Questions interviewers should ask Reward Managers

Businesses must hire the right candidate for the role of reward manager to ensure they can attract and retain the top industry talent.

As a prospective reward manager, you need to demonstrate that you have the skills of a reward professional. Here we have looked at questions a potential reward manager may be asked in an interview and how you can ensure your answers show you in the best light.

How do you ensure that you are up to date with market trends and current legislation?

As a reward manager it's vital you're up to date with current payroll and pension legislation as well as being aware of current trends and developments in your industry.

In order to create innovative benefits packages to attract top talent, you need to be ahead of the curve. Demonstrate you actively follow industry news by discussing events you attend, any books or articles you read and how this helps your industry knowledge stay up to date.

Why did you leave your last job?

Make sure you don’t bad mouth your previous employer or colleagues when answering this question. Instead, use your answer to explain how much you want the role they’re offering.

This is your chance to talk about why you want the role and, more so, why you want to work for this particular organisation. Research the company well so you can confidently put forward your reasons for wanting to work there.

What do you believe are the most important qualities of a Reward Manager?

This question challenges you to prioritise what you believe are the most important qualities of a reward manager.

There are three broad parts to a reward manager role; people skills, organisation and problem solving. For the people side you'll want to focus on your ability to build strong working relationships, excellent communication skills, negotiation skills and being able to relate to employers and understand their needs.

For the organisational aspects you'll want to discuss the importance of time management, organisational tools and attention to detail.

Finally, for the problem solving aspects you need to be able to demonstrate that you understand the importance of thinking creatively, producing innovative solutions and striking the balance between creating appealing benefits packages and the business needs of the organisation.

How do you approach organising and prioritising your work?

As a reward manager you need to be incredibly well organised. You also need to be able to efficiently interpret data to analyse the success of your current benefits packages, and identify where they succeed and where they could be improved.

Make sure your answer shows that you understand how vital impeccable organisational skills and attention to detail are to the role you're applying for. Use examples of organisational tools you've used in previous roles, how you developed them and how they positively impacted your ability to work efficiently.

Describe a time when you have developed a creative solution to a problem an organisation you worked for had faced.

This question is directly focused on the issue of creative problem solving. Being able to think outside of the box, presenting innovative solutions to overcome difficult problems and displaying a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards the hurdles you face will set you apart. Choose examples where your problem solving really made a difference to the business.

Describe a time when you worked with some who was difficult to work alongside, how did you approach and overcome this issue?

This is a classic interview question and you need to be careful in how you answer it as it's important not to bad mouth your previous colleagues.

Focus on yourself and the positive steps you made when a situation like this occurred.

Everybody's had difficult colleagues in the past but blaming and bad mouthing won't present you in the best light; use this question to show off your people skills and resilience.

If you think the role of reward manager is for you, register with us today. We are based in Central London near Liverpool Street – pay us a visit or call 020 7650 3190 to get started.