Collecting reliable information from difficult people
Good interview skills are essential for gathering sufficient and reliable information during accounting and corporate audits, or while conducting investigations by human resources or corporate security. The goal of this training session is to support your company in accomplishing successful, high quality and cost-effective assessments and investigations.
In many cases people possess critical information that is not recorded in any other source of information. This makes the interview one of the most important methods of information gathering. But, the interview is also one of the areas where most mistakes are made, because people and their behaviour are contextual and dynamic in nature. Behaviour is often misinterpreted or miscommunicated and the interviewer is not always successful in being the neutral objective fact finder.
Our training will teach participants specific skills and techniques that will enable them to conduct more effective interviews and generate relevant, reliable and useful information.
The programme consists of a science-based, balanced combination of theoretical aspects of interviewing, practical casework and role-play exercises where participants will actively take part in interviews. Participants will work in small groups, conduct investigations and make decisions on when and how to interview specific individuals in the process. Information about personality assessment, the interview approach, questioning strategies and the sequence of questioning are important included topics.
Prior to training there will be an extensive, free of charge, briefing about specific topics that the client may wish to have highlighted within the practical casework and exercises, due to the specific nature of the work participants do. The client can decide whether to focus on conducting short interviews (1-2 hours in length) or on more extensive or multiple interviews with the same person.
Day 1
The psychology of influencing behaviour and information gathering
Which interview techniques have proven to be effective for changing human behaviour and generating relevant information? Participants will learn how to collect information from individuals who may be reluctant or unwilling to share their knowledge.
Communicative skills and the working alliance
Understanding the interviewee, establishing and maintaining an effective working alliance throughout the interview form the basis of a successful interview.
Non-verbal behaviour
Participants will become more aware of their own communicative patterns and how this may impact the quality of the interview and potentially create barriers in developing a rapport with the interviewee.
Lying and deception
When the interviewer suspects deception it is important to have appropriate strategies in place to respond. Participants will learn to focus on the detection of inconsistencies and contradictions, and how to use such findings effectively in the interview process.
Personality styles & interviewing difficult people
Personality traits can create obstacles for an effective interview. Participants will learn to recognise and objectively describe character traits. They will be involved in practical exercises to identify and modify their own behaviour in order to build up a rapport more effectively.
The manager in the role of interviewee
Due to internal investigations, audits or personal assessments the corporate manager could be in the position of interviewee. How can one prepare for such an interview, and how can the interviewer deal with his or her own stress, uncertainty, anxiety or frustration when facing management with the tables turned.
Interviewing the mentally ill
Gathering information from people suffering from serious mental illness requires specialised knowledge about the disorder.
Day 2
Interview preparation
An accurate and thorough preparation of the interview saves time and increases the likelihood of collecting useful and reliable information from the interviewee. Participants learn how to identify interview topics.
Identifying the goal and setting
The context in which the interview takes place influences the interview style, the specific approach of the interviewer and the specific response of the interviewee.
Dealing with unwanted behaviour
Interviewers often have difficulty in dealing with problematic behaviour exhibited by the interviewee. This section will deal with the management of unwanted behaviour, such as arrogance or feigned forgetfulness.
The interview process
The participant will learn and also practise through the use of video recorded role-play the different steps of the interview process, from introducing him or herself, to closing the interview and determining the results.
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