HR Generalist Interview Questions And Answers

Again, IT is about dealing with people within and out of the company. So, it is important to have good communication skills. By good communication skills we mean, ability to understand and explain in a common language. So, if you believe that your communication skills are weaker, you need to work on them.

Anything less than average or good is not acceptable here.

The basic purpose of asking this question is to check your EQ and see if you have the guts to make tough decisions. If you have fired anyone in the past, discuss your experience and approach. If you have never done so in the past, discuss the approach you would take to make and implement such a decision. Keep the focus of your answer on the fact that you would try to do your best to ensure that your team performs to its best but if a particular member is not able to perform even after you taking all the steps to help him, you would make the tough decision to ensure that the project doesn’t suffer.

You need to answer this question taking into consideration what is suitable for you. Say that you can work in the night shifts, only if you can really do it.

This interview question assesses general management ability. It tells you whether your HR manager candidate can become an asset to your business 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 impact the business in a positive way.

You will want to find a candidate that knows the expectations of their role and who can establish their business priorities within that role. You will want them to be capable of making the business case for the people-related initiatives they want to pursue. And you will want them to know how their day-to-day work contributes to the overall goals of the business.

Reveals more about work history.

☛ Visual,
☛ verbal,
☛ physical,
☛ hostile work environment.

Motivation in simple words may be understood as the set of forces that cause people to behave in certain ways. It is a process that starts with a physiological deficiency or need that activities behaviour or a drive that is aimed at a goal or an incentive.
The concept of motivation occupies a central place in the discipline of Organizational Behaviour. It is a concept, which has received the maximum attention from the academicians and researchers alike. Since a motivated employee is highly productive and highly quality oriented, the managers are also interested the concept of motivation.
Most people understand the concept of intrinsic satisfaction or intrinsic motivation, i.e. when an activity is satisfying or pleasurable in and of itself. Naturally, these activities are things we like and want to do. For most of us, intrinsically enjoyable activities are things like eating, resting, laughing, playing games, winning, creating, seeing and hearing beautiful things and people, being held lovingly, having sex, and so on. To do these things we don't need to be paid, applauded, cheered, thanked, respected, or anything--commonly we do them for the good feelings we automatically and naturally get from the activity. Intrinsic rewards also involve pleasurable internal feelings or thoughts, like feeling proud or having a sense of mastery following studying hard and succeeding in a class.
Many, maybe most, activities are not intrinsically satisfying enough to get most of us to do them consistently, so extrinsic motivation needs to be applied in the form of rewards (positive reinforcements), incentives, or as a way to avoid some unpleasant condition ("negative reinforcement" or punishment). Examples: You work doing an ordinary job for pay. You study for good grades or to avoid failing or to prepare for a good future. You do housework to get a clean, organized house and/or a spouse's appreciation or to avoid her/his disapproval. A teenager comes home from a date on time in order to avoid being grounded. These are all activities that are commonly sustained by external pay offs, not because you love working, studying, cleaning, and coming home early.

As we discussed in the last question, your ability to understand and pick up new things quickly should be able to compensate for the lack of work experience you have.

In today’s scenario, everything needs customization, so here also, one size can’t fit all i.e. one management style won’t work in all situations. So, offer “situational” as your style of management.

The two things which should be most important for a manager to succeed in his role are:

☛ His team should be happy and keep performing
☛ The project he is working on with his team is successfully finished with minimum problems.

Shows responsiveness.

Tests hiring/coaching skills.

Tests ability to handle stress.

In my current job, I am responsible for keeping the records of over 100 employees. With regard to payroll and hours, I ensure accuracy by applying the following practices: I methodically deal with one department at a time. This helps me ensure that I apply each pay grade to the proper employee. Then, I always work through the files alphabetically and keep to dealing with one person’s files at a time. When I complete one set of records, I move on to the next only after thoroughly reviewing and saving the first set. By staying organized in my approach, I have a very good history of accuracy in all record keeping matters.

It helps to find the gaps between management and employees. It helps the personnel management to analyze problem why staffs are leaving from the job .what important factors are they looking after and how to fill the gap between management and employees and moreover it is very helpful to stop loosing employees from the company. The average time-to profit-time period for a new hire in any industry is about nine months, suggesting that a fresher begins to break-even the investments made on him/her and earn profit for the firm only after nine months. Exit of an employee before the nine month period can cost up to five times of his or her paid salary.

Using progressive discipline can help you get employees back on track. Done right, progressive discipline can:

☛ allow managers to intervene and correct employee behavior at the first sign of trouble
☛ enhance communication between managers and employees
☛ help managers achieve higher performance and productivity from their employees
☛ improve employee morale and retention by demonstrating that there are rewards for good performance and consequences for poor performance
☛ avoid expensive replacement costs
☛ ensure consistency and fairness in dealing with employee problems, and
☛ lay the groundwork for fair, legally defensible employment termination for employees who cannot or will not improve.

Progressive discipline also helps you avoid the consequences of allowing workplace problems to continue unchecked. If you don't intervene, the employee may not know that his or her behavior or actions are unacceptable. Not only will you have lost an opportunity to help the employee improve, but your company will continue to suffer the consequences of the employee's problem, which could result in reduced productivity and profits, quality control problems, lost opportunities or customers, low employee morale, and high turnover.

Closely understand the qualities and skills a person holding the position would need and match them with the qualities you have.

If you believe that you are missing a big quality required for the position under discussion, say that, “I understand that this is an important quality required in the person holding this position but given a chance, I will inculcate it in me.” Back it up with a confident body language.

☛ 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?
☛ 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?
☛ 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?

☛ How has your work experience and training prepared you for this position?
☛ What factors do you consider before drafting any new HR policy?
☛ How would you implement a new HR policy?
☛ What HR tools do you prefer? Can you recommend one system per function for us?
☛ What’s your approach to putting together benefits packages?
☛ How do you define company culture? How do you contribute to nurturing a positive company culture?
☛ Describe a time you worked on a challenging recruitment effort. How did you overcome it?
☛ Describe a time you made a misstep that resulted in regulatory issues. How did you handle it?
☛ An employee submits a sexual harassment complaint. What steps would you take to look into it?
☛ How do you stay current and ensure compliance with national regulatory laws?
☛ What’s your opinion on 360 degree performance reviews?
☛ What steps would you take to terminate an employee?
☛ Have you ever encountered a conflict of interest at work? How did you handle it?
☛ What’s your impression of our employer brand? How would you improve it?

Shows industry awareness.

Generalist profile includes taking part in policy making & implementation, Payroll mgmt, performance appraisals, taking interviews and scaling candidates as per organization’s criteria, IJP, handling recruitments (Making Job descriptions), exit formalities, Preparing offer letters, and pay slips, Co-ordination amongst different HOD for their requirements etc.

The process for suspension or termination is as follows:

☛ You must give written notice for the same (it can be called as termination letter). In this you have to mention the reason for termination e.g.: non performance, compliance issues, etc.
☛ You must see that the pay out for the notice period is in accordance with the balance leave of the employee
☛ The termination letter must be signed and accepted by the employee
☛ Once these things are done then you have to do the normal exit formalities.

For terminating any employee you have to mention the valid reason and the employee must be given the equal chance to justify it. The management is liable for this and employee has the right for this. This is the main point you must keep in mind while any termination. If this is not followed, then the employee have the right to go to court for the same.

☛ Grievance process is one of the vital areas in building employee confidence and building the relationship. There should be a definite grievance procedure. The grievances have to be attended within the time limit. When the grievance is not able to solve within the prescribed time limit , the concern persons has to called up and informed about the action taken so far and the reason for delay in arriving at the solution and expected
☛ time required to achieve the target.
☛ Unique no to be allotted for each and every grievance and possibly it has to be classified according to the merit of the issue.
☛ By classification, you could able to identify the nature of grievances (over a period of time) which will be very useful in streamlining the Grievance procedure.Employee participation and suggestions to be appreciated to make the grievances procedure to be more effective.

It is not possible for a candidate to have all the experience an employer requires. Even if you match yourself up to the expectations on technical front, there will be some difference in the work environment. And, it is absolutely fine.

The best way to deal with this question is to analyse the requirements of the position well and match your skills as close to them as possible. If something is still left untouched, offer your quick grasping power and ability to learn quickly as a solution & back it up with an example from the past.

The purpose of this question is to see how well you can fit into a team. Basically, you should not have a problem with a person, although you can have a problem with the style of working.

So, to answer this question you can simply say, “I understand that IT is about team work, so we can’t afford to problems with co-workers but if someone is not serious about their work or does a low quality work affecting the whole project, I definitely do not like it”