65 Common SAP HR Interview Questions (With Example Answers)

When applying for a human resource (HR) position, you may come across questions that assess your background with systems applications and products (SAP) software. An HR professional records all the employment and hiring data of team members, such as designation, salary details, paid time off information and benefits, using these systems. Understanding and preparing for potential questions that the employer may ask you can help you attend the interview with confidence.

In this article, we provide a few examples of the types of questions an interviewer may ask so that you can better prepare yourself for an SAP HR job interview.

Related: What Is A SAP Course? (With Benefits And Job Opportunities)

20 basic SAP HR interview questions

Here are a few SAP HR interview questions that the interviewer may ask you to understand the basics of the system:

1. What is SAP HR?

2. Why do organisations use SAP?

3. What are the different modules in SAP?

4. What are the sub-modules in SAP HR?

5. What is SAP HCM?

6. What are common features in SAP HCM?

7. What is the meaning of Global Employment in SAP HCM?

8. What is internal recruitment?

9. What do you mean by capacity planning?

10. What do you understand by mandatory activities?

11. What is the SAP HCM workflow?

12. What are the most important structures in Hr?

13. What are dynamic actions?

14. What is a recruitment cycle?

15. What do you mean by personnel area?

16. What do personnel subareas mean?

17. What is a recruitment cycle?

18. What is employee self-service?

19. What is the use of training?

20. How do you hire a new employee?

Related: What Is SAP Basis And What Do SAP Administrators Do?

20 in-depth SAP HR interview questions

Here are a few in-depth SAP HR interview questions the interviewer may ask you if you have prior experience with working in SAP or if you apply for a higher position:

1. What is ERP and what are the different types of ERP?

2. Describe the various structures in SAP HR?

3. What is SAP R/3?

4. How do you hire an employee using SAP HR?

5. What do you know about master data and transaction data?

6. What are different wage systems in SAP HR?

7. Define payroll in SAP?

8. What is infotype?

9. How can you maintain information for an infotype?

10. What is a time constraint 1 on an infotype?

11. What is matchcode?

12. Define BEX.

13. Define NetWeaver.

14. What are the functions of the personnel administration module?

15. What do you understand by personnel structure?

16. What Is personnel cost planning?

17. What are personnel development plans?

18. What is the manager's desktop?

19. What is the role of an administrator in PA?

20. What is the use of compensation management?

12 process-based SAP HR interview questions

Here are a few processes based interview questions an interviewer may ask you if you have prior experience with working in SAP to test your practical experience with the system:

1. How do you integrate time management and payroll?

2. How do you import pay scale data from non-SAP to SAP?

3. How would you record time in the SAP HR system?

4. How do you edit employee details in SAP?

5. What are the functions required to select an infotype?

6. How can you group employees for their allowances in payroll?

7. How do you lock the personnel number when generating payroll?

8. How can you create a position within the company?

9. How do you create a personnel number?

10. What can you do to find a user exit?

11. How can you activate business functions?

12. How can you transport table entries?

Related: How Much Does HR Make? (With Different Job Roles And Salary)

12 common interview questions

Here are a few common questions you can encounter during the interview:

1. Tell me about yourself.

2. What is your favourite colour?

3. Why do you want to work with us?

4. What do you like about our company?

5. Do you have any questions?

6. Why should we hire you?

7. Are you willing to travel?

8. Why did you leave your previous job?

9. What are your greatest strengths?

10. What are your greatest weaknesses?

11. What are your salary expectations?

12. Where do you see yourself in 15 years?

Example SAP HR interview questions with answers

Here are a few questions with example answers that can help you better understand how you can reply to them during an interview:

1. What is SAP HR?

Interviewers may start the interview with a simple and basic question like this. This question helps build confidence and familiarise yourself with the interview environment. For an experienced candidate, this question provides an opportunity for you to show your experience with the tool.

Example: "SAP HR records all the data of an employee such as designation, role, salary details, working shifts, address and other related information from his date of joining until the last day in the organisation."

Related: What Is SAP and What Are the Advantages of Using It?

2. What is SAP HCM?

The interviewer may try to understand how much knowledge you have about SAP HCM. Along with defining this term, you can also explain the differences between SAP HCM and SAP HR. If you have practical experiences with the tools, consider mentioning that as well.

Example: "SAP Human Capital Management (SAP HCM) is a solution for managing human resources. It provides all-important tasks for personnel administration, payroll, applicant management, and personnel development as the replacement to SAP HR."

3. What is time constraint 1 on an infotype?

Explain the concept of time constraint 1 by clearly defining it. After that, list down different time constraints on an infotype and describe this in detail to your interviewer.

Example: "Time Constraint 1 (TC 1) requires that an infotype be unique, meaning that only one valid record may exist for a given period. There cannot be any gaps in the data. When you add a new record to an infotype using TC1, the system removes the overlapping record on the key date and replaces it with a new one."

4. How do you hire an employee using SAP HR?

This question helps an interviewer learn more about your experience using this software system to hire employees. The interviewers may expect you to answer with a step-by-step procedure, along with a theoretical explanation. You can also mention the various details you require and how companies collect this information.

Example: "SAP HR allows customers to track employee information using a variety of relevant infotypes that are stored in a logical order. Personal action is used to enter employees' information, ensuring that we enter all centre data into the system.

Enter the start date on the Personnel Actions screen. Choose Hire as the Action Type. Choose the Execute option. Complete the required information on the Hire screen, then click Save."

5. What is an infotype?

For this question, define an infotype and explain all the information it captures. You can also explain what type of information to include in the data fields. Try to explain why an organisation may use an infotype, the purpose it serves and the benefits it may provide.

Example: "Data fields contain information such as last name, first name, date of birth and other details of an employee. This helps us better identify employees in a timely and organised manner. We divide data fields into information units based on their content. These information units are called infotypes."

6. Define payroll in SAP

First, define what a payroll is and how it typically operates. Then, explain how you calculate all associated values. Try providing examples and reasons for how this helps the company succeed.

Example: "Payroll is one of the most important sections of the SAP HR module, and it is used to manage the salaries of employees in a company. SAP Payroll calculates both the gross and net remuneration as well. It includes payments for each employee as well as derivations made during the compensation cycle."

Related: HR Interview Questions: Examples And Answers

7. What are dynamic actions?

Interviewers may ask whether you know what certain SAP HR terms are, such as dynamic actions, to better understand your industry knowledge. After explaining what a dynamic action is, describe when the system triggers it and the goals of a dynamic action.

Example: "The system triggers dynamic actions automatically. They are the outcome of a personnel change. The system automatically shows the infotype when you make a modification to the personnel data of one infotype that affects the data of another infotype. One of the primary goals of dynamic action is to maintain a consistent and coherent data set. Unlike the personnel activities, which you initiate manually, the system initiates automatically these actions."

8. What are different wage systems in SAP HR?

There are two types of wage systems. You can answer the question theoretically by listing the different wage types and explaining them. You can also list the different categories within each wage system and explain when to use each of them.

Example: "We can categorise wage types into two types. The primary wage type, which is also known as the master wage type, and the secondary wage type, which is also known as the technical wage type. The primary wage type is further divided into two categories, including the dialogue wage type and the time wage type. We utilise time-based wage types once the time assessment is done and we can only maintain it in offline mode. The dialogue wage type is used to keep master data in the SAP system."

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