COURSE OVERVIEW:

Welcome to the Prepare & Conduct Effective Interviews course. This program equips you with the structured techniques, behavioural insights, and professional practices required to conduct interviews that are fair, consistent, and capable of identifying the best candidates for your organisation. You will explore the importance of interviewing, the role interviews play within the broader selection process, and how your personal interviewing style influences outcomes. This course also covers the aims of the selection process, how structured interviewer training supports those aims, and the essential components of interview preparation, delivery, evaluation, and follow-up.

This course begins by examining the importance of interviews and helping you identify what type of interviewer you are. You will explore the overall place of interviews within the selection process and how interviewers contribute to achieving its aims. This section also explains how to ensure you have structured interview training and what that training should include. You will explore how to avoid being distracted by grooming, attractiveness, and “similar-to-me” effects, and how to minimise bias from the halo effect, contrast effect, or first-impression errors to ensure fairness and objectivity.

The next learning area focuses on effective interview preparation. You will explore how to choose selection criteria and baselines, how to know what you are looking for in candidates, and how to create a person specification that supports structured assessment. This section also examines how to select appropriate selection tools, plan situation-based or behaviour-based questions, design answer-rating records, and review your interview process for continuous improvement. You will also explore the importance of treating all candidates consistently and upholding ethical and legal standards throughout the process.

A further part of the program examines interview delivery techniques and interpersonal management. You will learn how to conduct a one-to-one interview professionally, put candidates at ease, and use your prepared question format effectively. This section includes how to manage both overly chatty and very quiet candidates, the importance of taking accurate notes, and how to participate confidently in a panel interview. You will explore how to avoid discrimination, prevent the interview from becoming an interrogation, and conduct a telephone interview using short, structured methods. You will also examine the advantages and disadvantages of telephone interviews and learn good telephone techniques for assessing candidates remotely.

The final learning area focuses on evaluation, decision-making, and follow-up. You will explore how to make a sound selection decision using a scorecard, how to apply a systematic seven-step model for decision-making, and why you should create both a preferred list and a back-up list. This section also covers why you should always contact candidates who were not selected, how to make a job offer, how to take up references, and why considering the psychological contract is essential to successful onboarding. You will explore how to make a job offer by phone and how to compose a clear and professional written job offer letter.

By the end of this course you will be able to prepare for, conduct, and evaluate interviews with professionalism and consistency, minimise bias, use structured techniques, make evidence-based selection decisions, and communicate outcomes in ways that support organisational reputation and candidate experience.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of this course, you will be able to understand:

• The importance of interview
• What type of interviewer are you?
• The overall place of interviews in selection
• The aims of the selection process and how interviewers can meet these aims?
• How to make sure you have structured interview training?
• What the basic training of interviewers should cover?
• Why you should not get distracted by candidates grooming, attractiveness, and ‘similar-to-me’ effects?
• How to make sure your view is not skewed by the ‘halo’ effect, the ‘contrast’ effect, or ‘first impression’ error?
• How to prepare to interview others ?
• How to choose a criterion and baseline?
• How to know what you are looking for?
• How to create a person specification?
• How to decide which selection tools to use?
• How to plan your situation-based questions or behaviour-based questions?
• How to design answer-rating records?
• How to review the process?
• Why you should be consistent in the way you treat all the candidates?
• How to conduct a one-to-one interview?
• How to put the candidate at ease during an interview?
• How to use your prepared question format?
• How to manage chatty or quiet candidates?
• The importance of taking notes during the interview
• How to be a part in a panel interview?
• How to avoid discrimination?
• How not to turn an interview into an interrogation?
• How to conduct a telephone interview?
• The advantages and disadvantages of telephone interviews
• How to plan a short, structured interview?
• What are some good telephone techniques?
• How to make a good selection decision?
• How to use your ‘scorecard’ for selection?
• The systematic seven-step model for selection decision
• Why create your ‘preferred’ and your ‘back-up’ list?
• Why always get in touch with those who didn’t make it?
• How to make a job offer?
• How to take up references?
• Why think about the ‘psychological contract’?
• How to make a job offer by phone?
• How to compose a written job offer?

COURSE DURATION:

The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.

ASSESSMENT:

A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.

CERTIFICATION:

Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.