HR Interview Tips

So you have passed the first one or two interviews and more or less feel like the job is yours.  Don’t be fooled.  The HR interview is the final mandate before you are offered that all important position.  We asked the experts about HR interviews and the sort of process they follow.

Generally an interview with an HR department takes place at the end of an interview process.

At this stage candidates will have been tested on technical, functional and business skills as well as fit with the team they will joining. As a result of this the HR Interview is used to assess an individual’s skills as they relate to a wider organisation. Therefore a “competency based interview” framework will be used to assess what advantage an individual brings to an organisation in the longer-term. Finally salary/ financial aspects of the role will be discussed.

Interviewers will tend to score you on examples of past actions and behaviours to see if they match what competencies we are looking for e.g. Ability to work under pressure.  They tend to rate you based on your answers.  E.g 4 = Excellent, 3 = Adequate, 2= Borderline, 1 = Unacceptable

Preparation
In short there is no thorough way to prepare as the answers you give are indicative of your character, experience and approach to your work. The most successful way to prepare is to read through your own CV and recall the projects you have worked on which can be utilised as examples of team working/ leadership/ dealing with pressure.

Remember that not all questions will ask for positive descriptions e.g.
“Tell me about a time when you struggled on a failing project”

N.B Clearly here the objective is to see how you have dealt with adverse circumstances, if you claim to have only worked on projects which were delivered on time, on budget and without difficulty then you are either lying, inexperienced or most likely both.

Below follows a brief description of the type of questions an interviewer will complete during the process, each subject will be questioned in a way so as to allow an individual to draw upon examples from their own career.   Examples of competency based questions are :-

Typical Questions covered

Communication
Tell me about a time when you worked with people from a culture unlike your own. What did you do to overcome any perceived barriers to communication?

Recruiters Tip – If you have not worked in a large global organisation, have you travelled extensively/ are you a member of non-work group with diverse membership

Adaptability, Energy & Resilience
Tell me about a time when you most felt under pressure. How did you handle the situation?
What has been your most satisfying / disappointing work experience?

Problem Solving & Decision Making
Tell me about an unpopular or other difficult decision you have had to make.
Tell me about a situation where you achieved a satisfactory outcome to a problem that others thought could be solved. What did you do and what was the outcome?

Leadership
Tell me about a time when you were inspired others to meet a common goal.
Tell me about a time when you needed to influence different stakeholders with different perspectives.

Teamwork
What kinds of people do you enjoy working with? What kinds of people frustrate you?
How do you manage each of these?
How would your former/current colleagues describe you?

Personal Career Objectives
What are the most important things you are seeking in your next career move?

What impact do you think you will have on our business?
Recruiters note – Be prepared to discuss this in both immediate, medium and longer terms

Salary Information
Current salary and benefits; desired salary and benefits; bonus expectations; notice period; holidays booked over the months ahead; etc

The Salary Question
One of the key/ most challenging parts of the process. HR will get involved in all salary decisions and will have an idea prior to meeting you of the salary ranges which people earn within your profession, and with your experience. Firstly you will be asked about your current earnings and package, usually they will then describe the firms benefits scheme. You are then likely to be asked outright:
“Bearing in mind what you know about the role what salary would we need to offer you in order to get you on-board?”

If you are using a recruitment agent prior to this stage of the process you should have discussed with them you salary expectations. A good agent should be able to advise you on what the market is currently paying and should also be seeking to get you the best possible salary in order to maximise their commission.

There are two main ways to answer this question, Firstly, you can chose to play by numbers

• “I will need a minimum of x”, “A range of somewhere between x and y”

Whatever your figures are you should be prepared to back them up with reasons why this is the case e.g. This is what former colleagues have earn, this is what you have seen roles advertised at etc

• Non numerical (this is used if you are unwilling/ would prefer not to discuss salary)
• “I trust your company to offer me a fair market rate”, “Speak to my agent about this”
• “I’m not interested purely for the financial benefits so offer my what you feel I am worth”

Top Tips for HR Interviews

Do not only refer to the team
Interviewers are interested in what you contributed not your colleagues. Therefore “The project was to deliver… I was responsible for… the problem which I faced was… this is how I overcame it… the outcome was…

Do not shift the blame
If your manager was at fault this should not be mentioned, if you worked with incompetents do not blame them. Someone who blames workplace politics or poor management does not generally appear a professional or well balanced individual and will inevitably draw questions as to why they didn’t seek to make changes or force them on using their own initiative.

Why limit it to the workplace?
99.9% of the examples should be professional but it can be useful to use one example of your skills outside of this. If you arrange for skiing trips with friends and family that can also demonstrate great leadership and organisational skills. If you have raised a family then you are clearly adept at coping with trying situations.

Presentation
Always dress smart, maintain eye contact and look interested. The majority of rejections by HR are due to perceived arrogance or lack of communication skills.