Interview Formats and Effective Structure
3CO04 – Essentials of people practice
This CIPD Level 3 learning video for unit 3CO04 – Essentials of People Practice explores interview formats and effective structure, directly addressing assessment criteria AC 2.3 on participating effectively in selection interviews. The video covers various interview formats including face-to-face, telephone, and web conferencing, alongside essential techniques such as establishing rapport, structuring interviews with clear openings and closings, mastering diverse questioning skills (open, closed, probing, competency-based), and developing active listening and note-taking abilities. You'll also learn how to make objective hiring decisions using scoring systems and predetermined criteria whilst ensuring inclusive selection practices. By completing this video, you'll gain practical competency in conducting professionally structured interviews and contributing meaningfully to selection decision-making processes.
What this video covers
Covering Assessment Criterion 2.3 of Unit 3CO04, this video examines the three principal interview formats used in selection — face-to-face, telephone, and web conferencing — and the distinct preparation and awareness each one demands from the interviewer. The video addresses the communication environment specific to each format, including how body language operates in face-to-face settings, how tone of voice and speech pace become heightened considerations during telephone screening, and the technical contingencies that web conferencing platforms such as Teams and Zoom introduce. Practical considerations such as room setup, seating arrangement, camera positioning, and transmission delays all feature as format-specific concerns rather than generic advice.
The video gives substantial attention to interview structure, covering both the opening and the closing stages as professional responsibilities in their own right. The opening sequence includes candidate introductions, panel introductions, and transparent explanation of the interview's duration, topic areas, and the point at which candidate questions will be taken. Time management across a structured interview is also addressed, with the video examining how a typical one-hour session can be proportioned across introductions, core questioning, candidate questions, and close, and how interviewers can redirect overly lengthy responses or create space for probing where answers are brief.
Questioning technique sits at the heart of the video's coverage of effective interviewing, with the range spanning open, closed, probing, hypothetical, multiple, leading, and competency-based questions. Listening skills and note-taking during candidate responses are treated alongside the use of predetermined scoring criteria to assess those responses consistently. The closing stage of the interview — including candidate questions, next-steps communication, and the decision-making process using selection criteria and scoring systems — rounds out the video's scope within AC 2.3.
Assessment Criteria 2.3
Participate effectively in a selection interview and the decision-making process for an identified role.
Indicative Content
Contribute to face-to-face, telephone or web conferencing for an interview; use of appropriate interview structure, including opening and closing the interview; planning time effectively; establishing rapport; communication, for example verbal and non-verbal; questioning skills such as open, closed, probing, hypothetical, multiple, leading, competency-based questions; listening skills; effective note-taking; scoring responses against predetermined criteria. Making effective decisions using the selection criteria, use of scoring systems; appreciation of inclusive selection methods.
What You'll Learn
Video covering: Interview Formats and Effective Structure
About 3CO04 – Essentials of people practice
This unit introduces the fundamentals of people practice, ranging from the employee lifecycle to policies, regulation and law. It further explores a diverse array of specialist subjects such as recruitment, talent management, reward and learning and development, essential to a career in people practice. Importantly, this unit enables practitioners to apply their knowledge and skills, building their confidence and ability to practise progressively.
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