Interviewing Skills Training
Practical interviewing skills training covering preparation, questioning, probing, listening, bias, candidate assessment and fair recruitment decisions.
Practical interviewing skills training covering preparation, questioning, probing, listening, bias, candidate assessment and fair recruitment decisions.
A good interview should give every candidate a fair opportunity to demonstrate whether they have the skills, knowledge and experience required for the role. This practical course develops the skills interviewers need to plan, structure and conduct effective interviews, gather relevant evidence and contribute to fair, evidence-based selection decisions.
In‑house courses are private sessions delivered exclusively for a group of people from your organisation, on a date that suits you, with the option to tailor the content to your staff and setting.
Open courses are public Equality and Diversity UK training dates that anyone can book onto, ideal when you only need training for one or two people.
Interviewing can sometimes appear straightforward: ask candidates some questions, listen to their answers and decide who performed best. In practice, effective interviewing requires considerably more skill.
Interviewers need to know what evidence they are looking for, ask questions that allow candidates to demonstrate relevant experience, listen carefully, probe appropriately and distinguish strong evidence from a confident presentation.
Without a clear structure, interviews can easily become inconsistent. Different candidates may be asked different questions, assumptions can influence how answers are interpreted and first impressions or perceptions of “fit” can affect scoring.
Our Interviewing Skills Training gives managers, recruiters and panel members practical techniques for conducting interviews that are structured, professional, inclusive and focused on evidence relevant to the role.
Effective interviewing is not simply about asking good questions. Interviewers need to create the conditions in which useful, comparable evidence can be gathered and assessed fairly.
What evidence does the panel actually need from candidates, and how will the interview questions help gather it?
Good interviews begin before the candidate enters the room.
Can interviewers listen actively, ask effective follow-up questions and probe answers without leading the candidate?
The aim is to gather relevant evidence, not simply complete a list of questions.
Are candidates being assessed against agreed criteria and the evidence they provide rather than personality, similarity or instinct?
Fair decisions require consistent assessment.
A successful interview is a process rather than a single conversation. Each stage influences the quality and fairness of the final decision.
What are we assessing and why does it matter?
What questions will generate relevant evidence?
What is the candidate actually telling us?
What further evidence do we need to understand the answer?
What evidence supports the score or assessment?
Which candidate best meets the agreed criteria?
The quality of an interview is strongly influenced by the quality of the questions being asked. Questions need to be relevant to the role, clear enough for candidates to understand and structured in a way that allows meaningful evidence to emerge.
Delegates explore different questioning techniques and how to use follow-up and probing questions to clarify answers, explore examples and establish what the candidate personally did, thought or achieved.
Interviewers also consider the difference between probing and leading. The purpose of follow-up questions is to help candidates provide relevant evidence — not to guide them towards the answer the interviewer wants to hear.
Interviewers can become so focused on the next question, their notes or their own impression of a candidate that they do not fully listen to what is being said.
Pay attention to the evidence in the candidate's answer rather than simply waiting to ask the next question.
Ask for clarification where an answer is unclear, generalised or does not establish the candidate's own contribution.
Use appropriate follow-up questions to explore relevant experience, decisions, actions and outcomes.
Capture relevant evidence accurately enough to support fair scoring and subsequent selection decisions.
Two candidates can provide similar evidence and still be perceived very differently. Confidence, accent, communication style, personality, similarity to the interviewer and expectations about what a “good candidate” looks like can all influence judgement.
Delegates explore how bias and assumptions can affect interviews and how greater structure, consistency and evidence-based assessment can reduce their influence.
The course also considers accessibility and reasonable adjustments. Interview processes should give disabled and neurodivergent candidates a fair opportunity to demonstrate their suitability without unnecessary barriers.
Fair interviewing does not mean treating every candidate identically in every circumstance. It means maintaining relevant standards while ensuring that the process itself does not unnecessarily disadvantage somebody.
Delegates explore realistic interviewing situations and consider how their approach could affect both the evidence gathered and the fairness of the decision.
A candidate immediately establishes rapport, speaks confidently and gives polished answers, but provides relatively little specific evidence.
We explore:
A candidate gives a relevant example but does not explain clearly what they personally did or what happened as a result.
We explore:
Panel members leave an interview with very different impressions of the same candidate and disagree about the score.
We explore:
By the end of the course, delegates should be better able to:
This course is suitable for anybody who conducts or contributes to recruitment interviews, including:
We offer several courses because different people involved in recruitment need different skills.
Choose this course for comprehensive training across the recruitment and selection process, from attracting and shortlisting candidates through to interviewing, selection and onboarding.
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Choose this course when the priority is developing practical interviewing skills, including preparation, questioning, probing, listening, evidence gathering, assessment and fair decision-making.
Choose this course when Equality or EDI Champions need the confidence and knowledge to support fairness, challenge bias and contribute effectively on recruitment panels.
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All our courses are tailored to ensure the training reflects your organisation's recruitment processes, roles and priorities.
The course can be delivered face-to-face or online via Zoom or Teams.
To support participation, discussion and interaction, we recommend the following group sizes per session:
Need to train a larger workforce? No problem. We regularly work with organisations that need to train larger numbers of employees. Where appropriate, training can be delivered across multiple sessions to ensure everyone receives the same high-quality, interactive learning experience. We can develop a delivery programme to suit your workforce size, locations and timescales.
Please note: the half-day rate is not always available for face-to-face sessions.
Over 25 years' experience delivering equality, diversity and inclusion training, consultancy and professional development.
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