All managerial roles come with their fair share of challenges and obstacles that must be overcome. Whether it’s dealing with difficult employee situations in a professional manner or keeping the workplace operations running smoothly and efficiently, it’s important to hire personnel who can maintain complete control.

An e-commerce warehouse manager is responsible for running the day-to-day operations of your company’s product storage facility. This includes a plethora of tasks such as organizing product shipments, order fulfillment, operating mechanical and IT systems, providing ongoing training for new and existing employees, tracking statistical and financial records, updating order information, working with other departments to ensure service and product quality, and so forth.

The warehouse manager basically acts as a liaison between the warehouse and other departments within the company to maintain and improve efficiency while also keeping the lines of communication wide open. An e-commerce warehouse manager should also be great at tracking online orders and ensuring product availability to prevent order and delivery delays from happening.

Considering the large number of applications you may receive for an open e-commerce warehouse manager position, sussing out the right ones from perusing resumes alone is almost impossible. To gain a better understanding of each candidate’s qualifications for the job, you need to ask the right questions when interviewing them. Here’s a helpful guide to get you started.

Why Are You Interested in This Position?

While this may seem like an obvious question for any interviewer to ask an applicant, pay close attention to the answer each candidate gives and make note of it for future reference. The usual answer candidates give is that they want to grow with the company and hope to improve operations. Even though there’s nothing wrong with that answer, it’s the minor details that really count.

Follow up questions you might want to consider include:

• How do you see yourself growing with our company?
• What types of operational improvements would you suggest given our current configuration?

The types of answers a candidate gives to these questions showcases the amount of research they did prior to the interview, how much knowledge they have of your company, and how committed they are to actually growing with your company. And it showcases that they’re not just telling you what they think you want to hear in order to offer them the job.

What Type of Management Experience Do You Have?

Yes, it’s true that this information appears or should appear on each candidate’s resume. And their cover letter—if they were required to write one—should also go into slightly more detail regarding their experience and qualifications for the position. But, it’s always better to hear about the person’s managerial experience straight from the horse’s mouth.

Some of the past work experience they have listed in their application might not directly apply to warehouse management, but the skills required for other managerial positions might still be transferrable to the position you’re offering. Find out how each candidate’s past work experience relates to e-commerce warehouse manager competencies and whether some or all of those skills overlap.

How Much Do You Know about the e-Commerce Market?

This question serves a dual purpose. First, it’ll tell you how much past work experience each candidate has working as a warehouse manager or in a warehouse setting. Second, it’ll tell you how much knowledge the candidate has about your industry. These are important pieces of information to have when deciding who to hire for your company.

Additionally, asking each candidate how much knowledge they have about the e-commerce market will also make it easier to weed out the candidates with the most experience. Based on your own experience working in the industry, you’ll know right away if someone is embellishing on their resume, which candidates often do if they really want the job.

However, if they can prove to you during the interviewing process that they’re highly adaptable and open to expanding their level of expertise, then it might be worthwhile to take a chance on a less experienced candidate who seems eager to learn. That’s something you need to decide for yourself.

How Well Do You Work Under Pressure?

In the e-commerce industry where companies receive numerous orders daily, the ability to work efficiently and accurately fulfill orders under pressure is a must. The margin for errors is very slim, even though occasionally mistakes do happen. Customers expect to receive their orders within a reasonable timeframe or by the deadline promised. But that’s all part of the job description. It’s how e-commerce warehouse managers handle stressful situations and working in a fast-paced environment that’s a true test of their capabilities.

When an order is accidentally shipped to the wrong address or gets lost in transition, a professional and qualified e-commerce warehouse manager should be able to calmly defuse the situation and work with the company’s sales team to find an acceptable solution. No matter what, they must work under the assumption that the customer is always right and do everything in their power to resolve the situation quickly.

Are You a Good Team Player? How Good Are You at Delegating Tasks?

These two questions go together because running an efficient and productive warehouse isn’t a one-person job. As the saying goes, it takes village to ensure proper day-to-day functionality. If you want your warehouse to run like a well-oiled machine, then you need to hire an e-commerce warehouse manager who can aptly delegate tasks and ensure that they get done without being too overbearing. A good warehouse manager should be able to hire capable staff members who don’t require micromanagement in order to complete their tasks.

If you need to hire a competent and highly skilled e-commerce warehouse manager for your business, then Resolve Recruit Inc. can help. We have a wide network of capable, experienced, and hard-working candidates that are eager to work for the right company. Contact us today to find out how we can help you throughout the recruitment process.