Training courses for interviewers, especially for public sector interview panels

Helping you to hire or promote the right person

I am an experienced interviewer and have trained thousands of interviewers, especially in the public sector in Ireland. I can help your organisation improve your interview process.

I work as an interviewer for several public sector organisations, and I chair interview panels or boards. I am also involved in the shortlisting process in public sector organisations. I also have years of interviewing experience in the private sector. I conduct interviews both online and in-person.

Interviewer skills training for groups and one-to-one

I deliver interviewer skills courses for interviewers to help them be successful when recruiting and selecting. I have trained thousands of interviewers in the civil and public service in Ireland and I also train interviewers in the private sector.

Interview skills courses for interviewers:

Interview skills for interview board/panel members
Mastering interviewing candidates using the new Capability Framework NEW
Chairing interview boards training
One to one interviewer training
Shortlisting training
Notetaking training

My training course for interview board/panel members is about understanding what interviewers are trying to achieve in an interview and how to go about doing that. I have trained thousands of interviewers in the public sector, in line with the Commission for Public Service Appointment's (CPSA) Code of Practice for Appointment to Positions in the Civil Service & Public Service and relevant legislation.

The agenda includes:

the shortlisting approach,
the roles of the interview board members,
note taking,
how to prepare appropriate questions to ask during the interview,
how to probe and ask follow-on questions,
what interviewers need to do when assessing and scoring candidates and
additional considerations for conducting interviews online.

Some attend this training because they have been asked to be part of a public sector interview panel for the first time. Others attend because it has been a while since they had last interviewed. Other interviewers want a re-fresher as some time has passed since they have done their interviewer training or their organisation mandates that all interviewers must have attended training.

I deliver this course to groups through in-person training in client organisations and through online training using Zoom or Teams. I also deliver this Interviewer Skills course on behalf of Public Affairs Ireland.

NEW
My Mastering interviewing candidates using the new Capability Framework course will help you understand and fulfil your role as an interviewer working on a Civil Service or Public Sector Interview Panel when interviewing using the new Civil Service Capability Framework. This new Capability Framework underpins the questioning and assessment of candidates and enables interviewers to adopt a more holistic approach to assessing candidates’ capability more broadly.

This course provides you with the essential skills to fulfil your role on for a capability-based interview. The agenda includes:

A detailed review of the Capability Framework
Similarities and differences from the previous competency-based interviewing approach
What is required in terms of types of questions to consider the candidates' capability more broadly
How to approach questions about behaviours, strengths, knowledge, values, motivation and interests.
Practical activities for question development
Changes to the scoring mechanism and it's impact on how to assess candidates.

People have attended this course who will be members of Interview Boards for Civil Service and Public Sector roles using the new Capability Framework. It has also been attended by members of HR, Recruitment and Talent Acquisition teams who are involved in interviews themselves or who are advising staff members about interviews under the new framework.

I deliver this course to groups through in-person training in client organisations and through online training using Zoom or Teams.

I also train interviewers on a one-to-one basis. This suits some interviewers better than attending a training course. Some interviewers have worked with me this way because the timings for the course didn't suit their requirements. Others have worked with me this way because they preferred working one to one rather than being in a group on a training course. Working on a one-to-one basis allowed us to focus in on exactly what they needed to know and we were able to concentrate on the interview they were preparing for.

Helping your organisation's recruitment teams

I work with HR and hiring managers to develop and refine job descriptions and to improve application form design and questions. I also consult with public sector organisations to review their interview process, working with them to refine and improve that process.

FREE resource to help you with your interviewing

Free article with advice for fellow public sector interviewers.

After this training, I am feeling more confident about being a member of the interview board next week.

Thank you for your time, effort and professionalism in helping achieve an excellent result during our recent interviews.

Excellent days training, would highly recommend it. Excellent insight into both sides of the interview table.

Met all my expectations for an interview skills update. Issues were discussed in a tangible example-led way. Tina is knowledgeable, instructive and inclusive.

An absolute pleasure working with you and thanks so much for all your help and guidance.

Very informative and engaging training course. The most useful part was about preparing competency-based questions and how to follow up with probing questions.