Interview Questions for HR Applicants

Many moons back when I started off my career as a HR person, I had a chance to attend a training program. All the HR folks used to have this once a year get together and just bond. I was briefed by my boss that, being the lowest in the food chain, I had to just take the opportunity to get to know the big fish in HR. Being a really obedient kind of person I took that advice to heart. I spent the next tea break running around that huge hall like a headless chicken collecting names and faces. I will tell you upfront that I have difficulty remembering zillions of names with matching faces. Within fifteen minutes of this maniacal pursuit of perfection, I discovered that the names and faces were all a big jumbled up noodle soup. I gave up.

The break was over. All newbies were asked why they had joined Human Resources. Most of us tried to look cute and said, “Because I loooooove talking to people” or that “I am a people’s person” or that all my friends love telling me their problems and so I thought I should be in HR”. Over the next few years reality struck us between the eyes and blew all those cute statements to smithreens. But even now there are HR people lurking around in organizations who say, they are in HR because they “like being with people”. Hmmm… but dude, do PEOPLE like being with you? If like me you get heebie jeebies when people give that as their reason to choose HR, do something about it. Nip this tendency in the bud. The next time you interview HR people, spend the first hour asking them these questions. If they answer them confidently without too many disclaimers, then that is your HR person for the next few years.

 About the current employer Caveat: Whatever is not in the public domain or cannot be shared for confidentiality reasons should not be asked for during the discussion. These are some questions that help you understand if the HR person has really been a business partner or was it just a lot of sweaty nothings

1. What is the competitive scenario of that industry. How has it changed over the past three years. What do you think are factors that will impact the industry over the next three years. What data do you have to support these assumptions?

2. How does your company’s go to market strategy differ from the competitors. Which one os better and why. What has been the greatest advantage or disadvantage of using that approach.

3. What are the major consumer trends that are impacting the business? What is driving the change? What are some of the white spaces in the market? What will it take for an organization to reach those consumers? What should be investments the company should make to bring down those costs? What is the latest technological innovation that will dramatically impact the way customers choose your company’s products? Are there new demographic segments that are emerging, or going away that will affect your consumer base strongly?

4. What percentage of your time do you spend with your organization’s customers and suppliers? What do you think the suppliers or vendors’ pain points are? What are the regulatory requirements of the company’s product? What are the recent legislative changes that have had a major impact on the way the company does bnusiness?

5. What are the innovations you have done in your assignment(s)? How did the innovations come about? What alternatives did you think of before choosing this option. What is the biggest drawback of the solution you have recommended? If you look at your approach of implementing your idea, what went well and what could be done better?

For the new assignment Problem Definition and Planning Approach: It is always useful to ask for the candidates ideas on how they would approach an actual problem that the business has. It gives the hiring manager great insight on how the candidate goes around redefining the problem? Breaking down the information, creating a project plan, talking to experts, research or benchmarking are all approaches that are possible.

Ability to Innovate: Once the applicant has outlined the problem definition and planning approach, you could now check how innovative the person is. Does the person try the beaten path? Does the person come up with alternatives? Does the person have out of the box ideas? Incremental innovation or transformational innovation – what is it? (Check out that video on the innovation process and how Google uses it. )

Deep functional skills and knowledge gained through application: Functional skills that have not been applied in the business scenarios are unproven. Of course if you are hiring someone for whom this will be the first job, then this it is OK to test depth of knowledge and perhaps a deeper grill on what the internship projects or term papers have been about. All that it does to check if the person goes deep or is happy skimming the surface. Stay warned, these habits may show up often in a work setting as well.

Career path and motivation: If there is a happy fit with the candidate and the current role, most employers jump in to close the deal. Find out what drives this person. What are the career aspirations the person has and what time frame does the person wish to achieve them. Do they want a career as a generalist or as a specialist? This will be an important way to check for a match between the options available within the organization and whether the time frame that the candidate has in mind will match what the company would offer.

Whoever said hiring good HR people was an easy task?

More articles by Abhijit Bhaduri at http://abhijitbhaduri.com

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