Operations manager interview questions

What this hire must get done

Write the scorecard before you interview, then hire against it. Set the bracketed targets from your own numbers.

What to tell candidates before the interview

Say the hard parts plainly. People who wouldn't stay drop out early, and the ones who stay knew what they signed up for.

• Say how many technicians, crews or trucks they'll run, and whether that covers service, installs or both.
• Lay out the hours from your posting: weekdays, with [early starts, on-call duty and extra hours during the busy season].
• Tell them the job includes regular job-site visits in [your conditions], and that crews and customers will call them when things go wrong.
• Say what their pay or bonus is tied to, and that they'll be judged on completion, callbacks and safety together, not one of them alone.

How to run the interview

1. Same questions, same order. Ask every candidate the questions below and the same follow-ups. It is the only way to compare people fairly.
2. Two interviewers. An owner or manager and someone who does the work. Take notes on what the candidate says, not on how you feel about them.
3. Score right after each answer. 5 sounds like the strong answer, 3 like the mixed one, 1 like the weak one. Use 2 and 4 for answers in between.
4. Rate alone, then compare. Compare candidates question by question, and talk only after everyone has scored. Big gaps are worth a conversation.

1. Situational · Running the day

   It's mid-morning. A crew finishes early on one side of town, while across town a technician is running [two hours] behind with three calls left, one of them a new customer who took time off work. What do you move?

   Route and schedule calls like this happen every day, and the answer shows whether they think about the customer, skills and drive time together.

   Follow-ups

   • Who makes the call, you or dispatch?
   • What do the customers who get moved hear, and when?
   • What would you check tomorrow so this doesn't repeat?

   5Strong

   Checks whether the early crew has the skills and parts for the late calls, moves the new customer's job to them if so, has dispatch call every moved customer before their window passes, and later finds out why the technician fell behind, such as a job booked too short.

   3Mixed

   Moves work sensibly, but customers only hear when they call in, or no one asks why the technician fell behind.

   1Weak

   Leaves the board as it is and lets the late technician push through, or moves jobs without checking skills or parts.

2. Technical · Capacity planning

   Walk me through how you work out next month's field capacity and compare it with the work sales expects to book.

   Most scheduling crises are visible weeks ahead to someone who does this math.

   Follow-ups

   • What comes out of a technician's paid hours before you count them as available?
   • How do you account for skills, like who can do installs?
   • What do you do when the gap shows up?

   5Strong

   Starts from scheduled hours, takes out time off, training, meetings and drive time, and splits by skill. Compares that with booked and expected work, using job lengths from past jobs. For a gap: overtime within limits, subcontractors, moving maintenance to slow days, hiring early or longer lead times.

   3Mixed

   Multiplies people by hours and compares with bookings, but doesn't take out drive time and other non-billable hours, or ignores skills.

   1Weak

   Doesn't plan capacity ahead; deals with each week as it comes.

3. Behavioral · Capacity planning

   Tell me about a time sales booked more work than your crews could handle. What did you do, and what changed afterward?

   Every growing home service company hits this, and you want someone who fixed the system, not only the week.

   Follow-ups

   • When did you first see it coming?
   • What did customers hear, and from whom?
   • What did you and sales agree to change?

   5Strong

   Saw the gap early, told sales and the owner with numbers, rebuilt the schedule so the most urgent work came first, had customers called before the day, and agreed a lasting change with sales, such as a weekly capacity number or set lead times. Can say what happened next.

   3Mixed

   Got through the crunch with overtime and long days, but nothing changed with sales afterward.

   1Weak

   Blames sales, or customers found out about delays on the day.

4. Situational · Quality and callbacks

   Callbacks on installs have climbed for [three] months across every crew, and the crews blame a new supplier's parts. How do you find the real cause?

   A rise across every crew points to something every crew shares, such as a product, a process or the schedule, and the manager has to prove which before acting.

   Follow-ups

   • What data do you pull first?
   • How would you test the crews' explanation?
   • What would you change, and how would you know it worked?

   5Strong

   Pulls each callback by cause, job type, crew, product and install date. Looks at a sample of jobs in person, tests the supplier claim against the parts' dates and failures, and checks whether a step was dropped. Fixes the proven cause and tracks callbacks weekly after.

   3Mixed

   Looks at the data but accepts the crews' explanation without testing it, or retrains everyone without knowing the cause.

   1Weak

   Sends trucks back and tells crews to be more careful.

5. Behavioral · Quality and callbacks

   Describe a quality check you built into the crews' routine, like a closing checklist, a photo standard or ride-alongs, that cut callbacks or rework.

   Quality that depends on the manager seeing every job doesn't last; you want someone who builds it into the crew's routine.

   Follow-ups

   • What problem was it meant to fix?
   • How did you get crews to actually use it?
   • What happened to callbacks, and how did you measure it?

   5Strong

   Names the problem behind it, the specific check, how they got crews to use it (showing why, checking it on visits), and a measured drop in callbacks or rework. Knows whether it still runs.

   3Mixed

   Built a sensible check but can't show it worked, or it faded once they stopped watching.

   1Weak

   Relies on inspecting jobs after customers complain.

6. Situational · Safety culture

   At the morning meeting a technician says their van's brakes are grinding, but it's the only truck stocked for today's [three] installs, and the customers are expecting the crew. What do you do?

   Crews learn what the safety rules really mean from what the manager does when following them costs the day.

   Follow-ups

   • What happens to today's installs?
   • What do you say to the technician who raised it?
   • What would you check about how this was found so late?

   5Strong

   Takes the van out of service right away, moves the parts to other trucks or reschedules, has the customers called early, and books the repair. Thanks the technician in front of the crew, and checks whether pre-trip inspections are really happening.

   3Mixed

   Pulls the van and saves the day's work, but stops there, without asking why inspection missed it.

   1Weak

   Sends the van out and books the repair for after today's installs.

7. Behavioral · Safety culture

   How have you gotten crews to report near misses and hazards, not just injuries, and what did you do with the reports?

   Problems only get reported where people trust what happens next; the answer shows whether this manager builds that trust.

   Follow-ups

   • What did the person who made a report hear back from you?
   • What changed because of a report?
   • How do you reward safety without giving people a reason to hide injuries?

   5Strong

   Made reporting easy and safe: thanked people, looked for causes rather than blame, fixed things and told the crews what changed. Rewards hazard and near-miss reports, and knows that rewards for injury-free stretches can make people hide injuries. Can name a report that led to a change.

   3Mixed

   Handled reports properly when they came, but did little to get more of them, or rarely shared what changed.

   1Weak

   Sees few reports as proof the crews are safe, or blamed the person who reported.

8. Behavioral · Leading leads

   Pick a crew lead or supervisor you developed until they could run their crew without you. What did you do?

   The operations manager who solves every problem personally becomes the limit on how much work the company can do.

   Follow-ups

   • What couldn't they do at the start?
   • Which decisions did you hand over, and in what order?
   • What does that lead now handle without calling you?

   5Strong

   Names the person and the gaps, handed over decisions step by step, coached on ride-alongs, let them make some mistakes, and set measures they owned. Can say what the lead now handles alone, such as quoting add-on work or reworking their own day.

   3Mixed

   Trained them on the work, but still makes the hard calls for them.

   1Weak

   Says it's faster to do it themselves, or can't name someone they developed.

9. Situational · Leading leads

   A new crew lead you promoted is fast and organized, but customers have complained twice that the crew left a mess, and the lead says cleanup is the helpers' job. What do you do?

   New leads often think their job is the work, not the crew's standard; the answer shows how this manager coaches a lead.

   Follow-ups

   • How do you find out what's really happening on site?
   • What do you say to the lead?
   • How do you check that it changed?

   5Strong

   Visits a job to see it, then talks with the lead privately: the lead owns the whole crew's work, including cleanup. Agrees on a closing walk-through with photos, checks the next few jobs, and praises the change when it comes.

   3Mixed

   Tells the lead cleanup matters, but doesn't define the standard or check the next jobs.

   1Weak

   Tells the helpers to clean up better, or does the cleanup checks personally from then on.

10. Technical · Acting on numbers

    Completion rate is steady, but billable hours as a share of paid field hours dropped last month. How would you find the cause, and what would you do?

    It tests whether they can turn a number into a cause and a fix, not just report it.

    Follow-ups

    • What would you break the paid hours into?
    • How would you check the data itself is right?
    • What would you watch after you made a change?

    5Strong

    Breaks paid hours into drive time, shop and parts runs, waiting, training and callback time, by crew and by day. Checks that time is being logged correctly, finds the cause, such as parts runs a better truck stock would stop, and tracks the number weekly after the fix.

    3Mixed

    Knows where to look but jumps to one likely cause without checking the time data or the crews' logs.

    1Weak

    Tells crews to work faster or log more billable time, or adds jobs to the board.

Work exercise: rebuild a hard week

Hand finalists a made-up week of work for [five] crews with about [one crew-day] more booked work than crews, plus each job's length and location. Add a crew lead out sick [Monday and Tuesday] and an urgent [no-heat or active leak] call from a long-time customer. Give them [30] minutes to rebuild the plan, then say what they'd tell sales and each customer who moves.

Use made-up materials, never real customer work, and keep it to the time shown. Follow your own safety rules for anything hands-on.

Reference check questions

Tell finalists you'll call a former manager, and get their permission first. Ask about what they did, not whether they were nice.

• How did their crews' callbacks and on-time numbers change while they ran operations?
• How did they handle injuries and near misses? Did crews report problems to this manager, or hide them?
• Tell me about a crew lead who got better working for them. What did they do for that person?
• When the schedule was overbooked, did customers hear about delays early or on the day? Would you want them running your field again?

Questions to skip, and what to ask instead

Ask only what the job needs. Questions that touch age, health, family or pay history can break federal, state or local law, even when you mean well.

• SkipDoes your church keep you busy on Sundays? Peak season means weekend on-call.

  AskOn-call is [your rotation], including [some weekends] in peak season. Can you work that schedule, and what would you need from us to make it work?

• SkipAny back problems? You'll be climbing ladders on inspections.

  AskTell every candidate the same thing about site visits, such as [climbing ladders and walking uneven ground], then ask whether they can handle those duties, with or without reasonable accommodation.

• SkipHow many years until you retire?

  AskWhat would you like this operation to look like after your first two years?

Common mistakes when hiring an operations manager

• Promoting your best crew lead without testing planning

  Running one great crew is a different job from planning capacity for all of them and coaching other leads. Give an inside candidate the schedule rebuild and the leadership questions too.

• Hiring the hero

  Candidates who tell stories of jumping in a truck to save every bad day may never build leads who can do it themselves. Listen for stories where the crew lead handled it because of something the candidate set up.

Operations manager interview FAQ