HR administrator interview questions

[Cabbagesoupsucks]

I have been offered an interview but it's been years since I had a proper interview. Any idea on questions they might ask? They've said competence based and also a skills test.

I would make sure you have an understanding of what the following things are:
Protected characteristics
Data protection
Confidentiality in the work place
Have a look on the company website and make sure you know a bit about the company
Also have a browse of the company’s policies if they are available online
An awareness that the outcome of Brexit could mean changes to domestic employment law

Is this private or public sector. What sort of administration?
Good questions to ask would be something like
‘What is the most common query staff ask of HR’ or something like that.

Thanks Ploppy. It's public sector.

They are looking to test your skills (competency). So go through the job description and think of examples of how you can illustrate your ability to do the job. So things like: Can you give me and example of a time when you had to prioritise deadlines and what was the impact? Tell me about dealing with an upset customer on the phone? - remember they will be able to find out things like have you ever used XYZ software package from your CV so interviews will be more probing questions. - Also general tips - do your homework on the company. Make sure you know who you are being interviewed by. They might ask 'what do you know about our.....work/service/products etc.' There was a series about job interviews on TV a couple of years ago....maybe channel 4...take a look at some of those. Good luck

how do you cope under pressure?
Do you like to work alone or as a member of team?

I would also imagine that they will ask for examples of how you have managed conflict within the workplace, too.

Bet the skills test is a list of jobs and you have to put them in order of priority.

Questions could be around confidentially, team work, IT skills, difficult situations, problem solving.

They'll all be phrased like 'our team is very busy with lots of different tasks needing doing on a day to day basis; can you give us an example of when you have worked within a busy team and successfully prioritised your work to get jobs done.'

'we deal with lots of personal information about individuals within our organisation, can you give us an example of when you have worked confidentially?'

If you're in local government there may be a safeguarding based question, it's the in thing!

Make sure your answers are STAR so situation ( where does the issue fit in the grand scheme of things) Task- (what needed doing) Action (what did you do?) result (what was the outcome?) So like dealing with difficult customers - someone rang up annoyed at something, I took the call, there were no senior colleagues around. I recognised the person needed calming down and needed advice about x. I spoke confidently and calmly using my knowledge of x, the person was able to do x as a result of my advice. They were happy when we finished the call. A few weeks later the person called again to thank me for my advice. They'd successfully done whatever it was he wanted and wanted to share the success with me.

Good luck!