Structure of the Interview

 WASP Interviewing Structure

The WASP interviewing structure includes four very simple steps:

W – Welcome/Build Rapport

Greet your interviewee in a professional yet warm and welcoming manner. The interviewers should do their best to put the interviewee at ease to enable them to give of their best.

• Common courtesies, opening conversations about the day, the journey and initial observations of common experience.

• Proper introductions which explain the interview procedure, the approach that will be followed, how long it will take, what will follow. It may be helpful to explain that the interview is just one element in the decision process and explain that you need to take notes throughout the discussion to ensure everything is captured.

The candidate needs to be able to relax and “connect” with the interviewers. There is nothing to gain by making a candidate feel uncomfortable and unnecessarily under pressure.

Everyone holds attitudes, views and opinions about a wide variety of issues. It is inevitable that these will influence the way people think and act and have an impact on any decision they take both in the workplace and in life generally. It is essential therefore that all interviewers should become aware of and strive to put their own personal attitudes, views and opinions to one side during interviewing.

A – Acquire InformationThe second stage of the formal interview process is to acquire information from your interviewee. Candidates want the opportunity to sell themselves. The aim should be that for 80% of the interview the candidate speaks and no more than 20% for the interviewers to speak. As a structured conversation, the interview gathers information from speech and perceptions of personal presentation. The structured conversation starts from the position of the interviewers having seen the application form and/or CV information.

It proceeds via:

• Asking well-paced, structured questions to encourage the flow of conversation. The aim is for the candidate to offer information naturally. It is important to ask probing questions - how was that, why, in what way, what was involved which will allow for elaboration. Probing will also help to channel the conversation to the areas that are important to explore. Answers provided need to fit the questions and where questions are poorly constructed or targeted - e.g. if multiple part questions are asked, then the candidate may reply well to one part and ignore or forget the other part(s).

• Active listening requires concentration, thinking about what is being said and ensuring that the candidate knows that they have your full attention. Structured good open questions focus the conversation and provide room to listen and think.

• Signals from non-verbal communication.

• Results of other tests or information from references which may or may not be available to interviewers

S – Supply InformationAfter you finish your part of the interview you should always give your interviewee the opportunity to seek more information about the job or ask clarification on matters. The questions asked will give further insight into how prepared they were for the interview and how much they cared about learning about the church/circuit/district in advance.

P – Part WaysEnd the interview on a pleasant/friendly note; thank your interviewee for coming and give a time frame in which they can expect to hear the outcome.

Note takingIt is good practice to take notes, using a standard form for scoring during an interview to assist with making recruitment decisions and a number of other reasons. Template of the Interview Scoresheet is available from Downloadable Templates section.

Without comprehensive notes you would not be able to fully recall the amount of information collected during the interview. Although evaluation of the candidate’s responses should always take place immediately after the interview, there may be instances when this is not possible.
The notes will form the basis of your assessment of candidates.

It is important that you defer evaluation of evidence until the interview has been completed. If you try to evaluate the candidate’s responses when the interview is taking place, it is highly likely the important information will be missed and not captured in your notes.

Your notes should be factual and an accurate recording of what was actually said. Your notes should not be an assumption of what the candidate is trying to say, or your interpretation of what has been said.

Interview notes may be used as evidence should you be questioned about recruitment decisions, and therefore need to be clear and legible. Any issues relating to Safeguarding that the candidate has declared must be recorded on the candidates’ interview notes.
One important thing to remember is that the panel will need to be able to justify their decision, and must complete the Interview Scoresheet for each candidate. Any notes made must be appropriate and non-discriminatory. Under the Data Protection Act 2018, individuals have the right to see any documentation held about them, this includes any formal and casual notes kept after the interviews.