Best interview questions for a Order Picker

Order Picker Interview Questions

Order Pickers are vital team members who are responsible for ensuring a customer’s order is correct and packaged in a safe and presentable fashion. The right Order Picker can speed up delivery times, reduce incorrect orders and keep your warehouse running safely.

The best skills to look for in an Order Picker are as follows:

• Experience working in a warehouse based role.
• Impeccable attention to detail.
• Physical ability to manoeuvre through the warehouse and pick and transport goods.
• Ability to use technology to receive and track orders.
• Ability to work to and meet ambitious targets.

Interviewing an Order Picker

The right Order Picker can take a warehouse’s productivity levels from good to great. They work directly with the product, safely and accurately finding products on shelves, and packing them in a way that meets the company’s quality standards.

The best way to find if an Order Picker is capable of this is during the interview process. We have established some guide questions below that will aim to reveal the right skills in your potential hire.

Please note:
These questions are kept relatively general, as they are designed for use early in the interview process. For candidates further along the hiring process, more detailed questions may be needed.

How to open the job interview

Regardless of a candidate’s skill, it is natural to feel nervous before an interview. Therefore, it is worth asking some warm-up questions towards the start of the conversation to help them to relax.

This can be one or two positive questions, which won’t take much time but will have a positive impact.

Job Description available

See our Order Picker job description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

How did you start your career in a warehouse-based role?

What do you like most about working in a warehouse?

Behavioral Questions

Tell me about a time you went above and beyond to help your team succeed?
Order Pickers will often work in a team towards targets. Knowing they are a team player who is ready to go the extra mile to achieve these goals is a great quality in an Order Picker.
Tell me about a time you made a mistake with an order, how did you rectify this and what did you learn?
Order picking is a fast-moving role, meaning mistakes can happen. Knowing the candidate will stay calm and work quickly to rectify this mistake, as well as learn from it is ideal.
Tell me about a time you helped to motivate your colleagues.
The best kind of team player is someone who keeps motivation high when needed. This question aims to see if your candidate is this type of person.
Can you give me an example of a time when you made a change to a process or procedure which had great results?
This will indicate the candidate’s initiative and confidence in making changes, which is great for productivity and indicates a desire to develop.

Soft Skills

When working on a larger order with multiple parts to it, how do you stay organised and focused?
This is one of the most important Order Picker interview questions. Organisation and focus are key to success in this role, so their answer should mention some learned organisation techniques.
Are you comfortable explaining your processes or procedures to a new team member?
Order Pickers won't always need to help with onboarding, but knowing that they have the communication and people skills to manage it if needed is beneficial.
What skills do you have which make you the ideal Order Picker?
Here your candidate will mention their most confident areas and skills they hold. Hard or soft skills can be mentioned.
How do you record and manage the orders you pick?
Again, organisation is key in this role. Your candidate needs to have the organisation skills to accurately record the orders they’ve picked and sent to ship.

Hard Skills

Have you ever received formal warehouse procedure training?
This shouldn't be make or break as procedures will be explained in onboarding, but it is a nice quality to have.
What sized team do you have experience working with?
Here, you can assess how a candidate’s background matches up with the current role.
Have you had any formal warehouse safety training?
Again, this will be explained in onboarding but it will give you an idea of how much onboarding will be needed.
Which types of goods have you picked and packed in the past?
Working with hazardous or fragile goods takes extra care, so it is worth knowing whether this is something your candidate has done in the past.
Which technology have you used to receive and record orders?
Again, this question will give you an idea of what the candidate will need onboarding with.

Operational / Situational Questions

Imagine you notice a colleague packing an order incorrectly, what do you do?
Quality is a priority in this role! You are looking for a candidate who is confident stepping in and helping their team members get their technique right.
Imagine you receive a complaint about your packing work. What do you do?
Ideally, the candidate would not let this demotivate them. The complaint should be turned into actionable feedback and used to help with future orders.
Can you tell me how you would handle a severe backlog of orders?
Here, the candidate could work with their team lead to help prioritise orders and set up a production line that helps deal with the backlog.
Tell me how you would deal with a broken piece of equipment or machinery in the warehouse.
Safety is key here, the equipment should not be touched and instead should be reported to the relevant stakeholder to avoid accidents.
Tell me how you would ensure a fragile item is packed safely.
The item should be surrounded with relevant packaging material, and be kept tight inside the box or similar packaging to avoid movement during transport. The item should also be labelled as fragile.