How to conduct effective selection interviews

Duration: 1 day or half day, delivered at a venue of your choice, anywhere in the UK.

Alison Townley spent many years in senior positions in human resources before turning her hand to training and consultancy fifteen years ago. Her encouraging and supportive style combined with impeccable subject knowledge make her a highly effective trainer. Alison specialises in communication skills and workplace well-being, and is qualified in a range of psychometrics and other development tools. Her delegate-focused approach has helped her become an indispensable partner to many of our clients.

Course details

Who is it for?

What’s this course about?

Appointing the right people is one of the most important ingredients in determining the effectiveness of an organisation. So investment in effective recruitment contributes directly to an organisation’s success.

Professional interviewing techniques are vital for a fair, objective and accurate assessment of potential future employees. They minimise the subjectivity that can creep into interviewing and help interviewers focus on substance rather than being distracted by superficial characteristics, biases or personal preferences. This means better candidates are selected. An objective interview process also helps protect your organisation from costly legal disputes arising from alleged breaches of equal opportunities legislation.

This one day interviewing training workshop provides comprehensive training in the techniques of best practice competency based interviewing, equipping delegates with the skills to make sound decisions and objective, evidence-based judgements.

What will delegates learn?

By the end of the Interviewing Skills course delegates will learn:

The elements and process of best practice recruitment and selection
How to avoid biases and conduct fair, unbiased interviews
How to define what competencies are, and how they relate to a particular role
Tips to help the candidate to shine at interview
Ways of presenting the role and your organisation effectively
How to ask the right questions to establish behavioural competence
The value of concrete examples as objective indicators of competence
How to evaluate a candidate’s performance at interview

What is the course content?

Every in-house delivery is unique and adapted to the needs of your delegates and organisation, however, a typical course might look something like this:

Welcome and overview
Course and participant objectives
The Recruitment Process
Employment Legislation and Obligations
Avoiding bias
Do’s and don’ts of effective, objective competency based interviews
The interviewer’s role in the actual interview
Helping the candidate to shine
Establishing fit with the role and the company
Presenting the role and the company well and truthfully
Essential Communication Skills
Questioning techniques
Active listening (Carl Rogers model)
Body language
Establishing behavioural competence
Using job descriptions and person identification to draw out the desired behaviours
Identifying what questions will be most/least effective to get useful information
Preparing follow-up questions and drilling down to ensure that candidate is challenged to provide concrete examples of demonstrated behaviours, rather than settling for superficial, theoretical responses to tick boxes
Making the right decision
Comparing candidates objectively
Checking the validity of the interview and its outcome
Skills practice
Self-reflection and feedback from the group
Action planning
Evaluation and close

Client feedback for our courses

“Very enjoyable and motivating. Will put into practice with my team.”
Delegate, Westminster City Council

“Good, practical advice.”
Delegate, Berwin Leighton Paisner

“One of the best training courses I have attended. Many thanks.”
Delegate, Markel International

“All was beneficial… without doubt the best workshop I’ve ever attended.”
Delegate, Just Retirement

“Excellent. Has helped me BIG time.”
Delegate, Manpower

“In a safe environment I felt able to explore aspects on my behaviour without being made to feel vulnerable.”
Delegate, Markel International

click here to read more of our clients’ comments

Find out more or book a course

If you have any questions or if you would like to speak to Alison or one of our other trainers about how this course could be adapted to work for you please get in touch.

In-house delivery prices

In most cases we can provide an all-inclusive quote to cover design, delivery and materials with some basic information:

Which course you are interested in
Where the course would take place
How many delegates need to be trained

Just drop us a line with these basic facts and we’ll get back to you with a no-obligation quote on the same day.

Cambridge Executive Development is a boutique learning consultancy with a small and select team specialising in management and communication skills training. Over fifteen years we’ve helped delegates from hundreds of companies, including many of the country’s biggest brands, boost their productivity and confidence, and transform their impact at work.