HR Recruitment Interview Questions And Answers

- Recruitment is the process of identifying, screening and hiring the most suitable candidate for a job vacancy.
- The candidate might be hired internally or from external sources
- The process must be performed in timely and cost effective manner
- It can also be termed as a process linking the employers and the employees

The purpose of recruitment is to:

- Attract the maximum number of candidates to the organization and encourage them to apply
- Create strong database and select the best candidate for the position
- Ascertain the current and future manpower requirements of the organization
- Make the hiring exercise a cost effective one

Importance of recruitment is:

- To identify the potential candidates within the organization for future man power requirements
- To identify the outside candidates and hire them to meet the man power requirements
- To establish various sources of candidates
- To help in increasing the success of hiring process

There can be two kinds of sources of recruitment for organizations - internal and external.

Internal recruitment - It means getting the candidate from within the organization to fulfil a vacancy. Internal recruitment can be done by:

- Transfer - transferring an employee from one location/ department to other.
- Promotion - Taking the employee higher up in the hierarchy
- Ex-employees - These could be the retired or retrenched employees
- Demotion - Lowering the position of an employee in the hierarchy for various reasons


External recruitment - It means getting the absolutely new candidate to the company. The sources of these employees could be many:

- Job notifications in the print/ online media
- College campuses
- Placement agents
- Unsolicited applicants
- Employee referral program
- Employment exchange
- Labour contractors

The recruitment process tries to get the best manpower for the organization. It can be considered as the first strategic step towards the success of an organization.

The process consists of following major steps:

- Identifying the vacancy
- Preparing the job specifications and description of the potential candidate
- Advertising the requirement
- Receiving and managing the applications
- Short listing the candidates
- Arranging the interviews
- Conducting the interviews and deciding on the candidate

There can be various internal and external factors which affect the recruitment process.

Internal factors - The factors which are under the control of organization are called internal factors.

These could be -

i.) Recruitment policy of the organization
ii.) Human Resource Planning
iii.) Expansion plans
iv.) Cost of recruitment

External factors - These are the factors which are not under the control of the organization.

These could be -

i.) Availability of talent
ii.) Brand image of the organization
iii.) Politico-social environment
iv.) Legal conditions
v.) Economic condition of the market
vi.) Recruitment policy of the competitors

A good recruitment policy helps the organization in developing an effective recruitment process. It can be termed as the first step in developing an efficient recruitment process. A recruitment policy defines the recruitment objectives and clearly defines the framework to work within.

A good recruitment policy should focus on:

- Being unbiased towards all candidates
- Recruiting the best talent
- Helping the employees identify their potential
- Promoting transparent, merit based selection
- Developing cost effective recruitment process
- Appointing an authority for final decision
- Being socially, politically, legally and economically friendly

Various factors which can affect the recruitment policy of a company are:

- Its objectives
- Policies of the competitors
- Government laws - Social and economic
- Political environment
- Cost of recruitment
- Time available
- Preferred recruitment sources

The main components of a recruitment policy are:

- Terms of recruitment
- Sources of recruitment
- Using the services of placement agents
- Payment terms and conditions for placement agents
- Recruitment of contractual employees
- Obtaining requirements from departments
- Selection process
- Employment terms and conditions

Many organizations outsource their recruitment services to the placement agencies. The main advantages of doing so are as follows:

- It allows the organizations to focus on core and strategic activities
- It leads to optimal use of resources and time
- It provides access to the expertise of the placement agents
- Reduction in recruitment cost

Poaching in recruitment means hiring the employee of a competitor who is working in the same capacity as desired by you. This is a major challenge faced by the HR managers as it causes the leakage of talent from an organization and effects its productivity.

The employee is usually hired by offering him better salary and perks.

Equal employment opportunity means an equal and fair treatment for all people. There is no discrimination among the employees or candidates on the basis of:
race, age, sex, marital status, disability, sexuality, pregnancy etc.

Equal employment Opportunities help in overall development of both the society as well as the organization. They help the organizations in creating a good image for themselves and discharging their social responsibilities.

When there is a shortage of skills and talents at a particular geographical location, the company tries to hire people from other geographical locations. These people are called expats. Sometimes the companies require only expats for certain positions - depending on their recruitment strategy. While hiring expats it is important to judge following qualities in them:

- Professional qualifications and expertise
- Adaptability and Flexibility
- Cultural sensitivity
- Family conditions
- Open mindedness
- Any past international work experience
- Level of self-motivation

Major challenges a recruiter faces are:

- Lack of candidates in some particular domain
- Changing trends of the market
- Lack of self motivation
- Lack of agility in the process
- Lack of job prioritization
- Lack of proper job analysis

The purpose of a recruitment strategy is to hire the best talent a company desires in a timely and cost effective manner. Following are the main elements of an effective recruitment strategy:

- Identifying the jobs
- Type of candidates required depending on their - performance, experience, domain knowledge.
- Sources to tab - job portals, campuses, competitor's employees, employee referral
- Assigned recruiters
- Process to evaluate and hire candidates

If a company decides to outsource its recruitment activities, it looks for a consultant to do this job. Following are the important qualities, a company should look for in the consultant before hiring them -

- Experience and expertise in the sector
- Resources they possess
- Achievements in the last projects
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Result orientation

The process of recruitment through placement agents consists of following steps:

- Brief the consultant about the profile and the candidate
- Placement consultant shortlist some candidates and sends the CVs
- Company's representative shortlists the CVs sent by consultants
- Interview is scheduled by the agent
- Interview conducted by the company's representative
- If the candidate is selected, he is given an offer after the negotiation else the consultant sends another candidate

Recruitment is a time and money consuming activity. In order to maximize the ROI through recruitment activities, a company should keep following things in mind:

- Clearly define the achievements you expect from the recruitment process. Establishing the clear goals doesn't leave a place for confusion in the system.
- Develop effective ways to measure critical results.
- Precise estimation of time and cost of recruitment.
- Ensure that the people working in the recruitment process are well trained.
- Estimate the tangible and intangible benefits that have come from the recruitment exercise.

- Recruitment management system is a tool for effective management of recruitment process. It helps in quick, reliable, accurate and unbiased processing of various applications.

- The system helps in efficient management of system by automatically maintaining the database of candidates.

- It works as a good interface between various parties involved in the whole process

- It helps in better communication.

- Recruitment aims at searching for the talent and promoting the candidates to apply for the position while selection is the process of screening the candidates to fill a position with the most suitable candidate.

- Recruitment process get a pool of candidates for the selection process to work and choose the best one.

- Recruitment encourages more and more people to apply while selection eliminates unsuitable candidates to zero down on the best one.

- There is no contractual agreement between the employee and the employer in the recruitment process while after the selection a contract is agreed upon by the employee and the employer.

E-recruitment means using internet for the recruitment services. Three main techniques used in e-recruitment are:

- Advertising on job portals
- Building a recruitment section on company's website.
- Screening the database of candidates on job portals

The advantages of e-recruitment are:

- Lower cost of advertising the job openings
- Helps in saving time
- Large pool of candidates to choose from
- Day in - day out access to the database
- Screening the database brings in only relevant candidates
- Paper less process - more organised

1) Rates of EPF and ESI contributions
2) What components of wages and salary to be taken for computing EPF and ESI?
3) What is the rate of contribution of labour welfare fund, if applicable?
4)Whether you should give pay slips to employees?
5)How to remit PF and ESI contributions?
6)How to show Leave without pay?
7) what is CTC and what items can be shown as CTC?
8)What is minimum wages?
9)Is there any method/formula prescribed for salary break-up
10)Whether gartuity forms part of CTC?

1)what is employee engagement?
2)what is PL/earned leave?
3) How do you calculate earned leave under Shops Act/Factories Act?
4) what are HR functions?
5)What are the wage limits for eligibility under EPF,ESI and Bonus Acts?
6)What is the maximum gratuity payable under the Act?
7) What is the minimum service required for an employee to claim gratuity?
8)What is the duration of maternity leave admissible to a woman employee?
9) what is quantum of medical bonus admissible to a woman employee/Maternity Benefit Act?
10) Is there any minimum service required to put in by a woman employee to claim maternitybenfit?

1) What are the details you verify at the time of recruitment?
2) What are the documents you obtain at the time of recruitment?
3) What is letter of intent?
4) What is offer letter?
5) What is appointment letter?
6) Is there any difference between an offer letter and appointment letter?
7) What an offer letter should contain?
8) What are the important clauses in the appointment letter?
9) Is medical examination mandatory at the time of recruitment?
10) What is the duration of probation?
11) If on expiry of probation, if an employee is not confirmed, what is it’s effect?
12) Rates of bonus under Bonus Act 1961

1) Read important provisions of Industrial Disputes Act, Factories Act, standing orders Act
2) Under stand the scope of the following terms
a)Retrenchment b) lay-off c) closure and the procedure to effect all the three.
d) strike and Lock-out and their requirements to be met in a public utility service e) Public utility service f) Unfair labour practice g)definition of factory u/Factories Act & ESI Act h) Settlement u/I.D Act i) award u/I.D Act
3) Acquaint yourself with recent amendments of I.d Act, ESI Act Gratuity Act,
4) What is conciliation and the procedure?
5) what are the methods of peaceful settlement of disputes?
6) what is trade union?
7) Is there any procedure prescribed under Trade Unions act 1926 to recognize trade unions?
8)What is collective bargaining?
9) can you terminate an employee during probation for unsatisfactory service by giving required notice?
10) Can you terminate the service of an employee by paying wages in lieu of notice for amisconduct committed by him?
11) can you recover your financial loss from gratuity?