The following is a set of interview questions that may help you when hiring the candidates for Logistics Manager positions. These questions will help you critically evaluate each candidate’s skills, and help to choose the best managers.
What is the role of a Logistics Manager?
A Logistics Manager is an important personnel in any company or business. He holds the responsibility for directing Dispatchers/ truck drivers for controlling the imports and exports of a company. A Logistics Manager also overlooks the distribution and supply rate of each and every product and makes subsequent calculations. Ideally, the best candidate for the role of a Logistics Manager would be the one having a vast and robust background in business administration. The candidates might also require an authentic certification with regards to supply chain management. The manager must be vigilant and dedicated and have excellent cooperation and communication skills because they will have to work with manufacturers, retailers, suppliers, and exporters. Also, look for deadline management and frugal decision-making skills. Candidates must also be educated in business strategies and willing to enhance the supply chain tenfold. Team management and coordination skills may also be required. The following questions will help you when evaluating a candidate’s critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Operational and Situational questions
- Describe your daily routine. What important tasks do you handle every day?
- Do you set certain goals on an annual or quarterly basis? What are they? How do you monitor them?
- Are you familiar with warehouses which use automated systems? Have you ever worked in any?
- What’s the best way to monitor stock exchange rates and levels? Do you use any software for that? Which ones?
- What do you know about general health regulations and ISO requirements?
- What strategies do you use to calculate transportation and delivery costs? Are they effective?
- Do you use modern software to overlook and manage current and past projects? Which ones? Are they useful? Describe a time when they have proven to be handy.
- Are you strategic at blind counting? Could you tell us about a time when you performed blind counting?
- How will you be able to cooperate and compromise on orders and shipping affairs?
- Are you strategic at scheduling and arranging meetings with members of your team? What factors do you keep in mind?
- Suppose a supplier contacts you and tells you that the shipping will be made late and that supply will be delayed drastically. How would you react to this? What steps will you take to resolve the issue? Explain your thought process.
- Describe how you normally assess your team’s actions and their individual and collective performance.
- Suppose one manufacturer, whom you’ve known and cooperated with for a long time, suddenly demands an increase in prices. How will you react? Will you break the bond? Elaborate.
Behavioral questions
- Describe a time when you terminated a worker. Which of their actions (or lack thereof) motivated you to do it? What did you do in the situation?
- Have you been successful in bargaining and getting a nifty discount on stock items? What measures did you take? Elaborate.
- Which areas of expertise are you familiar with? Do you keep yourself updated with new and improved management strategies? Have you any plans for getting an authentic certification?
- How well can you handle customer complaints? Describe a time when you had to face a rude and angered customer. How did you handle the situation?
- State a time when you worked with a team or individually on a challenging and cumbersome project. Describe the workload. How well did you manage the team? Was their performance extraordinary?