Payroll specialist interview questions and answers

While there are as many different possible interview questions as there are interviewers, it always helps to be ready for anything. Which is why we've taken the time to prepare this list of Payroll specialist  interview questions.

Now granted some of these questions may seem tired and cliche, but I guarantee you they are still being asked in interview rooms consistently, around the world in 2016. So you need to prepare for them!

• Tell me about yourself?
• What are your greatest strengths?
• What Are Your Greatest Weakness?
• What experience do you have in Payroll specialist field?
• What are key tasks for Payroll specialist…position?
• What are top 3 knowledge/top 3 skills for Payroll specialist…position?
• What are KRAs/output of Payroll specialist…position?
• How to measure/appraise your Payroll specialist…position?
• What do you know about this company?
• Describe two or three major trends in your Payroll specialist field?
• Did you choose this profession/field?
• What tertiary qualifications have you attained that related to Payroll specialist…position?
• What is the most recent skill you have learned that related to Payroll specialist…position?
• What do you do to stay current with provincial, federal, state, municipal regulations?
• A payroll specialist clerk often has to face employees’ ire due to a payroll specialist error. How would you handle such a situation
• Define payroll specialist. Mention the various payroll specialist procedures conducted regularly for updating the payroll specialist database?
• What are monitoring methods for Payroll specialist activities?
• Describe ISO 9001 for Payroll specialist?
• What made you choose to apply to Payroll specialist…position?
• Tell me about your last position and what you did?
• What do you know about the Payroll specialist…position?
• What have you done to improve your Payroll specialist knowledge in the last year?
• What have you learned from mistakes on the Payroll specialist job?
• What was the most complicated payroll specialist you are responsible for?
• State the payroll specialist principles and standards defined to work and maintain an organization’s payroll specialist system.
• Name the payroll specialist software you can access? Do you have knowledge of some accounting software as well?
• What’s your experience level with Microsoft Excel and access?
• Tell me about the most complicated report you have to prepare related to personnel. For example, over time, these, headcount, retirement contribution and so on.
• Payroll specialist is run every two weeks, which means a lot of pressure to meet the deadline. When have you had to work under pressure?
• What are some of the most important reports you have written? How difficult were they to write? Why? What reactions did they get?
• Describe the employment laws that affect your work?
• Please tell us something about payroll specialist tracking, reconciliation and reporting.
• Please rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on your data entry skills and general math and book keeping skills.
• Are you willing to work overtime or off-shift during emergency or special situations like auditing, financial year-end etc?
• What were the challenges you faced in payroll specialist operations while following either company or government policies?
• What kind of training and certification, do you have related to payroll specialist?
• Tell me about a time when you took disciplinary action against an employee. How did you decide what to do?
• How do you monitor your department’s productivity or performance as a Payroll specialist Administrator? Give some examples.
• What training or certification program have you gone through in this field?
• Do you have adequate technical knowledge of the computer software programmes and applications that will be required in your work?
• What do you know about the regulatory standards, policies and procedures of payroll specialist?
• What are methods that are used to manage Payroll specialist?
• How to maintain Payroll specialist activities?
• What are common risks for Payroll specialist? And how to face?
• Describe steps to manage Payroll specialist?
• How to measure performance of Payroll specialist activities?
• Describe your experience with the administration of electronic timekeeping.
• Do you have experience of handling typical payroll specialist issues raised by the employees? If yes, tell us about your strategy to deal with such a situation?
• Explain your role with payroll specialist administration. Discuss the nature of problems generally occurred during the payroll specialist record submission?
• What do you understand from employer’s social security, compensation payments and payroll specialist liabilities? Discuss the relationship between these three entities.
• Tell us the formula for calculating provincial income and social security taxes.
• How do you make sure that employee records are entered and accurately and on time?
• You can never be too prepared: Try these open-ended "What if..." questions you could face in a job interview.
• Like what you’ve read? Join Monster to get personalized articles and job recommendations—and to help recruiters find you.

For laughs -- and some insight -- read 47 Interview Questions And Answers 

Finally, to avoid any awkward silences, never assume that the hiring manager has a sense of humour… Just in case. 

Don’t make the answer come across as rehearsed; rather, just remember the gist of your answer and then let the sentences flow freely during the interview, which gives the interviewer a much better impression of you. Good luck!