Apr 15, 2017

How To Conduct Interviews That Will Get You The Right Care and Support Worker for Your Family

Are you currently interviewing care or support workers for a loved one or for yourself? We pin a lot of hopes on these people. We hope they will be dependable, reliable and trustworthy. We would love them to be organized, domesticated and take initiative and most important of all we wish they will be able to form a special bond with the person needing care.

Interviews are funny things, some people thrive in them and others don’t perform at all well. Some of the best care workers I have met haven’t come across well in interviews, they can be shy or nervous, aren’t good about talking about their strengths. This leaves the interviewee in a bit of a quandary. How do you gauge if a care worker is right for your family if they don’t come across well in an interview?

My friend Sarah told me her experience of hiring a nanny for her baby. “The interview was at dinner time and the care worker walked through the door. At first I didn’t like her at all, she was giving me one word answers and wouldn’t look me in the eye. I was about to cut the interview short when I had to leave the room for a moment to attend to my older son. The baby started crying in the highchair and Penny the care worker went over to her, started singing to her and feeding her. My daughter loved her! She then helped me to clean the kitchen without asking and helped me give the kids a bath. She started the next day and has been with us for 3 years! It turned out she was just very nervous and shy and wasn’t in her culture to boast about her achievements or qualifications. Had I solely relied on her performance in the Q&A part of the interview I would never have hired her.”

Here are some tips we for interviews:

Create an informal setting

Finding in-home care workers is a very different recruitment scenario to hiring office staff. Although a level of professionalism should always be maintained it is important to remember that you are finding someone who will become an important part of your family. The best place to conduct the interview is in the home where the care will take place, offer a cup of tea and make the person feel at home, after all they will be working in the home.

Ask the right questions

The question you ask is very important. Asking open ended questions like “what do you like most about being a care worker?” as opposed to “do you like being a care worker” gives more of an opportunity to find out about the care worker. We have devised a list of interview questions which can be downloaded from this page.

Make sure the person being cared for is in the interview for some or all of it

A great way to see if there will be a rapport between the care and support worker is to watch them interact. Make sure the person being cared for is in the interview and perhaps leave the two of them alone for a few minutes and observe them in action.

Ask the care or support worker to come back for a trial

After the interview we recommend inviting the care worker back for a trial where they will be doing the tasks required of them in the role, e.g. personal care, or helping around the house. You should be around to observe but also give them some time alone with the person requiring care to find their feet and not be too overwhelmed by being watched. Please remember that a trial should always be paid.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

10 Tips on How to Be Fit, Fab and Fifty

As an advocate for the importance of maintaining personal fitness, here are Carolyn Broomfield’s top tips on how to be Fit, Fab and Fifty “The Old Not-So-Savvy Me” Incredibly active? Yes, I was! In my younger years, I was a sprinter and competitive hockey player and then…Well, life got in the way. Ever been there?... Read More

Misunderstanding Dementia Pain: What Facial Expressions are Really Telling You

There’s a common misconception that pain is an inherent part of ageing, that as you get older and may develop health issues, pain is just something you’re going to have to deal with. But that’s not true, pain is often a symptom that can be managed with the correct interventions and treatments. Older people are... Read More

Where is Aged Care Meal Service Failing?

When spending time eating with residents while onsite reviewing a meal service at a residential facility, I am often told the food is no good here.  My job is to find the Why? Frequently the blame is pointed upstream to the Chef/Cook that they are hopeless in the kitchen, or even further back to supply –... Read More
Advertisement