Caring about your direct reports is a must for candidates and answering these question in a HR interview for a new job can be grueling, you have to balance your answer and approach, and not risk being perceived as softy.
Caring about direct reports implies being interested in the work and non-work lives of direct reports. It is the potential to ask about their plans, problems, and desires. One should know about their concerns and questions and if a particular individual is available for listening to personal problems. They are individuals who will monitor workloads and appreciates the extra effort.
Many kinds of challenges are faced when working and developing direct reports. This trait is all about providing a challenging and stretching tasks and assignments. One has to find ways to mitigate the risks while protecting the quality of work and the employee.
Caring about direct reports makes one more aware of each person’ career goals. This also helps them push people to accept developmental moves. Such people cooperate with the developmental system in the organization and is a people builder. There are also people who have the experience lack the bandwidth and hence, it is vital to direct reports to others too.
Explain how you created an environment in the workplace that encouraged direct reports to share their personal problems with you.
There are instances when one has provided or offered developmental tasks and assignments. These are associated directly with the development needs of the person. The interviewer can ask you to explain a situation where they have created an environment to encourage the reporting and sharing of personal problems.
On this HR interview question on caring about your direct reports, your response should address how you tackle such a situation and manage the selection of these tasks. It can be simple things like helping employees with after-hours industry seminars and networking opportunities. You can also say that you try to provide answers that reflect your acumen. Did you select tasks based on these capabilities so it would help your team members access to new information and also help them build their confidence?
While responding to this HR interview question on caring about your direct reports, other aspects that you can discuss are how you proactively identified the purpose of development for the same. In this reference, mention if a colleague was feeling anxious about being a less experienced team member for taking up a certain task or on a project. Tell them how you helped that particular team member, even though he or she feels an even greater level of anxiety. Finally, talk about how talking and communicating with them helped the team member execute the task with precision.
Describe your understanding of the boss-employee relationship.
There are some stereotypes associated with the boss-employee relationship. While for some conservative companies it is a more formal and serious relationship for others, especially start-ups the entire concept is more relaxed and eased out. The boss- employee relationship is rather transparent.
Through this HR interview question on caring about your direct reports, the job interviewer would like to know or assess your understanding of the same. In this reference, mention that the boss and employee relationship is important to company productivity. Hence, whether it is formal or informal, it should be built on trust and understanding. This can make the employee and manager more efficient. Often, the lack of communication results in this relationship lacking cohesiveness and dampens productivity.
The relationship a boss shares with their employee is a two-way street. While being a senior or lead member of the organization — the boss takes care of mentoring and guiding the employee, coming up with new ideas and pitching new strategies for the organizational growth is an initiative the employee should take.
Also, in this reference, one should care about the direct reports that come from their boss. It would help the employee grow strategically and would also contribute to the overall company’s benefit. However, in some cases, a friendlier relationship between the boss and employee happens over time. Nevertheless, one should adhere to professionalism and ensure that the company’s guidelines are followed in this reference.
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