HR Leaders wanting to work at people-first orgs - ask these questions in your interview

You’re an HR leader seeking a people-first organization to work for. But you’re wary. You’ve been there when leaders talked a good game but didn’t deliver. And you’ve been in positions where you didn’t feel that your expertise was valued. So what to do when seeking a new role?

You know that an organization is unlikely to come out and say: “You know what? Actually, we don’t care about our people or culture! We might let you build a team, but it’ll probably be a small one… And it’s incredibly unlikely you’ll ever get the resources you need. Come to think of it, we'll probably ignore your strategy and recommendations too!”

So, you know that you may have to dig to figure out whether an organization values HR as a strategic function and will treat you as a partner. 

To provide support to those seeking or changing roles, I asked the HR community what questions they thought HR leaders should ask during their interview process. I’ve organized and compiled those suggestions here. Note that many of these questions are geared toward more senior roles, but may be applicable for other roles as well. 

Culture and values questions

These questions can help you get beyond surface-level discussions of culture and values. Ideally what you want to find out is how their culture and values are demonstrated, what senior leaders value, and who they believe “owns” the culture. This discussion should also help uncover how they think about the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they think about the employees and their feedback. Understanding these components can give you insight into what your role within the org might be and what impact you could have. 

• What are the company’s values? How do these values appear within the org?

• Metrics aside, what does a successful culture look and feel like to you?

• Who "owns" the company culture?

• Describe your current employee recognition and celebration practices and employee engagement initiatives. What do you think is or isn’t working about them?

• How would you like people to describe their experience working here a year from now?

• How do employees provide feedback? What changes have you made recently based on employee and/or HR feedback?

• What are the best aspects of your company culture? What are the most challenging?

• Describe your current workforce - what are their strengths and weaknesses as a group? 

• Do you believe people managers here are enabled to build and motivate their teams? How so?

If senior leaders can’t respond thoughtfully, perceive this as outside of their purview, or are dismissive of questions about the organization’s culture and values, this could be an indicator to proceed with caution. Similarly, if folks on the interview panel seem stumped, are vague in their answers, or can’t give compelling examples, that is an indicator to dig deeper to find what’s below the surface.

Resourcing questions

Depending on the role you are seeking and your desire to build a team, you’ll want to know what resources you’re likely (or not likely!) to have.

• Have there been times when you’ve had to make trade-offs between providing budget for the HR team/employee programs and using that budget elsewhere in the business? What was the decision you made and how did you come to it?

• Tell me about your current HR team and what they are responsible for. Will there be headcount available to grow the team? Or budget available to provide raises/promotions/L&D opportunities to those on the team?

HR teams can end up last in line when it comes to their budget requests, so it's good to get clarity on what resources you'll have available to you upfront.

Role questions

You can start to learn how the role is framed within the organization from the job description. Does it describe the role as a strategic partner within the business or as a largely administrative function? Use questions that tease that out further to help you understand how they perceive the role and how they intend to work with you. 

• What do you envision the ideal role of HR being within this org? 

• When was the last time you consulted with someone on the HR team and what was it about?

• Who will this role report to?

• What do you think I should focus on in the first 6 months? At the end of that time, how will you know you have made a successful hire? 

• How do you envision us working together? What are the areas we'd work on together to help drive business outcomes?

• What kinds of decisions do you envision someone in this role autonomously making for the department/company? What decisions would you collaborate on with the person in this role? What decisions would you lead with this person’s support?

• It’s been a particularly tough past few years for organizations and People Teams. What’s something your organization learned during this time? How did it impact the role of HR in your organization?

• What is the HR team's relationship with Finance? Who owns payroll? How are benefits, and raises budgeted and managed?

If you are the most senior HR leader in the organization and will not report to the CEO, this could be a sign of caution. It may be an indicator of how the role is perceived and may limit your ability to have an impact within the organization. Similarly, if they don’t have a clear understanding of the expectations of the role, how the role will partner with other leaders, and which decisions will be owned by the person in this role, it could be murky waters ahead!

Questions about the relationship between the HR leader and other senior leaders

A common challenge for HR leaders is getting senior leaders’ support, and being treated as a strategic thought partner within the business. These questions can help you discover what working with other senior leaders at the organization will be like. 

• How do you see us partnering? What is a current challenge within your function that if I were hired I could solve for you?

• Was there a time when you didn’t agree with an HR leader’s approach or recommendations? What was your approach? What happened?

• Can you give an example of an HR strategy you believe improved the business’s outcomes?

• For later stages in the interview: Would it be possible for me to meet with a board member to get their big picture view of the org? Would it be possible for me to meet with a junior employee to get their perspective on the org?

Do they want a strategic thought partner? Do they expect to collaborate with you? When you don’t agree or when challenging times within the business arise, what will that dynamic be like? The important thing here is - does what they describe in a working relationship match what you’re seeking? 

Good luck!

What we sometimes forget as we interview is that just as much as they are interviewing us, we are interviewing them. So ask away! Get the best understanding you can of how they perceive the role, the function of HR within the business, and how they intend to work with you. If there is a big gap between what they seem to want and what you seek, you may want to keep searching!

Here is the link to the post that sparked this article.

I’d also like to credit the following folks who contributed to that discussion and the questions included in this article:  Amberine Wilson-Enrico, MPA Samantha Gordano Kate A. Olivia Johnson Lucy Earnshaw Claudinia Harper, MA, MCIPD, ODCP Michelle King Lora Paredes Ruth Taylor MCIPD Dustin Carper (SHRM-SCP) Holly Gibson Ali Raymond Roxanne St-Pierre, CPHR 🏡 Kim Rohrer Katherine Creechan Jennifer Quinn Morales Nicole Cruz Holly May

Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash