sample answers is a good idea. Still, if you intend to surprise the hiring team, you’ll need to go further and find interview questions that pertain to the position you’re seeking. If you want to learn the HR manager interview questions via video, watch the video below. Otherwise, skip ahead.

Top 10 HR Manager Interview Questions

We’ve compiled a list of the most often-asked interview questions, including behavioral interview questions, from HR manager candidates and advice on approaching them.

1. When it comes to Leadership, What is Your Style?

Employers are often eager to learn about the leadership style of HR manager candidates. Leadership style is one of the important qualities of HR managers. It influences the company culture and the whole team’s productivity. So, the interviewer will need to know your leadership style.

Many interviewers prefer a specific management style, and it’s OK to communicate that preference. However, remember that what has succeeded for you earlier won’t always be the ideal decision if you transfer to a new firm with a different team and company culture.

“One needs to adapt to each team member and also to the whole team,” one interviewee explains. The idea here is to demonstrate a willingness to change to your potential employer while still describing your unique team management style.

2. How do you Plan to Achieve your Goals as an HR Manager?

Moreover, HR isn’t just about dispensing benefits or resolving employee conflicts; it’s about delivering business outcomes via efficient HR team management. The hiring approach will focus on identifying the right person well-suited to manage a team.

If you want to impress potential interviewers, talk about the key projects you’d undertake at the entry-level or previous role, how you’d assess success, and how the efforts would affect the organization and your career.

Having a definite plan in place is crucial. A candidate applying for an HR manager position knows the significance of having definite goals and can create definite plans to achieve them. A hiring manager prefers candidates who know their short-term and long-term goals and can build plans to achieve objectives.

Looking to master HR manager skills so you can become a professional HR manager? Enroll in our HR management certification course right now to upskill your knowledge and enhance your chances of winning the seat:

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3. What’s your Favorite aspect of Working in Human Resources?

As a new hire, you can’t love every aspect of your profession. At all costs, you should avoid a negative or reluctant tone. Employers design interview processes and interview questions in such a way that they can assess the capabilities of all the candidates. Job seekers’ answers matter greatly to hiring managers, so you must choose the right answer.

For example, if you dislike the recruiting approach, you shouldn’t just state, “I despise the job elimination procedure.” “Recruiting candidates isn’t part of my skill set, but I know how crucial it is for the company to identify and hire the best candidate. Thus, I do not hesitate to take it on as one of my tasks” is more appropriate. This answer will go a long way in determining your interview outcome and shaping your career.

4. How would you Describe your Dream Company Culture?

Of all HR interview questions, there are several reasons why this is an important question for an HR manager candidate. For example, it allows you to identify your skills and elaborate on the specific tools and resources you’ll need to succeed in your work environment and manage a team as a new employee.

Evaluating if the organization you’re interviewing with matches your ideal company culture is helpful. It is also a fantastic place to begin discussing how you’d change the workplace and the company’s culture.

5. How do you Feel about Job Slayings as an HR Professional?

In any company, making difficult decisions is common in human resources. For example, it includes team layoffs and cost reduction efforts, like firings, which are bad news for employees. That’s not the best place to begin as an HR manager. However, you will first have to identify challenges faced by new and older employees.

Essential HR manager skills

In the case of underperforming employees, a performance management system involving skills review may become precisely what the doctor ordered. A moment comes when you must let an employee leave for the company’s sake. It’s crucial to let your future employer know that you realize that when that doesn’t work out or employees do anything terrible, you will then become ready to do what is required of you.

6. Describe when you had to Deal with a Challenging Employer, HR Manager, Boss, or Colleague.

Regardless of the management position, this is one of the common interview questions, and showing successful conflict resolution in the HR interview is vital to the hiring manager as an incoming Human Resource manager. Learning about resolving complicated human resources disputes, such as one between worker and upper-level management conflicts, is quite challenging.

To answer this question, describe your experience as a team member and your actions to solve a challenging situation, like creating a job description. You can also tell how you demonstrated level-headedness and the outcomes you achieved for the organization. It will not just impress your hiring managers but will also portray you as a top talent.

7. Describe a Situation in your Life when you had to Depart from a Policy.

A company’s mission statement aims to guide employees on what to do and how to do it. It plays a crucial role in any HR position and is directly related to the broad company policies. As a candidate, it’s important to identify what the company stands for, its overall policies, and how it follows national labor laws.

However, establishing and enforcing rules and procedures in an organization doesn’t imply they are a firm part of HR policy. This question requires you as a candidate to explain why and how you chose to deviate from the company norm and how that choice influenced future policy.

Remember that this is a tricky question that will determine your career path. Although you might have different opinions on dealing with employee grievances, the first step is to make sure you know what the current company requires of its team members and what the current position will require you to handle the policies.

As a candidate, the interviewer will put your policy-handling skills to the test. Therefore, explain how you will handle policies whenever your team needs to perform as required. As a candidate, you must know how to resolve employee misconduct by departing from company policy.

8. How do you Handle an Unethical Scenario in your Life? What Examples can you Give?

Only some people are competent enough to handle unethical behavior by your team members or company. A human resources manager should know what to do if encountering such a situation. A person can’t handle an HR job position if they can’t handle unpleasant situations.

Interview skills enable employers to evaluate the competencies of all the candidates by asking questions that can dig deep into the candidate’s past. A question like this can help an employer analyze what skill set they need and whether the candidate has those skills.

Although expected, when it comes to human resources, sometimes it’s not easy to speak up for what’s right. Unlike other interview questions, answering this question in an interview process is pretty difficult, and most candidates fail to answer it correctly.

For this question, you can’t just speak about your personal experiences with unethical behavior during the interview; you must give an example of a moment when you took the first step to stop it, either in the company you worked for or in any other job.

Think about a hypothetical issue and how you would handle it if you don’t have any relevant personal experience to contribute. After that, give an example of a team scenario in your job and how you can handle it.

9. If you were Interviewing me, what Question would you Consider asking Me?

For HR professionals, getting the chance to ask an interview question or ask for an example answer is challenging and may also be a gateway to the job. It is another chance to show you how excited you are for the company you are applying to.

You may show your grasp of their existing pain issues about the job by asking questions that indicate a knowledge of the applicants they require and the latest news, such as cost reduction techniques in an HR role.

Depending on the company’s goals, you may want to inquire about the candidate’s skills in analytics and reporting. Is it still a mystery to you? Ask one of these weird interview questions to earn a memorable example answer from a recruiter. Explain why it’s essential to the job and the company.

10. How will Human Resources Departments Change in the next Few Years as a Result of these Trends?

Every field is revolutionizing with time. So does the human resource department. Evaluating trends is vital for HR managers to improve their management and employee engagement. If you’ve worked in human resources for a while, you might have some ideas about where the field is going.

Showing up-to-date on the latest tech sector research and discoveries is always beneficial for candidates. Consider citing your favorite human resource periodicals, trade publications, and conferences. As Glassdoor Senior Economist points out, a few key themes include transparency, artificial intelligence, and diversity and inclusion.

Many candidates fail at this question because they need proper research skills. Remember that HR is a versatile field, and knowing how trends will shift will determine your career progress as a human resources manager.

Final Remarks

Above, we have provided a list of HR manager interview questions with answers that you can use to prepare for your interview.

Before the interview, we recommend you upskill your knowledge of the HR manager’s skills and duties. You can enroll in our course for that. Upskilling is mandatory in this dynamic world; thus, the more accurate and advanced your knowledge, the higher your chances of securing a seat.

FAQs

Below are the most frequently asked questions and answers related to HR manager interview questions:

What are the duties of a human resource manager?

HR managers plan, coordinate, and direct the administrative operations of a company. They supervise the recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new staff members, consult with top executives on strategic planning, and work as a bridge between a company’s management and its workers.

How to pass an HR manager interview?

Practice discussing experiences with HR technology and how it can benefit the company. Share examples of your style of HR strategies and how you have successfully managed teams in the past. Discuss the latest trends and how you can help the company stay ahead of the curve.

What are the 7 functions of HR?

The main functions of an HR department are recruitment and hiring, training and development, employer-employee relations, company culture maintenance, employee benefits management, safe work environment development, and control of disciplinary actions.

What is the hardest part of HR?

The biggest challenge that HR experts face is the fine balance between business goals and employee requirements. They must navigate a delicate line between supporting and fighting for employees while improving results that contribute to the company’s success.

 

If you are new to Human Resources and are looking to break into an HR role, we recommend taking our HR Certification Courses, where you will learn how to build your skillset in human resources, build your human resources network, craft a great HR resume, and create a successful job search strategy.

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Josh Fechter
Josh Fechter is the founder of HR.University. He's a certified HR professional and has managed global teams across 5 different continents including their benefits and payroll. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here.