Best interview questions for your hiring process
Employee Relations Manager Interview questions
Employee Relations Managers are responsible for the wellbeing of the team. They will also overlook training and mentor programs for employees to improve performance or skills. Depending on the size of the team they may also be involved in the onboarding success of new starters.
Some great pointers to look out for in your Employee Relations Manager are:
- Outstanding communication skills – this role most definitely calls for a ‘people person’.
- Time management skills and organisation will be a big bonus for Employee Relations as they will be juggling many teams and department practises at once, especially in a small company.
- A good candidate will also be passionate about knowledge sharing and helping others improve both professionally and personally.
Interviewing an Employee Relations Manager
Do you need a new Employee Relations Manager in your team? With our Employee Relations Manager interview questions guide, your interview will be prepared quickly and easily.
Please note: Our interview questions are suggestions for the earlier stages of the application process and for candidates with average work experience. They are therefore a little more general.
How to open the job interview
Interviews naturally breed nerves, so the first part of your interview should aim to make the candidate feel comfortable speaking with you, you’ll get much more information out of them and a better sense of the person they are if they feel like they can trust the environment they are in.
To do this you can ask some fun and interesting questions linked to the role, they should be open-ended and encourage conversation.
Best interview questions for your hiring process
See our Employee Relations Manager Job Description hereFor the interview
A positive opener to start
What has been your journey so far?
What do you enjoy most about your position?
Behavioral Questions
In your opinion, what are some of the most important qualities that someone in this position should possess?
What management style do you get on with the most?
It’s important that your new team members will get on with the team you’ve already created, and flourish under their manager with the right working style.
Is there anything you’d already like to change within the company if you joined with us?
Gives you an idea of how much research they’ve done about the company itself, it’s not essential for the candidate to do a lot of research and plan changes they would make, but it will make them stand out against the rest of the candidates.
How do you currently stay up to date with new, or changes to employment laws?
This question should be asked to get a feeling of dedication and passion to their role. Employment laws are, of course, very important and your HR team should all take responsibility for them.
Soft Skills
How many employees did you support in your previous role?
Lets you know their seniority level and how comfortable they are with responsibility.
In your opinion, what has been your greatest achievement at work?
This is an opportunity for the candidate to talk about their previous experience, and give you a broad overview of their background. They should be able to define why they consider the project a success.
Could you tell me about a time that you made a mistake at work? How did you handle that?
This should highlight their level of critical thinking and problem solving skills, they should be able to own their mistakes and understand the importance of reacting fast to solve them.
Would you feel comfortable presenting to a large group of people? Has that been a part of your previous positions?
Relations Managers will talk to a lot of different people throughout the working week, sometimes needing to present new tools or practises company wide, sometimes they’ll need to present to management teams. They should be comfortable in doing so and display great communication skills.
Can you tell me about the day-to-day responsibilities you held in your past role?
You should get a good idea of their seniority level from this question and how experienced they are in different areas.
Hard Skills
What software systems have you used in your previous positions?
It’s not essential that the candidate should know the same systems that you’re already using, but the question should tell you how familiar they are with the most popular systems and how willing they are to learn new ones.
In your experience, what do you think is key in developing great teams?
A good Relations Manager should be able to develop growing and enriching teams, encouraging teamwork and communication. They should also be able to spot problems within teams and possible conflicts.
Can you tell me about a time that you’ve had to develop and plan for a budget?
This should display their time management and organisational skills, both important aspects for Relations Managers. A good level of attention to detail would be beneficial.
Operational / Situational Questions
Have you had to deal with a difficult investigation before? How did you handle that and what was the outcome?
Employee Relations Managers will often have to deal with conflicts and difficult situations between team members and departments. It’s important that they have good and clear communication and know how to deal with complex, and sometimes sensitive situations.
Let’s say you’ve identified an employee that would benefit from some extra help with teamwork and organisation, how would you approach this and what would your action plan look like?
An important part of Employee Relations Management is identifying where there might be holes in your employee’s skill sets and working with people to improve these. A great candidate will already know how to approach this and go about improving the problem.
Have you been involved in employee onboarding before? How did you include them in the company culture?
This is an important step in the Employee Relations role, they should show a passion for inclusion and encouraging good company culture as well as having an action plan for making new starters feel welcome and part of the team quickly.
What is your approach to mentoring employees? What would be your action plan and how would you measure the success of this?
Another important part of the Employee Relations role would be identifying employees that would benefit from a mentor program. They should be able to talk about how they recognise clear successes from that program.
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This will give you an idea of the lessons the candidate has learned in the past, and what they value the most.