Objective: To determine exactly what a human resource director job involves and what skills are necessary to be successful in the job.
This interview will be most successful if it is conducted in person at the HR professional's office. You will need to make an appointment and get the person's permission for the interview. You will need to submit a rough draft of your report by the end of week 5, so the interview must take place within the first 5 weeks of this class.
To accomplish the objective, you may ask any questions you want. I suggest you create an interview protocol prior to the visit. Respect the HR professional's time; come to the interview prepared with approximately 10-15 well-worded questions. To do this give consideration to the primary questions you want answered, write about two questions on a sheet of paper (one at the top, one half way down) leaving plenty of space for you to take notes related to the response. Use your most important questions first. If the meeting gets cut short, you will still have the most important answers. You may record the interview if the person consents to it; even if you record, you will want to take copious notes in case a problem develops with the recording.
You will want to write open ended questions; those which require a descriptive response to avoid receiving yes/no answers. Example: Please describe your main responsibilities?
I recommend you conduct the interview in their office if possible. Take note of their surroundings, it can tell you a great deal about a person. Avoid conducting the interview via email or phone; neither allow you to observe body language and have a tendency to provide incomplete information. If it is impossible to meet with the person, ask them if you can conduct the interview via Skype. Again, it is not acceptable to simply email a list of questions to an HR professional and then relay the answers to me in a report.
Here are some sample questions you might want to include. However, I recommend you develop your own questions; it will make your report more original and interesting:
- What is the person's background; education, experience, length in HR field. Do they have any HR certifications? How much professional development training do they receive annually?
- Describe how HR fits within the organizational structure. To whom do they report?
- Describe the scope of your functions in the organization (exactly what do you do).
- Describe how HR has changed over the years? What do they think the future looks like for HR?
- What kinds of HR technologies are used in the organization? What is their role in managing this (is it used to measure/track/review work or other functions)?
- What major legal challenges do they deal with; what role does regulation play in the job; how do they avoid the questions of discrimination, sexual harassment, etc. How do they ensure employees comply with company policy?
- Are any HR functions outsourced? Describe the process of selecting the company who will do the work. If n functions are outsourced, has it ever been considered? Why rejected?
- What is their role in determining and administering employee benefits?
- Describe how employee work is measured and/or evaluated. Who participates?
- How do they resolve issues with problem employees? How do they resolve issues when two employees are incapable of working together?
- What do they look for in applicants? (Ex: education, personality, skills, etc.) What catches their eye when reviewing a cover letter/resume/application?
- What advice would you recommend for a person entering the field of human resources?