INTERVIEWS
You can anticipate explanations
It’s amazing how witty you can be when it’s twenty seconds too late. When you’re having a difficult conversation about integrity issues, you need to anticipate denials, handle them properly, and return to rationalisation; just like WZ EU teaches.
One of the easier ones to anticipate is the explanatory denial. If you plan ahead based upon the type of investigation and the type of person you are talking to, you can anticipate some of the explanation. For example, in sexual harassment cases, if you’re speaking with someone who is married, it’s almost guaranteed that you will hear, “You know what, I wouldn’t do something like that because I’m married.”
You can handle that explanation swiftly by simply agreeing with the explanation but countering the denial. “I’m glad to hear you say that. That helps me understand this a little bit better. The fact that you’re married, or that you’re thinking about your marriage right now, says that in no way was this premeditated. It had to have been something where we wish we could turn the clock back.” This will allow you to quickly transition back into a rationalisation to show that good people sometimes make some poor decisions.
There are several explanations you might hear from your subject during an interview. Rather it’s theft, policy or hostile work environment related, if you prepare you can be witty during the interview.
by Chris Norris, CFI
Wicklander-Zulawski
