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Personnel Manager

Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this Personnel Manager hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.

HOW TO HIRE A Personnel Manager

What does a Personnel Manager do?

Personnel Managers are administrative professionals who oversee the hiring process and professional development of employees within an organization. Many companies include Personnel Managers as part of a larger human resources team, but smaller organizations may have an individual personnel manager performing all the administrative duties.

Day to day tasks of a Personnel Manager

Skills assessment

Personnel Manager definition

Personnel Managers are people that manage, recruit, select, interview and train an applicant for a vacant job. They screen applicants to make sure that employees are fitted for the job. Personnel managers are also called human resources managers, benefits managers, training and development managers, and human resources generalists.

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HIRING PROCESS

Personnel Manager Hiring Process

Step 1: Understand the role
Step 2: Source Applicants
Step 3: Skills Assessment
Step 4: Interview
Step 5: Hire

Build the Ideal Candidate Profile​

To find the best person for the role, you need to understand what the role involves. You can complete this with the hiring manager to define the role, its contribution, and the skills needed.

Write A Job Description Based On Skills

Once you understand the requirements for the role, you’ll need to understand the skills for success. You can then write an effective job description to promote your role.

Selecting The Ideal Candidate

See which applicants have the right skills for the role. Send all your applicants a Vervoe skills assessment from the expert library, or customize one for your organization.

Interview Top Performers

Your skills assessment results will identify top performers. Focus your time on interviewing those that have met or exceeded your requirements. Assessment results will also help guide which skill areas to focus on in the interview.

Making An Offer

Once you assess your candidates against these skills, you’re ready to offer the top performer(s). You should base your offer on the value that the candidate would bring to your team and your business as a whole. It is also important to ensure your compensation and benefits packages are competitive in the industry and help you attract and retain the top talent.
Build the ideal candidate profile

Skills needed for a Personnel Manager

A Personnel Manager must always keep the organization’s strategy in mind while being able to lead a HR team with confidence. As this role is people-centric, a Personnel Manager must also have top tier interpersonal skills.

Pro Tip

As this role is critical in an organization’s development and success, it would be prudent to look for a candidate with the ability to think critically in order to improve the company’s current policies and procedures.

WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS

How to write a Personnel Manager job description

Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your Personnel Manager job description:

Job Title: What position are you hiring for?

Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?

Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization

Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully

Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer

Pro Tip

In building your candidate profile, remember you’ve already identified what skills are needed to succeed in the role. Here’s where to list your “must-have” skills and maybe a couple of “nice-to-have” skills. For example, a Personnel Manager should have leadership experience in heading up a team, but should also have knowledge of HR management systems.

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SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Sample skill tests for a Personnel Manager

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Question 1

Strategy

Question Type: Document

Imagine you have just started a new role in a business that has very few onboarding processes in place which seems to be demotivating new hires and potentially attributing to the high attrition rates.

In the document below, outline the on-boarding process you would create for the business. Feel free to use our company or another business as an example and choose any role that you feel comfortable with.

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Question 2

Interpersonal Skills

Question Type: Audio

You will be responsible for employee incentives. Imagine that the company has changed its policy from unlimited time off to normal vacation leave allocation and you need to communicate this to employees.

Please record yourself delivering this message to the company staff.

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Question 3

Leadership

Question Type: Video

Finally, please record a video telling us the strategies that you use to motivate and coach your employees.

INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS

How to interview a Personnel Manager

Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.

Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.

Making An Offer

How much does it cost to hire a Personnel Manager?

The US average for a Personnel Manager is $108,190, according to Salary.com, while the reported average salary on Payscale.com amounts to $65,000. Ninety percent of talent acquisition managers earn up to $132,773, with 75 percent receiving less than $121,000. The lowest paid ten percent is paid up to $85,169.

Personnel Manager Salary United States

Personnel Manager salaries in the United States range from $85,169 – $132,773 (USD). Personnel Manager salaries in the U.S vary a lot depending on the industry and the education background of the employee.

Personnel Manager Salary United Kingdom

Personnel Manager salaries in the United Kingdom range from £26,000 – £68,000 (GBP). Personnel Manager salaries in the UK vary largely based on location and the amount of career experience.

Source: Glassdoor

Personnel Manager Salary Australia

Personnel Manager salaries in Australia range from $110,000 – $149,300 (AUD) (according to Human Resources Manager salary data, the equivalent role in Australia). Personnel Manager salaries usually depend on the industry and the educational background.