HR Coordinator Interview Preparation Guide

Download PDF

Depending on your experience, talk about instructing employees or interviewees in matters of salary and work hours, sick days and vacations, health benefits and retirement plans. Other duties include maintaining discipline and common vision, morality and team-spirit among employees.

Leadership plays an important role. Human resource coordinators have a professional demeanor at all times and serve as role models for others. They are highly positive and motivated and use their people skills to motivate current employers and attract prospective workers.

Do not worry about being right or wrong. What matters is a thoughtful answer based on experience. For example, you might begin by saying that people skills are very important, since a coordinator interacts and communicates with employees all the time but add that this alone is not enough because a coordinator must also be able to understand the company's business plan, internal structure, budget etc.

Human resource coordinators deal with personnel and must possess appropriate personal characteristics. You may speak about your interpersonal traits and leadership skills. Written and oral communication and presentation skills are not difficult to demonstrate. Evince initiative and creativity in decision-making by providing relevant examples of your ability to talk and negotiate.

Many things can be said here. You are expected to simply give a few examples of your strategies and tactics. You can talk about the larger issues of advertising campaigns. If you personally conduct interviews, you can describe how you decide in favor of any particular candidate. For example, how you examine overall competencies beyond impressive education and experience.

The employers will assess very carefully the personality of the candidate for traits of openness, honesty, integrity, sociability, initiative, flexibility, determination (as opposed to stubbornness) etc. Say that it's not about attracting talented individuals, but about creating a talented community of employees with a common vision.

It requires analytical thinking, independence and initiative, problem solving ability and interpersonal sensitivity. Training is one way to improve motivation. Conflict management is another. You can give specific examples of how you have resolved a conflict (between employee and company or between several employees) which resulted in better motivation.

To receive information, feedback, and coordinate decisions throughout the company for optimal efficiency. They cooperate with other departments within the company.
Example:
They can cooperate with the accounting division to make salary decisions. This way the employee feels adequately rewarded, while the company remains optimally faithful to its budget policies.

The department of a business or organization that deals with the hiring, administration and training of staff.

Human resource coordinators make and answer phone calls, use fax and email, handle documents and type reports etc.

Administrative employee related tasks might be managing employee turnover, motivation and recognition, absenteeism, work ethics and interpersonal employee communication. Human resource coordinators usually cooperate with human resource managers on these issues.

Human resource professionals love this question, so use it as your chance to reiterate your strengths and highlight your applicable skill set and passion for the company and the role. Speak to how your past experiences match the qualifications for the job using keywords from the job description to make the connection stronger. By clearly linking your skills to the position, you are helping the HR manager envision you in the role.

If I am selected for this position, I'll use my initial 60 days in understanding my role carefully in terms of the contribution to the business and increasing the overall profitability. I shall sit with my line manager and other juniors to understand what has already been done and what its impact has been. From there on, I'll formulate my strategy to growth in close conjunction with managers and see that it is properly implemented.

Since I would be coming from an altogether new environment, I am bound to possess a new perspective towards everything here including the company, product, customers, environment and strategy etc. This will enable me to constructively question things which anyone else here might not do. This will help in improving the things and making the product & company better.

Having worked closely with product development team I understand how the research for product development is carried out and how is customer requirement analysed; I'd be able to provide a value addition there too.

Fringe benefit can be defined as the benefits provided by the employer to its employees in addition to the regular salary. These include health plans, paid holidays, cafeteria, company transport etc.

Salary can be termed as the fixed remuneration you are offered for your services while incentive means some extra benefits that you are offered based on your performance. Incentive can be in cash or kind.

There are many people who actually get into HR after graduating in a totally different stream. To some people it just happens while for others it is a deliberate move.
If it just happened to you, you can say that I was on a look out for a job when I got the first opportunity in human resource. I took it up and slowly realized that I have started liking it. I brushed up my skills by keeping myself updated about the new developments in the field and acquiring a professional degree (If you have got one.)
If it was a deliberate move, you can discuss your reasons for moving into this role.

While answering this question, don't simply say that I love to work with people and that is the reason I am into human resource. This is the most common answer and moreover something which makes the interviewer burst into laughter. This answer easily makes them understand that you are saying this just to get the job.
A better way would be to identify some work areas that an human resource coordinator has to perform in his daily routine and relate them to your interest. A possible answer could be, I liked to be a part of the recruitment team which can identify right people and put them into right places. An employment into recruitment slowly developed into a full fledged human resource profession.

Knowledge, Intuition, Versatility, Flexibility, Focus and above all a human touch in every thing you do.

You may find this question asked in different forms during the interview. The purpose of asking the same question in same way is to judge the consistency of candidate's answers.
Ensure that you have read the job specifications properly before you appear for the interview. While answering this question, identify the qualities a person needs as an human resource coordinator and see how you fit into them. Take out the qualities which make you a strong candidate for this position and offer them to the interviewer.

The qualities which are usually sought in the candidate for this role are:
Knowledge, Intuition, Versatility, Flexibility, Focus and above all a human touch in every thing you do. If you have any extra qualification like the knowledge of a software useful in handling the job, you can discuss that also during the interview.

You can face moments when your work will be criticized but you have to remember that only those who work can make mistakes. The main purpose of this question is to see your attitude when you are criticized and how you deal with it. If you face this question and you have been in a situation where your work was criticized, tell a bit about it and then tell the interviewer the way you dealt with it - if you think that there can be a better approach to what you are doing, evaluate it and accept it. The most important thing is to remember that you do not lose your cool on hearing negative remarks about yourself.

Pressure is an inseparable part of business. However, it can take different forms. At times, it will be the pressure of escalating your performance while at others, it could be the pressure of meeting the deadlines. The purpose of this question is to see, how you handled that pressure. So, mainly talk about what did you do to not let your focus dilute like drawing a proper plan to meet the expectations, prioritizing the right activities, starting and finishing them till end and staying dedicated to the final outcome.

This is quite straight question, discuss about the key performance indices against which your performance was rated. This also shows your suitability for the position.

You can say that your work style is performance oriented and you love to enjoy the work. Most companies would buy this.

Basically, the interviewer is asking if you are a team player. If your answer is with others, then the interviewer will think you can't work alone and if you answer alone, then the interviewer may think you have some personality issues working with other people.