The Training Content

The Training Content:

Once a decision has been made to design a training program, decisions must be made about the training content. This is a crucial stage as one wants to be sure that the training content matches the training needs and objectives. The importance of this has been noted Campbell who states, “by far the highest priority question for designers, user, and investigators of training is, what is to be learned? That is, what (specifically) should a training program try to accomplish, and what should the training content be?”

          You should have a good idea of the nature of the training content from the needs assessment and the training objectives. This is another reason why it is so important to conduct a thorough needs assessment prior to designing a training program. As well, employee’s current levels of knowledge and skills can be compared to the organization’s desired levels as indicated by the performance goals or objectives. The gap between the two represents the organization’s training needs and determines the precise content of the training course.

          However, even if one knows, for example, those employees have insufficient knowledge of how to conduct structured employment interviews; it still remains to be determined what content will be used in the training program. That is, we still need to translate training objectives into tainting content and to also determine the sequence in which the content will be learned. It is not sufficient to simply say that the training content should focus on structured interviewing.

          One of the most common and effective ways to identify training content is to consult with subject-matter experts who are knowledgeable in a particular area and know the topic well enough that they can specify the raining content. To determine the content of a training program to fulfill the training objective regarding structured employment interviews, one can consult with human resource professionals, consultants, or professors. It is also possible that some members of the organization’s human resource department will have some knowledge about structured employment interviews. On the basis of the subject-matter experts judgments one can identify the content required to achieve the training objective.

          A second source of training content is the research and theory that can be found in the academic and practitioner literature. In the case of structured employment interviews, there are dozens of articles and research papers on how to design and conduct structured interviews.

          A third possibility would be to purchase an off the shelf training program on structured employment interviews. This would likely include a lesson plan, an instructor’s guide, training materials and exercises, and perhaps a videotape. Whichever of those sources are used, it is important to realize that ultimately a judgment will have to be made about what content will best fulfill the training needs and objectives? This decision will not always be easy. 

Identified the following 15 ways that employment interviews can be structured to enhance the content and evaluation process of the interview:

  1.    Base questions on a job analysis.

  2.    Ask exactly the same questions of each candidate.

  3.    Limit prompting, follow-up questions, and elaboration on questions.

  4.    Use better types of questions.

  5.    Use longer interviews or more questions.

  6.    Control ancillary information.

  7.    Do not allow questions from candidates until after the interview.

  8.    Rate each answer or use multiple scales.

  9.    Use detailed anchored rating scales.

10.     Take detailed notes.

11.     Use multiple interviewers.

12.     Use same interviewers across all candidates.

13.     Do not discuss candidates or answers with other interviewers.

14.     Provide extensive interviewing training.

15.     Use statistical rather than clinical prediction.

In particular, trainees will be trained to conduct structured employment interviews according to the following learning behaviors:

1.    Ask exactly the same questions of each candidate.

2.    Limit prompting, follow-up questioning, and elaboration on questions.

3.    Use experience based interview questions.

4.    Do not allow questions from candidates until after the interview.

5.    Rate each interview answer using the scales for each question.

6.    Take detailed notes.

7.    Use statistical rather than clinical prediction.