Important HR Concepts You Must Know Before Your MBA Interview

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Key Learning Outcomes Of Doing an MBA in HRM Degree Program 

• You can use your expertise and HR lens in building an organization's strategy.
• You can help your company develop a workplace culture that has engaged employees, that helps them become leaders, and create a creative and inspiring workplace.
• You will learn how to be a good leader, and can possibly stitch a plan to become one.
• You can help in creating a leadership and coaching system that will help employees more agile, and make teams that are creative and great problem-solvers.
• You will be able to integrate ethical frameworks in the organizational culture and approach various problems.

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What can you do with an MBA in Human Resource (HR)?

• Human Resources Manager
• Senior Human Resources Consultant
• Manager, HR Operations
• Vice President of Human Resources
• Director of Employee Experience & Communications
• Director of Global Engagement and Culture
• Employee Relations Manager
• Talent Acquisition Manager
• Learning and Training Manager
• Placement Manager
• HR Generalist 
• Technical Recruiter
• Director of Staff
• Organizational Consultant

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Concepts You Need To Know Before Your MBA interview in HR

• Labour Laws: As a future MBA- HR student, you will learn a lot about employment laws, its application and other things that will help the employee in the protection of their rights. It is your duty to make the employees aware of their rights while helping the companies avoid lawsuits, fines and legal expenses. Hence, before your MBA an interview a brief glance on labour laws specifically related to maternity, discrimination, harassment, worker health and safety, industrial disputes, etc. will do the trick. No need to do an in-depth study, just the basics will do the trick.
• Employee Life Cycle: Employee lifecycle (ELC) are the different stages an employee progresses through in an organization. This includes - recruitment, onboard, develop, retain and then off-board. As an MBA aspirant, who aspires to study HRM and become an HR manager, having some idea about the employee life-cycle can give you a brownie point. Question asked around recruitment ethics, or “how to reduce attrition?” can be easily answered if you know about ELC. 
• Management Styles: In a corporate setting, there are broadly three types of management styles: Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire. Autocratic is a controlling type of management style. Variations of this style are authoritative, persuasive, and paternalistic. Democratic is a management style that involves managers reaching decisions along with the input of the employees. Other variations to this style include consultative, participative, and collaborative. Laissez-faire style of management means little or no interference from management. The staff is highly skilled and does not need supervision. If you are sitting for PI, especially with work-ex, you might be asked questions related to different types of management, and what kind of management styles under which you worked on. 
• Employee Behavior: A role of an HR manager is much more than rangoli making, recruiting, payroll, etc. An HR manager also sees if the employees are happy, engaged with their work, satisfied and secure. Hence, when you finish your degree and become an HR manager, it will be your role to help managers of other teams, to effectively manage their employees. Hence, you must know what motivates employees, and what doesn’t. Try to read through the basic psyche of the human mind and what motivates them.  Don’t do a deep dive in this topic yet, as you will be taught more about it during your course. Just understand the basics. 

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Check Out Our Guides On Answering The Difficult Personal Interview Questions: Part 1 | Part 2

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Types Of Question You Can Be Asked

• How do you think your experience/education prepared you for an MBA? 
• What made you decide that you want to have a career in human resource?
• Describe your ideal workplace. Why is it your ideal workplace?
  
• Human Resource questions?
• Do you know about the new changes in maternity law? 
• If you are an HR of a company, will this new law will have any effect on the hiring of married women?
• What questions will you ask me if I came for an interview?  
• Any HR trend you are familiar with?
• Do you lie? (Simple yet tricky ethical question. Proceed with caution.)
• What do you do to a team member who is not pulling his own weight? (more specific to people who have some work experience).
• An ethical dilemma you faced in your life (freshers) or career (for work-ex)
• Our marketing department handles a lot of merchandise on a daily basis. We get this merchandise made for our trade partners, clients and contest winners. However, employees have a tendency of trying to trick or flick some of these merchandise without even mentioning. How do you eradicate such behaviour?

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Top Companies That Recruit People With MBA in HR

• ABC Consultant
• Wipro
• Infosys
• Randstad India
• Accenture
• Cognizant
• ICICI Bank
• KPMG
• Deutsche Bank
• L&T
• L’Oréal
• PepsiCo
• Aditya Birla Group 
• Reliance
• MakeMyTrip

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Resources

• https://www.peoplematters.in/
• https://www.workforce.com/
• https://www.gallup.com
• https://www.shrm.org/
• https://www.hrkatha.com/
• https://www.hr.com/

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Other sources

• 5 Book Recommendations For Aspiring HR Managers
• How The Smartphone Is Changing HR - Prof Nambudiri | IIM Indore
• How To Become An HR Analyst - All You Need To Know About Careers In HR Analytics
• To Be Or Not To Be An HR
• HR Summer Internship Experience And Key Learnings From It
• Why Not HR?

For more understanding, check out this short course out. 

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Apart from all of the above, keep yourself updated with current affairs! Read The Most Important Current Affairs Topics For Your MBA Interviews!