Duty manager interview questions
A duty manager is the person who decides when nobody more senior is there. These questions are about the decisions themselves: the refusal, the sick call at four, the till that is down, the night that went wrong.
| Question | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| What size venue have you run a shift in, and with how many staff? | Covers, staff numbers and the areas they were responsible for. Vague scale usually means a smaller venue than implied. |
| Walk us through your first twenty minutes on a shift. | A walk, a look at the bookings, a word with each section, and a check of anything left from last night. |
| Somebody calls in sick ninety minutes before the Friday night shift. What do you do? | Who they call first, in what order, and what they do if nobody answers. Listen for a plan rather than panic. |
| How do you decide when to send somebody home early? | Trade, the award position on minimum engagements and agreed hours, and whether it is a conversation or an instruction. |
| Tell us about an incident you handled and what you did afterwards. | A real incident: what they did at the time, who they told, and what got written down. The record is the part people forget. |
| How do you deal with a staff member who is not pulling their weight, mid shift? | Quietly, in the moment, and properly afterwards. Public dressing downs are a flag. |
| What do you do when two sections are both screaming for help? | Triage out loud, move somebody, and tell both sections what is happening. Silence is the failure mode. |
| How do you handle cash and a till discrepancy? | Counted twice with a witness, reported, written down. Anyone who makes it up from the tip jar is the wrong hire. |
| What does a good handover from a duty manager look like? | Specifics: what happened, what is outstanding, what the next shift needs to watch. Not "all good". |
| How do you keep an eye on labour cost through a shift? | Watching the hours against the trade, and knowing they can cut or extend. This is the commercial half of the job. |
| Tell us about a decision you made that turned out to be wrong. | Self-awareness and what changed afterwards. Everyone has one; the useful answer names the lesson. |
| What would you escalate to the owner, and what would you handle yourself? | Sensible lines: anything involving police, injury, a serious complaint or money. Knowing the line is the job. |
| This role rotates across days, nights and weekends. How does that suit you? | Honest. A rotation only works if the person actually wants it, and it is better said now. |
| What would you like to ask us? | Questions about the venue, the team or the owner’s expectations. Expect good ones. |
What is in the file
- Template, blank, with each section down the side and room for the answer.
- Example, the same sheet filled in for The Anchor Hotel.
- How to use, with the steps and the mistakes below.
How to fill it in
- Read the duty manager job description first, and cut any question the job does not actually need answered.
- Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order, so the answers can be compared rather than remembered.
- Print the blank sheet and write what each person said beside the question, during the interview rather than after it.
- Score at the end against the job description, not against who you liked talking to.
Common mistakes
- Questions about age, health, pregnancy, family responsibilities, religion, race or union membership, which are not about the job and carry real risk
- A different set of questions for each candidate, which makes the decision impossible to explain later
- Asking about availability and then rostering outside it in the first fortnight
Sources
The official pages this wording was read against, on 21 October 2026.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Hiring employees
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Protection from discrimination at work
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Job ads
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Find my award
When a spreadsheet stops being enough
Roster Flow gives a duty manager the published week, the clock ins as they happen and the cost of the shift as it is built, which is most of what the questions above are about.
Questions
What is on the duty manager interview questions?
14 sections down the side, running from what size venue have you run a shift in, and with how many staff? to what would you like to ask us?. The example beside them is filled in for The Anchor Hotel: fourteen questions about running a shift, incidents, cash and short staffing.
Does the duty manager interview questions work anything out for you?
No. It is a document with 14 sections to answer in your own words, not a calculator. Nothing on it is a formula.
Can I use the duty manager interview questions in Google Sheets?
Yes. Open duty-manager-interview-questions.xlsx from Google Drive, or use File, then Import, then Upload with duty-manager-interview-questions.csv. The document and its example come across either way.
Is the wording in the duty manager interview questions ready to use as it is?
The duty manager interview questions is a starting point for The Anchor Hotel or any business like it, to adapt rather than sign. The wording was checked against the official sources on 21 October 2026, it is not legal advice, and it has not been through a workplace relations professional.