Can You Help Make Your People Better Interviewers? 

Having trained thousands of employees gives us a unique insight into whether or not you can make people better interviewers.

Almost without exception, participants and organizations experience success, leading to more admissions, improved case resolution, and reduced shrink. Just how long these positive results continue depends – in part - on the reinforcement and practice the employee receives in the technique.

It is common for us to work with participants who do not fully understand the progression of an interview process. Some have simply memorized a script, which shows their commitment to learning the process, but this may not translate into the fluid delivery necessary to be effective. Rote recitation may also impede the investigator’s ability to adapt the approach to a wider variety of investigations, limiting their overall effectiveness.

Common Mistakes

There are a number of common mistakes made by beginning investigators. First, interviewers will frequently mix-up or omit steps as though they are randomly selecting items from an a la carte menu. Omitting steps in the process or changing the order of the interview may limit its effectiveness in obtaining an admission or developing the full scope of the individual’s theft activities. Second, it can be difficult for interviewers to select and develop useful rationalizations. Along these same lines, many interviewers have trouble transitioning to new rationalizations for different motives that can vary among subjects.

Third, interviewers may use the complex introductory statement approach without practicing it, resulting in a disjointed and counterproductive delivery. This will, in turn, cause the investigator to appear inept. Other investigators will spend too much time reciting the introductory statement, making it appear they are trying too hard to convince the employee he is caught. 

No interviewer is immune from making these common mistakes. We’ve all been there. Early in our careers, we struggled to apply the step-by-step approach we now teach. “Rugged” might be the operative word when describing our early efforts at interviewing. 

During Wayne’s first interview, his mentor held up cue cards to prompt him what to say next: “losses…investigations…now rationalize.” Honestly, it was painful to watch someone so ill-prepared stumble along searching for what to say next, but watch it today and it provides a good laugh. Chris used his initial “grasp” of the process to build a great deal of “credibility” in his interviews. He would spend 20 minutes or more talking about what he does in loss prevention when five minutes would have sufficed. Chris even used his manager’s script to help him learn the interview process. The problem with the script was it contained the manager’s personal stories for rationalizations, so Chris repeated them verbatim without knowing how to construct his own. When he was confronted with an employee with different motives for stealing, he was unable to adequately make new rationalizations, relying instead on his old fallbacks.

Becoming effective in the process begins with practice and repetition. There are several ways to practice the steps. When we begin training our new interviewers, we start with rote memorization of the introductory statement and interview script,

having them read the script several times to get a sense of the interview flow and what is coming next. Next, they read the script aloud so they get used to hearing their voice, word emphasis, pauses,. Third, they are recorded reading the script aloud. Their recorded voice is replayed so interviewers can hear how they sound, their tone, pauses, and word emphasis. Repeatedly playing their recorded voice will cause interviewers to become more conversational in their delivery. As the interviewer becomes more familiar with the flow of the interview, much of the nervousness goes away and their delivery improves. Next, put away the script and record interviewers using only a short outline. The interviewers critique themselves noting any omissions from the original script. Finally, the interviewers are recorded using no script or outline and they once again measure their performance. 

The key to this exercise is not simply reading and writing the same script, but changing the script to respond to various subjects, cases and motives. One idea is to change the offender’s profile so motive and potential rationalizations will change within the script. It’s not only an exercise of repetition, but one of adaptation. Using several other exercises to learn interview flow, including maintaining a journal of possible rationalizations, developing rationalizations based upon current events and news stories and role playing, is also helpful.

The best way to grasp each step in the interrogation process is to video record yourself interviewing the camera. Interview that bright red light as though it had just taken a deposit. Can you talk for 45 minutes uninterrupted? Sure, you will make mistakes, but do not stop that camera.  You can glean tremendous insight by watching yourself from the subject’s perspective. When reviewing the recording, ask yourself, “Would I listen to this if I was the subject? Would I confess to this?”

These practical exercises can take your loss prevention team’s interviewing skills to a new level. Memorization is important, but possessing a comprehensive understanding of the theory and psychology behind the interrogation process will maximize your success as an interviewer.