This week’s International Association of Interviewers interview and interrogation training tip provided by Wicklander-Zulawski, has Wayne Hoover, CFI discussing requests during the interview.
First and foremost, you need to know your company’s policies regarding requests, and follow those established policies. A common request received is for a drink of water. Can or should we deny someone a drink of water? We’re all human, and humans need water. It’s not in your best interests to deny them water.
By the same respect, we want to meet that request while maintaining control over the conversation. It’s like they’re trying to call a “timeout.” In sports when a coach calls a timeout, it’s often an attempt to stop the momentum of the other team and regroup. We don’t want them to call a “timeout” on us to stop our momentum and allow them to regroup.
Let the individual know that you have a couple more things to go over and you’ll absolutely make sure that they’ll have that drink of water. Take a few sentences to complete your thought or 30 seconds or so, and then ask them if they still want that drink of water.
If you’ve planned ahead and had a bottle of water, you could then pull out the bottle of water and hand them the water if in fact they need the water. This way you’re doing it without disruption to the interview and the interruption to the conversation is minimal.
Every loss prevention investigator should continuously strive to enhance their investigative interviewing skills as part of an ongoing commitment to best-in-class interviewing performance. This includes holding ourselves to an elite standard of interview and interrogation training that is ethical, moral and legal while demanding excellence in the pursuit of the truth. The International Association of Interviewers (IAI) and Wicklander-Zulawski (WZ) provide interview and interrogation training programs and additional guidance to investigators when dealing with dishonest employees, employee theft, sexual harassment, policy violations, building rapport, pre-employment interviewing, lying, denials and obtaining a statement.
By focusing on the latest information and research from experts in the field as well as academia, legal and psychological resources, these video tips provide interview and interrogation training techniques that can enhance the skill sets of professionals with backgrounds in Law Enforcement, Loss Prevention, Security, Asset Protection, Human Resources, Auditors or anyone looking to obtain the truth.
To learn more about interview and interrogation training and how you can further develop your professional skill sets, please visit www.w-z.com or www.certifiedinterviewer.com for additional information.