Top 21 Supervisor Interview Questions In 2024 [With Answers]

Management is a key aspect that not only ensures organizational success but also helps in achieving employee satisfaction. Supervisors or managers strive to create an overall positive atmosphere within a company and define its ethics and culture. The supervisors act as key personnel and are counted within the elite or top segment. Depending upon the size of an organization they can lead a team, a minor department, or an entire business unit. The interview sessions of this position are quite tricky and candidates need to do a lot of handwork to ace them. Read out the exclusive collection of our interview questions below and enhance your selection chances manifolds:

21 Best Interview Questions To Study

1. Leadership Is An Important Attribute That Every Supervisor Must Possess. How Would You Define Your Leadership Style?

This question requires you to share your leadership style, which will help the interviewer to assess whether or not you are a perfect match for the company’s culture.

Sample Answer

Sir, my leadership style is accomodative and co-operative. I am not a ring master kind of supervisor, rather, am a lot empathetic and always try to understand the needs and wants of my sub-ordinates. This allows me to think wisely, wherein I am able to create a work environment in which the employees are utmost comfortable and are able to contribute to the best of their ability.

2. Being A Supervisor You Will Be Assigned Targets That Need To Be Completed By Your Team. Which Measures Do You Use To Motivate Your Team Members?

Through this question, an interviewer wants to know what are the various monetary as well as non-monetary measures that you follow to motivate your team members.

Sample Answer

Sir, I use a combination of both monetary and non-monetary incentives, which are:

• Recognition of the employees who have performed excellently and have delivered an ideal performance at the workplace
• Extending monetary incentives, upon achievement of targets and assigned goals
• Offering family benefits and rewards, such as coupons, reimbursements, etc.

3. What Is The Relevance of Employee Appraisal System In An Organization?

This question tests your core principles of supervision and business management.

Sample Answer

Sir, tracking and evaluating the performance of the employees is a necessary aspect and must be done seriously within an organization. It not only improves the quality of business processes but also extends regular feedbacks to the employees, which they can use to improve their individual performances. The established benchmarks or standards are used to evaluate the performance of the employees and subsequently variances are determined.

4. Decsribe About A Time When You Showed Dedication At Your Workplace.

This is a situational interview question wherein you are required to show through a real workplace event that you remained dedicated to the organization.

Sample Answer

Sir, “dedication” is an important employee attribute, which must be possessed by all the employees no matter at which level they are working. I remember one instance when I was supervising an urgent outstation business project and was leading a team of five members. It was a shame that three of these members got sick as they failed to adjust in the foreign surroundngs. Since the matter was urgent, I stepped up and took the workload of these three all by myself. I diaplayed great grit and passion and worked almost 12 hours a day for the next 15 days.

5. It Is Common For Employees To Enter Into Arguments and Disputes. How Do You Resolve Them?

This question tests your practical working knowledge.

Sample Answer

Sir, every employee is distinct and has unique emotions, feelings, and preferences. When these get hurt, they feel bad and in a bid to defend, enter into arguments. I conduct individual meetings with the parties concerned and try to understand what led to a conflict between them. Once I get hold of the apple of discord, I take suitable actions against the parties at fault.

6. Assume A Situation In Which Your Team Members Are Demotivated and Demoralised. How Will You Uplift Them?

This is a situational interview question, which requires you to share a response as to how you can motivate your team members.

Sample Answer

Sir, it is common for a team to get demotivated due to a variety of reasons. Sometimes, it is a failure to achieve the deadlines, and sometimes there are issues with pay. All such issues can be resolved, with communications and discussions. It is my habit to have a personal chat with my team members wherein I try to understand the real cause of concern, which is hampering their work performance. Post this, I try my level best to eliminate it and motivate my team members.

7. Share The Three Best Attributes That Every Supervisor Must Possess.

This question tests how much you understand your own profession.

Sample Answer

Sure, sir, these are:

• Excellent communication skills
• Leadership abilities
• An ability to think critically and problem solving attitude

8. All Our Employees Work With A Lot Of Dedication and Hardwork. However, Only A Few Climb The Corporate Ladder and Many Fail To Get Promotions. How Do You Prevent Yourself From Inferiority Complex?

This is a psychological interview question, through which an interviewer wants to know about your attitude towards inferiority complex.

Sample Answer

Sir, the root cause for inferiority complex lies in the competitive attitude, which is ingrained into our minds right when we are toddlers. As kids, we always want more love and compassion than our siblings. As we grow young, this feeling evolves and translates into I win, you lose or I am one up, you are one down. Such an attitude produces the feeling of envy and robs a person of his mental peace. I am on the path to transforming myself and have even joined a few online personality grooming courses.

9. Name The Best Software That Are used In The Industry For Task Management.

This question checks your level of acquaintance and awareness of the latest and popular software technologies existing in your industry.

Sample Answer

Sure, sir, These are:

• Process Bliss
• Zoho Projects
• Backlog

10. Describe Your Best Boss and Worst Boss.

This is a trending interview question and is gaining popularity. We all work at different business organizations and work under several bosses that instruct and supervise us. Some of these bosses enter into our good books due to various reasons and some simply fail to make the cut. An interview through this question wants to know the reason for such differentiation.

11. What Is Your Dream Job?

We all dream and have several expectations as well as desires from our employers. For example, some employees might dream to work in a company, which offers them lucrative incentives or some might expect their employer to offer them paid family trips. This is what an employer wants from you through this question. As an ideal response, just share a realistic expectation of yours from your employer.

12. What Is Your Preferred Mode of Working – Team or Alone?

With the evolution of corporate culture, teamwork has gained precedence and priority. Nowadays most business organizations prefer to work in a team set-up wherein they segregate and divide their workforce into several units on the basis of their education levels, skillset, and nature of tasks to be performed. Thus, choosing “team” is always a safer option, however, you can certainly go for “alone” as well. In both cases, justify your selection using reasonable logic and rationales.

13. Being A Supervisor You Will Face Challenges and There Is A Greater Possibility That You Won’t Be Able To Overcome All Of Them. How Do You Handle and Manage Workplace Failures?

Failure strikes everyone, just like death, which is inevitable. You will rarely find a person in this crowded world who has always succeeded and never failed. Yet, failure leaves a devastating impact upon human minds and makes them literally go crazy. A failed person not only feels short of confidence but also delivers a sub-standard performance while being in employment. Thus, an interviewer is always interested in knowing the various strategies or techniques that you follow to manage your workplace failures.

14. We Understand That You Must Have Applied At Various Business Organizations Apart From Us. Can You Tell, Why You Want To Work With Us?

It is an established fact and understood by most interviewers that candidates with the intent to increase their selection chances apply to different institutions simultaneously. Thus, they ask this question so as to understand and judge your seriousness and commitment towards the business organization. As an ideal response, just share the historical achievements, unique features, and accomplishments of the company. All these pieces of information are easily available on the official website of the company.

15. It Is An Established Fact That Supervisors Have To Multi-task While Being In Employment. How Do You Ensure A Timely Completion Of All The Tasks?

Through this question, an interviewer wants to know about your prioritization technique, using which you are able to arrange and order your tasks in a meaningful order. Most employees prefer to order on the basis of:

• The difficulty level of the tasks, with the most difficult task being put at the first position
• The time consumption of the tasks, with the most time consuming task being put at the first position
• The urgency associated with the tasks, with the most urgent task being put at the first position

Further, you are free to share any other strategy or technique, which you feel like, but make sure you justify your selection.

16. What Motivates You To Work?

We all are motivated by a few factors that prompt us to work hard and achieve our goals and objectives in a time-bound manner. These factors are dependent upon and influenced by our personal conditions, living situations, and financial conditions thereby eliminating the scope of extending any generic answer. Be real, be genuine and be you, as interviewers love to hear out your heart.

17. Managing or Handling An Entire Department/Team/Business Unit Is Hectic and Cumbersome. How Do You Manage Your Stress Levels?

Stress is a common psychological issue that exists and prevails in almost everybody, including corporate employees. It is an established fact that a stressed employee is like a burden for the company who neither delivers nor resigns. An abysmal performance coupled with sub-standard working ultimately affects the quality of business processes and ultimately affects customer satisfaction. Thus, an interviewer is always interested in knowing the strategies that you follow to uplift yourself and manage your stress levels.

18. What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses As A Supervisor?

This is a common interview question and is asked in almost all the interview sessions held across the world. This question is a master personality evaluator and helps an interviewer to assess your behavior and approach. The best way to prepare an answer for this question is by analyzing the job description issued to you by your employer and noting all their requirements. Post this, share strengths that align with these requirements and weaknesses that do not conflict.

19. When Can You Start Working With Us?

Through this question, an interviewer wants you to share a genuine date of start on or after which you can start working for the company. It is true that immediate starters are always preferred, but it is recommended that you share only a true date. Further, this question in no way guarantees your selection, hence you must refrain from interpreting it that way.

20. What Are Your Salary Expectations?

It is a common habit of the interviewers to ask about your salary expectations during the course of the interview itself. It is recommended that you share a salary figure, which is based on comprehensive and deep research of the industry to which you belong. While researching, make sure to note all the salaries offered to similar professionals and calculate a mean salary. To give an ideal response, just share a salary in the bracket that does not deviate more than 15% of the mean salary.

21. Do You Have Any Questions For Us?

It is common for the interviewers to conclude an interview session with this interview question, which is mostly last on the list. Through this question, an interviewer requests you to share all your doubts and apprehensions that you might be having in regards to the business organization, its ethical culture, the work timings, etc. It is recommended that you always attempt this question as failing to do so would reduce your selection chances. You can always read out the model questions mentioned below, for a better understanding:

Model Questions

• What are the different departments of the company?
• Please share a list of all the incentives and allowances that are offered by the company to its regular employees.
• Is it the policy of the company to offer paid leaves to its employees?

Download the list of questions in .PDF format, to practice with them later, or to use them on your interview template (For Supervisor interview):

References

1. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=gtRJEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Top+21+Supervisor+Interview+Questions+in+2021+%5Bwith+Answers%5D&ots=EebRgNXhpQ&sig=h6oJX6j1587QIVfvai20gMWFnIA
2. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/4/e044591.abstract