Ask Powerful Questions to Select Better Caregivers

Stephen Tweed | May 28, 2013 | Newsroom
It's pretty clear.  Past behavior is the best predictor of future performance.What people have done before gives you a good indication of what they will do in the future.When you are recruiting and selecting caregivers, office staff, or sales professionals, the behavioral interview is the critical piece of the selection process.  You've done our initial…

It’s pretty clear.  Past behavior is the best predictor of future performance.

What people have done before gives you a good indication of what they will do in the future.

When you are recruiting and selecting caregivers, office staff, or sales professionals, the behavioral interview is the critical piece of the selection process.  You’ve done our initial screening.  The candidate has filled out an application. You’ve administered the CQA pre-employment assessment and you have the results.  Now it’s time for the interview.

Asking powerful questions that engages the candidate and gets her or him talking becomes a major factor in our success of hiring great people.  When you ask better questions, you get a better understanding of the applicants, and you are able to do a better job of selecting the top caregivers.

Each section of the assessment report gives you sample behavioral interview questions that will help you be more effective in learning about the applicant.  These sample questions are particularly helpful because they are tied to how the candidate responded to the assessment.   For example, in the General Reasoning section, a sample question might be, “Describe a time in your career when you felt like you were learning new things on the job and it was motivating for you. What was it like?”

This question gets the applicant talking about their desire to learn, and also gets them talking about past work experience.

Under the  “Tough Minded” scale, we want a candidate who is direct and determined. A sample interview question would be, “Describe a time when you came across a little too strong, and the situation may have needed a little more tactful approach.  What was the situation and how did you handle it?”

By crafting a series of these behavioral interview questions tied to the dimensions of the CQA assessment, you will be much more effective in your interviewing, and much more consistent in your selection.  Work on developing your own list of favorite behavioral interview questions.

What are some examples of your favorite questions? 

Stephen Tweed
Stephen Tweed is among the top Thought Leaders in Home Care today. As an industry researcher, author, and executive coach, he has worked with owners and CEOs of companies in the top 5% of Home Care and is a frequent speaker at Home Care association conferences and corporate meetings across the US and Canada.

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