Interview Skills

The selection of new employees can be a long-drawn-out and expensive process. This means that we must do everything we can to ensure that when we do make a decision we choose the right person. Having gone to all the trouble of working through a selection process, there is nothing worse than taking on a new employee who turns out to be unsuitable.

A robust selection process will minimise the risk of this happening and, of course, effective interviewing needs to be part of that. If you handle selection interviewing in a logical, structured, and professional way, the risk of choosing the wrong person is much smaller.

This course concentrates on developing interview techniques. Although we will briefly touch on the laws of discrimination, a detailed discussion of it is outside the scope of this programme. Similarly, the topics of Diversity and Equality of Opportunity will only be covered briefly.

We concentrate on competence based interviewing skills in these training materials. This is sometimes described as behavioural, situational or job-related interviewing.

Topics covered:

Similar Circles – This icebreaker requires some listening and questioning and therefore provides a very relevant start to the training.

The Selection Interview – We explain what a selection interview is with reference to competency base interviewing. The learners then participate in an activity to identify the benefits and drawbacks of this approach before looking at ways to overcome those drawbacks.

Diversity and Equality of Opportunity – In this brief look at the topic participants are reminded of the importance of treating job candidates fairly.

The PRICE structure – Learners are introduced to our PRICE structure.

PRICE organisation – In this activity learners consider 37 action cards that describe behaviours and techniques that may be used by interviewers. Their task is to fit these cards within the context of the PRICE structure. This will help them to develop a good understanding of PRICE and how they may be able to use it.

Wrinkle Chaser – Participants conduct a short interview activity to demonstrate the difficulty of interviewing without adequate preparation.

The Selection Process – Learners are reminded that interviews are a part of a selection process and do not normally stand alone

Question Plans – Preparing a question plan is identified as key to good preparation. Participants are encouraged to use a structured approach supported by our Question Plan template.

First Impressions – Learners take part in activities to help them consider both the importance of making the right first impressions on candidates and the danger that interviewers can be unduly influenced by their first impressions of interviewees. We also look at rapport building at the start of the interview.

Traffic Lights – In this activity learners consider nine different question types and decide whether they should be used in interviews.

Effective Listening – Learners identify barriers to effective listening and ways to overcome those barriers.

The Close Phase – This provides advice on what to cover with the candidate at the end of the interview.

The Evaluation Phase – Learners are encouraged to suspend judgement until the interview is over. They are then taken though an approach for evaluating and scoring the interview linked to their question plan.

Interview Practice – Learners take part in two or three interview simulations. They act as interviewer once and then as an interviewee and/or observer. Each of these roles gives them a different perspective of interviewing and will help them to apply the principles covered in this programme when they conduct real selection interviews in the workplace.