Having the right plant manager in place is crucial for your company’s success.
Overall, a plant manager’s role can vary depending on the plant in which they work.
For example, in a larger plant, a plant manager may oversee just one area. However, in a smaller plant, their responsibilities involve managing the entire plant.
In the end, a plant manager’s responsibilities involve organizing daily activities, as well as managing long term goals. Thus, when hiring a plant manager, you want to find a candidate who’s the right fit for the position and the company.
To aid your search for qualified candidates, consider these top plant manager interview questions.
Top Plant Manager Interview Questions
What is an example of how you improved a pre-existing procedure?
With this question, you can determine how flexible your candidate is. Flexibility is important for a plant manager. To make effective decisions, a plant manager must be adaptable to changes that occur within your company.
Additionally, they need to adapt to changes within the industry as well. To elaborate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in the manufacturing sector, companies had a fluctuating level of productivity output since 2018.
Your ideal plant manager should see this and find strategies to adapt to the changing environment around them to maintain and improve overall productivity.
For example, flexibility is needed when a plant manager is reviewing production rates. This is to determine if the company is meeting standards for operation.
A decision that was made in the past may need to be updated to meet the company’s current needs.
What methods have you used to boost employee morale?
Another duty of a plant manager involves motivating the employees they oversee. This can include training programs they put together, or various employee rewards programs.
Consider the following situation: your company must make cutbacks to save on overall production costs.
In this case, your plant manager must be able to make important decisions that best help the company. In addition, they must also handle any drop in morale that can result from these cutbacks.
All in all, what this question is determining is how your candidate handles the impacts of their decision making.
This looks like a detail-oriented plant manager who can handle difficult situations properly as well as maintain employee morale.
How do you ensure that the voices of the employees you manage are heard?
This question examines how well your candidate can incorporate outside opinions into their decision making.
To elaborate, a positive trait for your candidate to display is the ability to work collaboratively with other employees.
A plant manager needs to be a good listener, be it with employee opinions or otherwise. Then, whether they follow every opinion or not, a plant manager should still consider them when making decisions.
The reason for this consideration ties back into the plant manager’s role in implementing changes that address the needs of the company. The opinion of the company’s employees helps a plant manager identify the current needs of the company.
Additionally, this question also relates to a plant manager’s role as a motivator. By listening to their opinions and addressing their needs, employees are likely to feel more engaged.
With a more engaged workforce, you also get a more motivated workforce. As a result, your company will likely be more productive, especially when compared to disengaged, unmotivated employees.
In the end, finding a plant manager who can easily align with your company culture is important.
Find a High-Quality Plant Manager For You
To run your workplace smoothly, a talented plant manager is essential to your company’s success. Finding the right one for you takes a dedicated hiring effort that starts with the interview process.
The above questions are not an exhaustive list! Consider including personality questions to gauge their company culture fit. If the first interview goes well, you may even need follow-up interview questions!
This amount of effort that goes into recruitment may make the hiring process seem too difficult to manage. It doesn’t have to be, though!
By partnering with an executive search firm, like TruPath, you can easily find outstanding candidates for your company.
With over 17,000 skilled individuals placed in a variety of industries, TruPath has ample experience filling executive positions with candidates that are dedicated to your company’s culture and vision.
For more information on how TruPath can help you find your next plant manager, contact their team at 1-844-TRUPATH, or fill out their online contact form. An experienced member of their team will reach out to you shortly!