Developing Essential Interviewing Skills Workshop

Program overview:

Essential Interviewing Skills will help you gain the specialist knowledge and practical skills to prepare for – and undertake – different types of interviews. The interactive role-plays and group discussions will help you use sound interviewing techniques to gather accurate information from any interview.  The key focus of this course is on recruitment interviews however the course extends to cover disciplinary interviewing as well as touching on exit interviews, getting the best out of appraisal meetings and support-type discussions with employees.  This program will benefit recruitment and selection managers whose duties involve attracting, short listing and selecting candidates to fill vacancies.

For whom:

Essential Interviewing Skills is suitable for HR and line managers responsible for conducting interviews.  

Learning objectives:

At the end of this program, participants will be able to:

• explain the importance of interview as a method of selection;
• plan and conduct a range of interviews: recruitment selection, appraisal, counseling, disciplinary and exit;
• list the common mistakes untrained interviewers commit and explain ways to overcome them;
• explain the types of selection interviews and when and how to use each;
• design an interview guide and use it in order to collect ‘code-able’ data from interviewees;
• use probing techniques designed to uncover behavioral characteristics of applicants; and
• utilize data collected from interviews to produce meaningful interview reports which will help in the decision-making process.

Course outline:

Day 1: The HR Administrator in Organizations:

• Roles and Responsibilities
• Differences between Bad and Good Interviews
• The Interview as a Method of Selection
  • Selection Methods
  • Prevalence of the Interview as a Selection Method
• The Reliability and Validity of Interviews
  • Problems with Typical Interviews: Before, During and After
• Improving Interviewing Reliability

Day 2: Types of Selection Interviews

• Types of Interviews
  • Screening and Biographical Interviews
  • Serial and Sequential Interviews
  • Panel Interviews
  • Structured Interviews
  • Competency-Based Interviews (CBI)
    • Competencies Defined
    • Behavioral and Performance Indicators
    • Job Profiles and Job Descriptions
  • Pre-Interview Steps
    • Preparing a CBI Guide,
    • Standardizing the Questions
    • Deciding on the Rating Scale
    • Organizing Venue and Material

Day 3: Structure of an Interview 

• Introduction Techniques
  • Opening Statements/Questions
  • Conducting the Interview,
  • Closing the Interview
• Interview Questions
  • Open and Closed Questions
  • Hypothetical Questions: When and How
  • Leading Questions and

How They Should Be Used

• Probing and fact-finding questions
• STAR Probing Techniques
• FACT Funneling Techniques,
• Disallowed Questions

• Post Interview Steps
  • Classifying and Evaluating Captured Data
  • Quantifying Intangibles
  • Producing Interview Reports,
  • The Selection Decision

Training Methodology

Lectures, discussions, exercises, and case studies will be used to reinforce these teaching/learning methods.