Page 70 - How To Answer Interview Questions (II)

Job Interview Question 32

How have you handled
difficult situations with employees?

Every hiring manager has had a difficult situation with an employee. With this question, the
interviewer is mostly looking for how you respond to underperformance, which is the most
common difficult situation. A manager who can turn around an underperformer is a highly valued
piece of any organization.

Think about a time when you had to deal with a problem employee and had a positive outcome.

Use the STAR format:
Situation or Task
Action
Result

Situation or Task
Tell them what was going on with this employee. What was happening? What was the behavior?
How long had it been going on? How was it affecting the bigger picture?
Action
Walk them through what you did to address the problem. How did you intervene? Did you have a
talk with the employee? Did you set up a Personal Improvement Plan? What was involved in the
plan? Was it a simple plan, or a multi-step one? Did that solve it, or did you have to meet with the
employee again? Did you have to get anyone else involved? Did you ask anyone for advice? Did you