Conducting Interviews

“The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.”

George Bernard Shaw

Your company has been prosperous and wants to go through a recruitment drive. You are a manger of this small company but feel overloaded with all the tasks you have to deal with on all fronts and need a helping hand. You are a line manager and have been fighting off other managers to access a pot of departmental budget. You have succeeded and want to use it quickly to expand your team in order to kick start several projects that would be valuable to your department.

All of these cases lead to a critical activity; interview suitable applicants to find the most ideal candidate for the job. The interview process would depend on many variables such as on the company’s size, recruitment strategy, the HR department and so on. Over the years a large amount of research has been carried out to find the most effective strategies to conduct in an interview.

This course is designed based on this research and will help delegates to master the art of interviewing. This general course on conducting interviews is suitable for a variety of training requirements. Managers of a small company who simply want to learn how to run an interview, or dedicated interviewing staff who are part of a large organisation through a recruitment drive will all benefit from this course. The course covers many areas such as interview strategy, psychological behaviour, questioning skills, body language and handling interviewees. Delegates will learn what stages they need to go through before an interview to prepare for the event and then what stages to go through during an interview so they can get as much information as possible which would then help them or the organisation to pick the most ideal candidate for a particular role.

All the concepts covered in the course come with comprehensive examples so delegates can clearly see how each technique works. There are many interactive exercises that help delegates to role play running an interview and systematically improve their style while getting feedback from other delegates and the trainer. The training materials contain everything you need to run the course. You can easily modify the content to incorporate specific material on corporate recruitment strategy or extend the session on legal matters based on your local rules and regulations.

In this highly practical course delegates will learn:

Interview Strategy

• What is an interview?
• What kinds of interviews exist?
• What are the systematic differences between various interview types?
• What skills do you need to consider when recruiting?
• What is your ultimate aim when interviewing?

How to Prepare For an Interview

• What are the main pre-interview stages?
• What should you do before advertising the role?
• How should you define the role?
• How should you systematically review CVs?
• How should you define the parameters that you can use to compare the CVs?
• How to optimise the process of CV reviewing to get the most with the least effort
• What are the important guidelines on preparation when you want to conduct a face-to-face interview?
• What are the ideal seating arrangements to get maximum results?

Interview Style

• What recruitment strategies are out there?
• What are the qualities of each strategy and how would each benefit you?
• What are the benefits of structured behavioural interviews?
• What psychological issues should you be aware of so that the interview process is not purely subject to the judgement of an interviewer?
• What is an ideal interview?

How Should You Structure an Interview?

• What are pre-interview tests?
• What are the best-practice guidelines to run a smooth interview?
• What are the critical 5 stages of an interview?
• What should you do after the interview?

How to Ask Effective Questions

• What is the importance of asking the right questions in an interview?
• What are various types of questions you can ask?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type and how can you employ each type to achieve your ultimate objective?
• What are traditional interview questions?
• What are structured behavioural questions?
• How should you expect an interviewee to answer your questions?

Interview Technique

• What techniques can you use to better understand the applicant’s capability and skills?
• How to maintain rapport
• What is Active Listening and how can it benefit you when interviewing?
• What are various ways an interviewee can respond to your questions?
• How should you handle each type of reaction?
• What critical legal issues should you be aware of when interviewing?

Audience: Suitable for those who want learn how to conduct an interview, for example, to interview someone to assess their suitability for a job.

Prerequisites: None

Course Duration: 1 Day

Course Level: Beginners & Intermediate

By the end of this course the delegates will be able to:

• Follow a suitable strategy when interviewing based on your specific requirements
• Take the necessary steps before conducting an interview so you can maximise your chances of getting the most out of interviewing an applicant
• Choose the best interviewing strategy and questioning methodology to pick the best applicant
• Interview an applicant fairly and professionally using a systematic step-by-step approach
• Ask targeted questions designed to get the most from an interviewee and help you decide on his/her capability for a given role
• Use a variety of soft skills techniques to increase the efficiency of an interview
• Handle an interviewee’s responses to your questions using a variety of techniques to make sure you remain in control of the interview

Interviewing can be stressful for both the interviewee and the interviewer for different reasons. However, it doesn’t need to be this way. An interviewer who is prepared and is aware of the overall strategy and aim of the interview will be well-equipped to run an efficient interview and quickly get to analyse the applicant’s capability and suitability for the role.

This course is designed from the outset to familiarise an interviewer with the entire process. There is a lot of theoretical content in the comprehensive workbook which would help a delegate to understand what an interview is all about. By being aware of the underlying philosophies, an interviewer can act and respond to a large range of cases and interviewee responses and remain in control of the interview.

The emphasis on examples in the course also helps delegates to form a pattern in their heads on what works and what doesn’t. This pattern would then help them to come up with suitable questions on the fly and make follow-up remarks and statements as they see fit to obtain critical clues on the skills and capabilities of an applicant.

A large number of example questions, along with questioning strategies are provided. As always, examples are a great way to learn so plenty of examples are provided to maximise learning. Delegates get to practice asking questions in a number of systematic exercises to develop their skills and eventually use it in a real-time role play interview exercise. Experience shows that this is an effective way to teach interviewing skills and receive great results.