This workshop teaches managers how to identify the talents, skills, and knowledges necessary for competent performance in a job, how to interview candidates applying for that job, how to find whether there is an optimal match between a job candidate and the requirements of that job, how to make a job offer, and how to deal with successful candidates in their first weeks on the job to maximize the chance that they will succeed at their work.

Complete Course Description

PURPOSE OF THE WORKSHOP: Organizations have many tools available to them for selecting competent people for employment who (if they are hired) will perform well at their work. But extensive research has demonstrated repeatedly that the best way by far for selecting superior talent is through the use of targeted interviews carried out by ordinary managers who are trained to conduct them. This workshop is designed to teach managers those targeted interviewing skills.

WORKSHOP CONTENT: These are the things participants will experience in this workshop:

  1. A thorough review of what a pre-employment interview is intended to produce.


  2. Techniques for quickly analyzing the content, duties, and responsibilities of a job, and then describing those job requirements in specific, behavioral language.


  3. A 4-step process for translating those job requirements into selection criteria which will form the basis of a selection interview and (later) the ultimate choice of the best candidate for that position.


  4. A system for applying those selection criteria to specific positions in the organization.


  5. A thorough review of the types of questions one should use in an interview which are most likely to elicit the kind of information necessary to make a hiring decision, as well as those questions one should avoid because they frustrate the purpose of the interview. There is a practice exercise at this point in generating and phrasing such questions.


  6. Techniques for planning a targeted interview, including a checklist of activities the interviewer should undertake the day before the interview occurs.


  7. A 10-point model for structuring that interview and sequencing its steps, so that it achieves its purpose.


  8. A 10-point model for structuring that interview and sequencing its steps, so that it achieves its purpose.


  9. Several rounds of role plays which give all participants a chance to practice the skills and techniques learned so far in the workshop, and an opportunity to receive feedback on their skill from other role players and from the instructor.


  10. Criteria for evaluating candidates and their responses, and an opportunity to apply certain “rules of evidence” which allow one to make those assessments well.


  11. Learning how to conduct a fair interview by avoiding snap judgments, halo effects, excessive leniency or stringency, and other potential interviewer biases.


  12. Techniques for closing an interview, making a hiring decision, and extending a job offer.


  13. A quick review of compliance laws and regulations as they apply to the interviewing and hiring process.


These techniques are supplemented by a broad array of handouts. They include a variety of worksheets and checklists which help in those steps above having to do with preparing analyses and establishing hiring criteria. There are also several reference documents which are helpful in those practices having to do with the compliance issues raised in the final segment of the course.

HOW THE WORKSHOP IS CONDUCTED: Principles, tools, and techniques are taught in very brief lectures, which are supplemented by a variety of worksheets and checklists previously described. But people learn to interview by interviewing, so this workshop is filled with role playing opportunities to practice the techniques taught here, and a chance to receive lots of feedback on one’s progress from other workshop participants. There are ample opportunities to share experiences around the hiring process, to ask questions, and to examine difficult interviewing situations and how they might be handled. The course is highly interactive.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND THIS COURSE: Supervisors and managers who hire people into their work units are the primary target population for this workshop. But so are senior technical people who are often brought into pre-employment interviews to explore candidates’ subject matter expertise, as are project managers who do not have line responsibility but who often play a role in deciding who members of their project teams will be.

OTHER FACTS ABOUT THE COURSE:

  • It can be delivered in either a half-day or full day version.


  • There are no homework or pre-work assignments.


  • A class size of 18 to 24 participants is ideal.


Download Complete Course Description