Looking the part
Featured in the Proactive Interviewee Skills training manual
By Beverley Williams
Category: Recruitment, Selection and Induction
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
The definitive work by Webster, ‘Decision making the employment interview’, concluded that interviewers decide to accept or reject a candidate within the first 3 or 4 minutes of the interview and then spend the remainder of the interview time seeking evidence to confirm their first impression. Webster also concluded that interviewers seldom alter the tentative impressions they form from the application form and when the first see the candidate. Appropriate appearance is extremely important at interview; it sends out clear messages that we want to please the interviewer and that we have high personal standards that will be transferred to our work. It is a fact that if the correct message isn’t given initially we will probably never get the opportunity to prove or disprove it. This training activity invites participants to consider the importance of appearance at interview and to explore what is meant by the term ‘well groomed’. The organisation also benefits by focusing on the value of high standards of appearance in a non-confrontational manner.
You open the training activity by encouraging the participants to give you their ideas on how important dress and grooming is in an interview situation. You then give details of research that shows how crucial an area it is. The participants identify the interview situations that are likely to apply to them and take part in a group exercise to discuss how they could find out about dress expectations in advance. Again working in groups, the participants now set out to create ‘perfectly presented’ and ‘sorry state of affairs’ characters, bringing their creations to life on sheets of flipchart paper and then introducing them to the rest of the group. You close by taking key learning points from the participants before distributing a key learning points handout.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to guide participants through the process of deciding how they can assess expectations with regards to appearance and how they can make this work in their favour.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 10 |
| Typical Duration: | 01:15:00 |
| No of Pages: | 11 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use, as a foundation activity, by trainers with participants who will be interviewees in some form at some point. It is suitable for internal or external selection interviews.
Download the training activity, Looking the part as featured in the Fenman training manual; Proactive Interviewee Skills