Bring your employment law knowledge up to date

Be confident on the fundamentals: disciplinaries, grievances, absence management, redundancy, TUPE and family-friendly rights. Read up on recent and upcoming changes to UK employment law, and be ready to explain how they would affect the business you are meeting.

Prepare your case examples carefully

You will almost certainly be asked about a difficult employee relations case. Choose examples that show sound judgement, fairness and a good outcome. Always protect confidentiality by removing names and identifying details.

Show you understand the commercial picture

The best HR professionals are business partners first. Explain how your work affected retention, engagement, absence, time to hire or cost. Link your people initiatives to the organisation's wider goals.

Be ready for scenario questions

Expect questions such as "How would you handle a manager who refuses to follow a policy?" or "What would you do if a restructure needed to be delivered in six weeks?" Talk through your reasoning step by step, covering process, people and risk.

Know your systems and data

Be clear about the HRIS and payroll systems you have used, and how you have used people data to report, spot trends and influence decisions.

Research their culture and people agenda

Look at their careers page, values, Glassdoor reviews and LinkedIn posts. Come prepared with views on what they are doing well and where you could add value, whether that is engagement, wellbeing, EDI, learning and development or reward.

For senior and leadership roles

Expect questions on people strategy, organisational design, culture change, workforce planning and how you influence at board level. Prepare examples of change you led from start to finish.