Advanced Interviewing Techniques Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Senior HR Business Partners, Talent Acquisition Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-HM-130

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience conducting recruitment interviews, supporting selection decisions or managing hiring managers.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Poorly designed interviews reward confidence, familiarity and rehearsed answers rather than evidence of job performance. This creates weak appointments, inconsistent candidate treatment, challengeable decisions and costly rework for hiring managers. Senior HR practitioners and experienced interviewers need a disciplined method for identifying the behaviours, judgement and results that predict performance while obtaining fair evidence from candidates with different communication styles, backgrounds and access needs.

This advanced course develops structured, evidence-based interviewing from job analysis through selection decision. Participants turn role requirements into competency indicators, write behavioural and situational questions, use Behavioral Event Interviewing and precise probes, and build behaviourally anchored rating scales. They practise separating evidence from interpretation, controlling common judgement errors, conducting panel discussions and recording defensible notes. The course also addresses candidate experience, remote interviewing, reasonable adjustments, data handling, adverse impact and recruitment governance.

Short instructor briefings establish the methods, followed by sector cases, interview simulations, scoring comparisons, panel calibration and structured peer feedback. Cases can reflect public service recruitment, banking control roles, NGO programme leadership or corporate technical positions. Participants leave with a completed structured interview pack for a live or planned vacancy: competency map, question set, probing guide, rating scale, scorecard and documentation checklist. This material can be reviewed with HR, legal advisers and hiring managers before use.

The course suits professionals who already conduct interviews or oversee recruitment and now need greater consistency, stronger evidence and more reliable selection decisions.

What you will be able to do

  • Design structured interviews from job analysis, competency evidence and role-specific performance criteria
  • Create behavioural and situational questions using Behavioral Event Interviewing principles
  • Apply probing sequences that establish individual actions, judgement and measurable results
  • Use behaviourally anchored rating scales to score candidate evidence consistently
  • Distinguish interview evidence from assumptions, impressions and unsupported interpretations
  • Conduct panel interviews using independent scoring, calibration and challenge protocols
  • Assess bias, adverse impact and accommodation risks within interview processes
  • Produce a defensible structured interview pack for a current or planned vacancy

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging vague answers and unsupported panel opinions
  • A repeatable method for assessing senior, specialist and sensitive-role candidates
  • Stronger interview notes that support clear hiring recommendations
  • Improved credibility with hiring managers through evidence-based selection decisions
  • Practical materials for leading interviewer calibration sessions

For your organisation

  • More consistent candidate assessment across managers, locations and interview panels
  • Better-quality appointments through clearer links between job evidence and selection criteria
  • Reduced exposure to bias claims, inconsistent treatment and poorly documented decisions
  • Faster panel decisions through shared scoring standards and evidence-based discussion
  • Improved candidate experience through transparent, relevant and professionally managed interviews

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can translate job evidence into defensible interview assessment criteria.

  • Job analysis evidence translated into observable interview assessment criteria
  • Critical incident technique identifies role behaviours distinguishing effective performance
  • Separate essential criteria, trainable skills, and exclusionary job requirements
  • Criterion contamination and deficiency diagnosed before designing interview questions
  • Selection ratio, base rate, and utility implications for interview design
  • Documenting job-related rationale for each assessed competency and indicator

Participants can build interview questions and indicators from competency requirements.

  • Competency models converted into behavioural indicators and proficiency anchors
  • Behavioural Event Interviewing probes past actions, context, and personal contribution
  • Situational questions derived from realistic decision points and role constraints
  • STAR response structure distinguished from interviewer evidence-gathering responsibilities
  • Positive and negative behavioural indicators calibrated at each proficiency level
  • Question blueprints map competencies, probes, evidence standards, and scoring

Participants can design a consistent interview structure that produces comparable evidence.

  • Structured interview architecture standardises meaningful candidate dialogue and assessment
  • Opening scripts establish purpose, process, note-taking, and candidate consent
  • Funnel questioning progresses from broad recall to precise behavioural evidence
  • Probes test actions, rationale, stakeholders, obstacles, and measurable outcomes
  • Neutral wording prevents cues, assumptions, and unequal candidate treatment
  • Question sequencing controls fatigue, primacy effects, and information redundancy
  • Time boxes protect full competency coverage within fixed interview windows

Participants can establish rapport while maintaining consistent assessment conditions.

  • Psychological safety supports accurate recall without lowering assessment standards
  • Active listening captures chronology, ownership, emotion, and decision logic
  • Silence, paraphrasing, and summarising elicit fuller evidence without leading
  • Micro-behaviours that signal rapport are separated from evidence of competence
  • Remote interview etiquette addresses camera framing, access needs, and interruptions
  • Candidate experience managed while maintaining consistent interview conditions

Participants can test the depth, credibility and relevance of candidate evidence.

  • BEI chronology reconstructs triggering event, actions, alternatives, and consequences
  • Fact-checking probes distinguish team outcomes from individual contributions
  • Contradiction probes test consistency without becoming accusatory or adversarial
  • Decision-point questioning exposes judgement under uncertainty, pressure, and competing priorities
  • Follow-up sequences uncover failures, learning, and subsequent behaviour change
  • Redirecting techniques recover control after rehearsed, vague, or overlong answers

Participants can identify and reduce bias risks during interview assessment.

  • Affinity, confirmation, halo, and contrast effects identified in interviewer judgement
  • Structured scoring reduces noise created by intuition and unanchored impressions
  • Intersectional bias risks considered when interpreting communication style and confidence
  • Accessibility adjustments distinguished from changes to essential assessment criteria
  • Panel composition and independent scoring limit groupthink and authority effects
  • Challenge protocols surface unsupported inferences before final selection decisions

Participants can score interview evidence and document selection decisions accurately.

  • Behaviourally anchored rating scales define evidence thresholds for each competency
  • Rating errors include leniency, severity, central tendency, and range restriction
  • Evidence notes separated from interpretations, ratings, and hiring recommendations
  • Calibration discussions reconcile divergent ratings using recorded behavioural evidence
  • Weighted scorecards combine competency ratings without double counting correlated evidence
  • Adverse impact monitoring tests selection outcomes across protected groups

Participants can manage panel interviews and evidence-based selection discussions.

  • Panel roles allocate questioning, observation, timekeeping, and candidate care
  • Independent ratings completed before discussion to preserve judgement diversity
  • Chair protocols manage dominance, disagreement, and evidence-based challenge
  • Consensus decisions distinguish documented evidence from persuasive advocacy
  • Interviewer calibration uses benchmark responses and shared rating anchors
  • Formal conflict-of-interest declarations protect fairness and decision credibility

Participants can apply recruitment governance principles to interview records and decisions.

  • ISO 30405 principles applied to transparent, fair recruitment processes
  • Uniform Guidelines concepts connect job relatedness, validity, and adverse impact
  • Consent, data minimisation, retention, and access govern interview records
  • Accommodation requests handled confidentially through defined escalation routes
  • Defensible notes record evidence, not medical, personal, or protected information
  • Candidate communications explain decisions without disclosing panel deliberations

Participants can improve interview quality through measurement, review and action planning.

  • Interview audit identifies inconsistencies in questions, scoring, and documentation
  • Quality metrics track completion rates, rating distributions, and candidate feedback
  • Inter-rater reliability reviews expose calibration needs and scoring drift
  • Feedback loops revise questions using hiring outcomes and manager evidence
  • Implementation roadmap assigns owners, milestones, governance, and reviewer training
  • Personal application plan schedules first structured interview improvements

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Structured interview design template
  2. Competency-to-question mapping matrix
  3. Behavioural probing question bank
  4. Behaviourally anchored rating scale
  5. Panel interview scorecard
  6. Interview documentation and governance checklist

Who should attend

  • Senior HR Business Partners — need consistent, defensible hiring decisions across business units
  • Talent Acquisition Managers — design and govern interview processes for multiple vacancies
  • Recruitment Managers — improve interviewer quality, scoring discipline and candidate treatment
  • Hiring Managers — assess specialist candidates using evidence rather than personal impressions
  • HR Directors — strengthen recruitment controls, decision records and selection quality
  • Assessment Centre Managers — align interview evidence with broader assessment decisions

Skills and tools covered

Structured interviewingBehavioural probingEvidence-based scoringPanel calibrationBias controlSelection governance

Tools and standards

Behavioral Event Interviewing (BEI), STAR interview technique, ISO 30405:2016 Human resource management — Guidelines on recruitment, Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course combines short instructor briefings with case analysis, question-design work, interview simulations, peer observation and scoring calibration. Participants examine realistic recruitment cases, including regulated banking roles, public-service appointments, programme leadership positions and specialist corporate vacancies. They conduct and observe structured interviews, compare evidence notes against rating anchors, and practise panel decision discussions. Facilitated feedback focuses on question quality, probing discipline, bias controls and documentation. Each participant develops an application plan and interview materials for a relevant vacancy.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience conducting recruitment interviews, supporting selection decisions or managing hiring managers. They should understand the basic purpose of competency-based interviewing and be familiar with common recruitment stages such as screening, interview, reference checking and offer approval. Experience with an applicant tracking system is helpful but not required. This is not an introductory course on writing job descriptions or basic interview etiquette. No legal qualification, psychometric accreditation, statistical background or prior use of formal assessment centres is required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should already have experience interviewing candidates, supporting recruitment or managing hiring decisions. The course assumes familiarity with basic competency-based interviewing and focuses on deeper evidence gathering, scoring and governance.

Bring a current or planned job description, competency framework or interview guide if your organisation permits this. Participants can use these materials to build a structured interview pack during the course.

It is intended for experienced HR, talent acquisition and hiring professionals who interview candidates or govern recruitment decisions. It is particularly useful for people hiring into senior, specialist, regulated or high-risk roles.

Basic courses usually focus on interview preparation, rapport and standard question types. This course addresses job evidence, advanced probing, behaviourally anchored scoring, panel calibration, bias control and defensible decision records.

Participants leave with templates and a structured interview pack that can be adapted for a live vacancy. The methods also support interviewer briefings, panel calibration meetings and reviews of existing interview processes.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided between instructor input, case work, simulations, scoring comparisons, panel discussions and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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