Interview questions for hiring an electrical foreman

An electrical foreman interview should test how he runs people, material and the schedule, not whether he can bend pipe. Seven questions cover it: the biggest crew he's run, how he plans tomorrow today, what he does when he's short-handed and behind, a fast but sloppy J-man, a change order he caught, a wrong call from the GC's super, and a new hand's first week. Score each 1 to 5 and weight the people questions.

A foreman makes or loses money on every hour his crew works. A journeyman who can't bend costs you one man's day. A foreman who can't plan costs you the whole crew's. So the questions change. If you're hiring a journeyman instead, use the journeyman interview questions, and see hiring a journeyman electrician for the full process.

01What a foreman actually does all day

Before you write the questions, write down what the job is. One contractor's foreman describes his day (Interstates): a safety check of the site and pre-job paperwork, handing out tasks and making sure the crew has what it needs, meetings with clients and company leaders, checking on the crew through the day, and a short end-of-day meeting on material, production and what's next.

Foremen talking shop on the Mike Holt Forum come back to the same few habits: get out of the trailer and work next to the new hands, spot-check work without micromanaging, pull a man aside to correct him, get layouts right the first time, and get an RFI before building on a hunch. As one put it, speed doesn't matter if you spend two days troubleshooting.

Your questions should test those habits. Each one below says what a strong answer sounds like.

02The 7 questions

1. What's the biggest crew you've run at one time? What kind of job?

• Strong: a number and a job. "Fourteen at peak on a two-story school, two leads under me, I ran the gear and the schedule." He knows how many he can run and still walk the job every day.
• Weak: "I've run a lot of guys." Or he's only run himself and one apprentice and calls it a crew.

Match the answer to your job. A man who's great with four isn't proven at twenty.

2. How do you plan tomorrow's work today? Show me your lookahead.

• Strong: he plans at least a week out, often three (plenty of commercial jobs run a three-week lookahead), checks material against it, and lines up who does what before the crew walks in. He can tell you what he'd check on a Thursday so Monday doesn't stall.
• Weak: "We see what the GC needs when we get there." Every day starts with men standing around.

Ask him to sketch one on paper. A real foreman has a habit he can show you.

3. You're short-handed and behind. What do you cut, and what do you push back on?

• Strong: he puts his best hands on the critical path, moves the work that holds up other trades (or the inspection) to the front, tells the PM early in numbers ("I need two more J-men for three weeks or the ceiling close-in slips"), and won't cut safety or quality to make a date.
• Weak: "We just work harder." Or he hides it from the PM until it's too late.

4. One of your J-men is fast but sloppy. How do you handle him?

• Strong: talks to him one-on-one, shows him exactly what's wrong, puts him on work where speed matters and checks his terminations until they're right. If it doesn't change, he tells the PM. He doesn't let one man's rework land on the crew.
• Weak: yells at him in front of the crew, or quietly fixes everything himself.

5. Tell me about a change order you caught in the field. How did it get paid?

• Strong: he spotted work outside the drawings, stopped before doing it for free, documented it (photos, the RFI, who told him to proceed), and got the PM pricing it. He knows the difference between "the super told me to" and a signed change.
• Weak: "We just did it to keep the job moving." That's money you never see.

6. The GC's super is wrong about something. How do you deal with it?

• Strong: handles it privately, shows the print or the code section, offers a fix, and puts it in writing when it matters. Stays on good terms because he'll need the super next week.
• Weak: argues on the deck in front of everyone, or does it wrong because "he's the boss."

7. What does a good first week look like for a new hand on your crew?

• Strong: pairs him with a solid J-man (not a laborer), walks him through the site safety plan and where the hazards are, checks his work the first few days, and asks him on Friday how it's going. He knows the first week is when hands decide to stay or go.
• Weak: "Hand him a bucket and see what he can do."

This one ties straight to retention. The foreman is the reason a lot of hands stay or leave; see how to keep good electricians.

03A short scoring table

Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order and score them on the same scale, which is how OPM defines a structured interview. Score every answer right after he gives it. Weight the people questions double, because those are the hardest to train.

Max score: 5 x (1+1+2+2+1+2+2) = 5 x 11 = 55. Decide your cutoff before the first interview (for example, 40 of 55, with no 1s on the 2x questions) and hold to it.

04Safety cards: a plus, not a test

OSHA 30 is a good sign on a foreman, but it isn't a federal requirement and it doesn't prove he runs a safe job. OSHA says its 10-hour and 30-hour Outreach classes are "a voluntary program" that "does not meet the training requirements for any OSHA standards," and that the 30-hour class "is more appropriate for supervisors or workers with some safety responsibility" (OSHA).

Some states, owners and GCs do require the cards on their jobs, so check your contracts. Then ask what he actually does: "Walk me through your morning safety check," or "When did you last stop work, and why?" The training your company owes every hand is a separate list; see OSHA training your electricians need.

05Still check his card and his hands

A foreman still needs a valid journeyman card (or master, depending on your state and job). Look it up on the state board like anyone else; how to verify an electrician's license has the board link for each state.

And make sure he can still do the work. Many shops want a working foreman on small crews. One national electrical contractor told us that at the top of their pay band, they expect a hand they can "point and say, hey, go do it." A foreman should clear that bar with room to spare.

If you're trying to staff a crew and a foreman at once, apply here and we'll see if we can put 5 licensed electricians in front of you in 14 days.

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