40 Questions for People in the Employee Relations Field (Includes Sample Answers)
The interview is one of the most important parts of trying to get a job in employee relations. When a candidate talks about how they would handle different situations in an interview, the hiring manager can get a sense of how well they communicate and what kind of person they are. Reviewing a list of employee relations interview questions can help you think of your own answers and make you feel more confident and ready for your next interview.
This article gives examples of how to answer 40 interview questions about employee relations.
General questions
Here are some general questions that a hiring manager might ask to learn more about your education, interests, and personality:
- Why would you like to work with other people?
- Give me a look at your resume.
- What do you think is your worst trait? What do you do really well?
- What do you know about this job?
- Why are you interested in this?
- If you were given this job, what would you do first?
- Why do you think you’d be the best person for the job?
- Where do you see yourself in five or ten years?
- When you’re not at work, how do you spend your time?
- What do you think is the most important quality for someone in this role to have?
Questions about work and history from the past
A hiring manager might ask you these kinds of questions to see how well your experience and background fit with the company and the job:
- How many people did you help at your last job?
- At your last job, what did you have to do every day?
- Tell me about a job you had that helped other people.
- What’s the best thing you’ve done at work?
- Have you ever changed an employee benefit policy to make your pay plan more competitive? What did you do? How did it make things different?
- From what you’ve seen, what do you think is important for building a good team at work?
- In the past, what kinds of software did you use?
- How do you deal with a large amount of information?
- Tell me about a time you had to talk to a group of people. What happened, and how and why did it happen? What would you change if you could?
- Tell me about a time when you and some other people worked well together. Have there ever been times when you couldn’t get along? What did you learn from that experience?
- Have you ever signed a contract or made a deal? Tell me how you managed to do it.
- Tell me about a time you had to make and stick to a budget.
In-depth questions
People who work in employee relations need to be able to solve problems and think critically. The hiring manager may ask you detailed questions like these to find out how you would or have acted in certain situations:
- How do you handle being in a tight spot?
- Have you ever had to choose between two fighting employees? If you did, what did you do? Is there anything you would do differently?
- How do you stay on top of changes in employment law?
- How do you know which employees need your help?
- What question or questions do you believe are important to include during an employee exit interview?
- How do you think the things you learned in school prepared you for this job?
- Tell me about something you did that helped the organization’s bottom line.
- Tell me about a time you solved a small problem on your own before it got worse.
- Have you ever given feedback to a worker who didn’t take it well? What happened, how did you deal with it, and what would you do differently next time?
- Have you ever been in the middle of a tough investigation? How did you handle it?
- What new ideas do you have that would improve the value of this job?
- Tell me about a time when you helped a company do better by giving management advice.
- Give me an example of a hard worker you had to deal with. How did you deal with it?
- Tell me about a time when you helped a coworker improve. What did you do, and how did things get better when you learned more?
- Give me an example of a time when you had to look over someone else’s work. What did you do to help them grow and get them excited about their skills?
- Tell me about a time when you helped set up a new employee orientation. How did you participate? What did you do to help those new employees fit in?
Sample interview questions and how to answer them
Here are two interview questions you might want to get ready for, along with tips on how to answer and sample answers to help you think of your own.
How do you think you would be involved in finding new employees?
People who work in employee relations are usually involved in hiring, but usually only in a limited way. A good answer shows that you want to be involved but will do what the people who are running the interview and are trained in human relations say.
Answer: “I like to listen to the interviews while I’m in the room. I’m also there to help in any way the HR team needs. It’s especially helpful when the team can’t decide if a candidate is good enough to move forward with. I can say what I think and feel. But I don’t usually get involved unless someone asks me what I think or if it’s necessary.”
Give me an example of something you did wrong at work. How did you deal with it?
When hiring people, managers know that mistakes can happen. They want to see that you can admit when you’re wrong and that you can fix any problems that happened because of that mistake. Telling a story about a mistake you made, how you fixed it, and what you learned from it is a good way to answer.
Answer: “At my last job, keeping records was a big part of what I did. Not only did we keep records on everyone who worked for us, but also on everyone we interviewed for a job. Because I didn’t get along well with a team member, we didn’t add more information about candidates for several months. Because of the mistake, we almost hired someone about whom we had major concerns during an interview months earlier. Good thing we caught the mistake before we made an offer to that candidate. Because of this, though, we made a list of what each person was in charge of so that tasks wouldn’t be duplicated or forgotten.”
