Endless questions from HR - how to handle?
 

The HR manager of this bank has been asking me endless questions:

Do you get salary on 12 month basis or 13? What is the formula of bonus? What was your bonus each year for the last 5 years? How much leave you get? What are the medical benefits you get? What are the medical benefits your husband gets? What was your salary in 2013? Salary in 2011?

How long should I tolerate her?

what's wrong with these questions? they all seem valid questions a HR manager would ask.

you should answer them unless you're over-declaring your last drawn package and have something to hide, in which case suggest you come clean or have a super smoke bomb up your sleeve.

endless questions
 

Why does the HR need to know how much medical cover my hubby gets? Why do they need to know which school my kids go to? Who needs to know how much bonus I got in 2011?

These are very valid questions. There are lots of people who jump ship once they had a good year's bonus and attempt to BS by claiming that such bonuses are "normal" when negotiating for more money.

They are just trying to find out your total pay package including benefits what is a realistic number you are on now so that they can get the full picture when making an offer.

Seriously how difficult can it get to answer these questions unless you have something to hide? If somebody were to ask me, I can perhaps answer them in less than 5 mins. If they want to know 2 years back how many months bonus I get, I will just make a note to check when I'm back home and call them back to answer.

You are making a very simple routine background check and package understanding procedure to something dramatic as if your personal life has been affected drastically by these questions.

Tone down on that smug attitude, answer them honestly and move on with the job application. Want to act high and mighty at least make it to a Senior Exec level, otherwise just follow protocols.

I think Samantha's point is a valid one and I too will be curious if HR demands so much information.

That said, which stage of the recruitment process are you at, Samantha?

stage of recruitment
 

I have had 4 rounds with the line/hiring managers and 1 round with HR. So far most questions were fine "how do you do x, what do you know about y". Now the HR are Benchmarking my compensation. Honestly, I wonder how the school of my kids will help determine the salary at this place. Most kids in Singapore attend the MOE schools. What difference it makes which school my kids attend?

This isn't a lot at all, this HR appears to be a little more thorough that's all.

Like I said, it takes like 5min to answer. At least it is all related to pay & benefits compared to civil service ask you to state PSLE score and what grade you get exactly for each subject all the way from primary school to uni.

it's simple..... if you don't feel comfortable giving out this info then just tell them so or question the HR manager why they need this info. it will probably jeapordize your application (since it is important enough for them to ask you) so go contemplate how much you want to this job.

yeah! the civil service application form is a pain to fill out and some questions are quite ridiculous like the PSLE like you've pointed out!

Well, the information seems rather innocuous so if it were me I would probably just try to provide if asked.