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?
"In which areas of HR do you have experience?"

An HR role can be extremely broad, so you'll need to gauge in which areas the candidate has
the most experience to determine whether they're a good match.

You'll most likely have specific needs for the business, such as recruitment and performance
management. If the candidate doesn't have much experience in these areas then perhaps
they're not the right fit for your business. This might be because they've previously worked in
an entirely different industry, and therefore focused on different areas.

Some other areas you may want to consider include:

Training & development

Policies & procedures

Compensation

Rewards & benefits

Employee relations

industrial relations

Health & safety

Managing organisational change

Payroll

Employment law

HR admin and software

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"How do you keep up with employment law?"

It’s vital that your business complies with the law and ultimately you'll need to rely on your
HR manager to ensure that it does.
So, you want someone who is knowledgeable about HR law. That doesn’t mean you need a
lawyer, but you do want someone who knows their stuff.

Some things to look out for include:

The candidate regularly reading industry magazines and reports;

being HR qualified and perhaps is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel &
Development (CIPD);

subscribing to HR newsletters;

reading HR websites, or

listening to HR podcasts.

"How can the HR role contribute to our business success?"

This interview question assesses general management ability. It tells you whether your HR

manager candidate can become an asset to your business and a great part of your company
culture or whether they are someone who just manages their daily tasks.

A candidate that has an appreciation and understanding of how HR can contribute to

achieving business goals is one that can have a huge positive impact on the business.

You'll want to find a candidate that knows the expectations of their role and who can establish
their business priorities within it. You'll also want them to be capable of making a case for the
people-related initiatives they want to pursue and, ultimately, you'll want them to know
exactly how their day-to-day work contributes to the overall goals of the business.
"How would you deal with…?"

One of the best ways of checking if the candidate sitting in front of you is right for your
company is to ask them a question directly related to it.

Think of the trickiest, most involved or most damaging HR issue that you have dealt with in
your company. Perhaps an employee raised a grievance or maybe you dealt with a particularly
tricky dismissal.

Whatever it may be, explain the problem to the candidate and ask how they'd deal with it.

Their answer will tell you how they approach issues, what they know about the law and
business implications, and, ultimately, whether they're what you're looking for.

Other questions you may want to ask

As well as the 4 key questions outlined above, you may also want to consider some of the
following topics:

How would you ensure a new employee is best inducted into the business?

Which employee benefits do you find drive the highest employee

motivation/satisfaction/retention/engagement?

What do you consider to be the most successful recruitment strategies?

Which personal development strategies do you find the most successful?

How would you go about resolving a conflict between an employee and their manager?

What can you do when an employee doesn’t want to develop in their role?

What processes or methods would you follow to deliver bad news to staff?

How can you make negative staff more positive?

How would you influence employee retention?

Which HR software packages do you have experience with?

How can you best align performance management with business strategy?

Which aspects of HR do you enjoy the most/least?

What has been your most significant contribution in an HR role?

How can you best measure the success of HR? What KPIs have you found useful?

How would you determine the priorities of your role?

What process would you follow in addressing an employee grievance?

HR managers are usually the ones doing the interviewing, so they have the skills to know
what might be asked of them and how best to answer.

But if you ask the right questions, you can gain a great insight into the candidate, their level of
experience, their fit for the role and ultimately how well-suited they are to your company.