Excuse Me, Could You Manage a Quick Conversation?
With across the board reductions announced in the Homelessness grant, now, more than ever, it’s essential to ensure that you are able to offer appropriate assistance to those in need. As all those involved know, this means being efficient in the screening process, getting as much information as you can from applicants in one interview, so you can reduce officer time and weed out the inevitable, albeit few, fraudulent applications.
Speaking at the CIH conference last month, Andy Gale, special advisor at CLG, reiterated the need for a robust process, and recommended specialist interview training for all those involved in the process. Before you arrange your training, here are some tips from the guys mentioned in the original Harrow ‘Beacon Report’ on the subject.
1. Make a plan. As the Cheshire Cat said to Alice, if you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t much matter what direction you go in! (…with apologies to Lewis Carroll!) Seriously though, the shortest and most focussed interviews (and, therefore, the best) are those in which the interviewer spent some time planning exactly what to ask.
2. Spend the first couple of minutes just letting them speak. It’ll relax them and allow them to ‘dump’ any baggage that might stop them from listening to you. A great question to get them started is, “I’ve got lots of things I need to ask you, but before I do, what would you like to tell me?”
3. Forget open questions – they are so last century – simply set out the thing you’d like to talk to them about and use an instruction to speak : “Tell me about…”
4. Listen more than you speak. Evolution is a wonderful thing, and it has left you with twice as many ears as mouths (except for Mr Spock, who has three times*). You must start the interview by getting information from them, not giving it. People will (either consciously or otherwise) tell you what they think you want to hear…
5. Summarise regularly, both to check that you have understood and to show that you are listening. Use this phase of the interview to jot brief notes and to pick out topics that you’d like to know more about.
6. Continue the cycle either by probing more about a ‘picked out topic’ or by introducing a new area entirely.
7. Finish the interview phase by checking with them if there is anything else they’d like to tell you. My favourite question for this is, “Was there anything you thought I’d ask about that I haven’t?”
8. Now write a brief statement and get them to sign it. You don’t need to include everything, but you should ensure that you include the important points that will effect the decision you make.
FREEBIE FOR OPPORTUNITIES READERS
If you’d like a free notes sheet, a statement form and an interview aide memoire, just email alice@its-training-uk.com with your name, authority and contact details.
Mike is the managing director of ITS Training (UK) Ltd., market leaders in the field of interview and communication training.
mike@its-training-uk.com
www.its-training-uk.com
08454 300 262
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*… a left ear, a right ear and a final front ear. Sorry about that.