BUSM4589 Assessment 1: HR Assistant Interview Questions Analysis

This report analyzes interview questions designed for an HR assistant position, aligning with a BUSM4589 assessment on recruitment and selection. The assignment begins with an introduction highlighting the significance of interviews in evaluating candidates' motivations, personalities, and abilities. The report then presents and justifies six interview questions, covering structured, situational, and behavioral approaches, with each question tailored to assess specific HR assistant responsibilities such as recruitment processes, HRIS system knowledge, compensation management, and candidate motivation. The discussion draws on theoretical concepts and references to support the rationale behind each question. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of effective interviewing skills in selecting potential candidates and achieving organizational goals. The report is designed to help understand the process of recruitment and selection.

Running head: Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment and Selection
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1Recruitment and Selection
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
The Concept of Job interview......................................................................................................4
Question1:....................................................................................................................................5
Question2:....................................................................................................................................6
Question3:....................................................................................................................................6
Question4:....................................................................................................................................7
Question5:....................................................................................................................................7
Question6:....................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11
Appendix........................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
The current assignment focuses is based upon the concept of recruitment and selection in
organization. The primary focus of the paper is based upon the importance of interview and how
effective interviews are assessed in the organization. It is important to determine a candidate’s
motivation, personality and characteristics in order to know the candidate’s ability for the job
role in the organization. The interview questions are designed in order to help the interviewer to
define the potentiality of the candidate. The current assignment highlights the job description of
HR assistant, according to the description and HR roles certain interview question are focused.
The questions are critical analyzed providing theoretical concept and reference to support the
following. At last a brief conclusion is drawn on the following study that how the interview
question are designed and delivered effectively in order to recruit potential candidates.

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Discussion
The job description chosen for the assignment is HR assistant (Appendix figure 1,2 and
3). The role of Human Resource assistant is to assist the HR team in strategic management issues
in accordance to the company objectives and effectively delivering with other team members and
seniors colleagues in a professional manner (Wethington and McDarby, 2015). The
responsibilities include supporting the human resource department through effective recruitment
and selection of candidates such as administering employee benefit programs, preparing payroll,
orienting the new potential employees and most importantly managing the HRIS system and
reports.
The Concept of Job interview
The job interview is an approach which incorporates conversation between the
interviewer and the interviewee. The interviewer can be a representative of an employer. The job
interview is a crucial part of the selection process which aids in hiring the potential candidate.
The recruitment and selection process is assessed in order to hire the right person at right job at
right time and right cost (Lees 2012). The type of interview vary from organization to
organization and from job profile as well. The job interview demands consequential resources
from the interviewer, and it allows the candidate to incorporate corporate culture and further
demand of the job (Page and Murphy, 2019). There are specialized formats which determine the
type of question which include case interview, panel interview, group interview, stress interview
and technical interview. The job questions also has its own counterpart that is on the way a
question must be asked and what are the question which are relevant to be asked to the
interviewee ((Page and Murphy, 2019). The question which are related to age, race, ethnicity,
color, gender, religion, disability and marital status. Therefore, the interviewer needs to have

4Recruitment and Selection
proper knowledge of rules and regulation on recruitment and selection process in order to avoid
biasness ((Page and Murphy, 2019). This regulations are designed so as to protect the aspects of
employment, job search and pre-hiring process. The legal rights include civil rights act, age-
discrimination, disability act, immigration reform and control act, and pregnancy discrimination
act and handling illegal interview questions. The interviewer must keep all the regulations in
mind and design the questions (Page and Murphy, 2019).
The interview main aspects are its questions and the way the question are delivered to the
candidate. In order to answer those question self-confidence, sub-consciousness, competency and
preparation (Blackman 2002). The interview question are of many types and must be answered
accordingly by the candidate (Grubb et. al, 2019). The different types of questions are general
structured question starts with asking general questions such as “tell us about yourself”
(Stephenson-Famy et al., 2015). The other interviews questions are based upon situational
approach, operational approach, behavioral approach, personality approach, competency
approach and sub-consciousness approach (Alonso and Moscoso, 2017). The HR assistant
interview question brings together an insight what to look for in a candidate and to assess
effective section of the candidate in order to recruit the potential candidate (Jøranli 2018). It is
evident that when the process of recruitment and selection is practiced effectively in the
organization, the organization performance leverages and hence bringing productive
environment and aids in achieving organizational goals (Ekwoaba, Ikeije and Ufoma, 2015).
Question1:
What interest you about the field of HR and being a human resource assistant?
This question is much generalized before beginning the interview for an HR assistant
interview. This question comes under structured interview type of interviews. The structured

5Recruitment and Selection
interview is a method widely used by the interviewer and is typically organized and formal. This
question is asked to the candidate in the perspective of understanding that what factor drove the
candidate to choose this profession (Burgess 2003). According to the answer of the question, the
interview can relate how much passionate the candidate is regarding its job. The potentiality of
the question is to know whether the candidate is serious about its ambition and profile and at
what extent the candidate can carry out its responsibilities.
Question2:
From the moment a candidate is offered a position to the moment the candidate is hired, what
steps would you take? What paperwork would you complete?
According to the job role and responsibilities of HR assistant, the candidate should be
able to understand the importance and procedure of end-to end recruitment of the new
employees. The step wise procedure involves loading advertisements in various websites,
outsourcing from job portals, screening interview, testing the applicants, and checking references
with informing the candidates of the outcome (Canter and Alison, 2018). The recruitment and
selection procedure is the most common responsibility of human resource department and
therefore, this question serves proper knowledge of the candidate interviewed for HR assistant.
The candidate applying for the job must be aware of this field of human resource management,
as it is the basic responsibility which must be assessed effectively by the human resource
assistant in the organization. With the understanding of recruitment process the candidate should
have the proper idea of all the paper work related recruitment and selection.

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Question3:
Describe your experience with HRIS system?
Technology has changed the way the human resource department work in the
organization and communicate the information. There are many task which are automate in order
to make it easier for the employees to access the HR information. This question by the
interviewer gives adequate glance of the candidate’s knowledge on the HRIS and how the
candidate would effectively process in the organization. The interviewer seeks how the
individual adapt itself with the modern changes and whether the candidate is aware of the
technological advances (Castillo-Montoya 2016). This question is based on the competency-
based approach and operational approach. The candidate need to be skilled and competent
enough to answer this question.
Almost all the companies’ uses HRIS system in their organization and therefore, it is important
that the candidate must have proper utilization of Human Resource Information System (Karimi
et al., 2018). It determines the technical ability of the individual and how effectively that skill
can be used in the organization.
Question4:
What would you do if an employee approached you with a complaint about compensation? How
would you resolve it?
Compensation management is the major field of human resource department and must be
assessed in a professional and legal procedure. This question evaluates the proper knowledge on
compensation management of the candidate and how the candidate would approach to the issues
related to compensation from the employees in the organization ((Page and Murphy, 2019). This

7Recruitment and Selection
also reveals that how the candidate would handle complaints at work, to deal with disrespectful
employees and the legal procedure of handling the compensation and the employees as well
(Liikamaa 2015). In order to answer this question the candidate need to have good knowledge on
employment legislation as well (Page and Murphy, 2019). As per the responsibility of human
resource department the main role is to handle all the discrepancies and disputes of the
employees therefore, the response of the question would highlight the how patience fully the
individual will deal with the situation.
Question5:
You may have to be involved in hands–on, clerical and repetitive task. How will you stay
motivated and how can we motivate you?
This question reveals the level of motivation that will drive the individual to sustain in
the job role. The main objective of the interviewer is to know the how the individual will remain
motivated while assessing the job roles. It is an open-ended question and semi-structured
interview in which the psychological perception is analyzed and how it shows the positive or the
negative perception of the individual (Hammer and Wildavsky, 2018). The first part of the
question is to make the aware of the compromised responsibilities which needs to be practiced
by the employee of the organization and the response of the individual will show the
motivational ability (Seijts, Crossan and Carleton, 2017). Mostly the repetitive and clerical task
drives demotivation within the employees therefore, through this question the interviewer gets a
clear picture of the individual’s flexibility regarding the job profile. From the response of the
following question it can also be observed how the candidate would remain influenced in order
to stay in the job.

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Question6:
Describe your past work experience and what exception you fund in this particular job profile?
How will you cope with the new environment and employees?
This question is assessed by the interviewer so that to know how positively the candidate
respond about the pervious company and additional benefit is aimed by the candidate. This
question is an example of structured interview that is the same set of questions which is repeated
for every candidate (Tian, Cordery and Gamble, 2016). This question is based upon behavioral
interview question, it shows the behavior and the past experience of the interviewer and it is also
based on the past performance of the candidate. The framework which is used for behavioral
interview question is STAR framework which include situation, task, action and result. With
respect to this question the main purpose of the interviewer is that to find out an able leader who
is a team player, creative and can remain optimistic in the job profile. This question is asked to
all the candidates who are appearing for the interview so as to make out a comparison between
the candidates as well. The second part of the question shows the emotional intelligence
capability of the employees.

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Conclusion
It can be deferred from the above study that the interviewing the candidates require
proper skill. The interview is a vital part of the selection process and determines the competency
level of the candidates. Therefore, the questions must be designed in an effective way in order to
make relevant selection process. The above questions were justified in terms of interviewing
skills for a HR assistance takes self-confidence. This questions ensures the proper knowledge of
the candidates. The above study suggests the questions gives in-depth preparation and it is
competence-based approach for the candidates. Finally the questions are prepared keeping the
job description in mind and which can define the job position in a potential manner.

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