What is an attitude? How important are attitudes in selecting high quality caregivers? How can you accurately measure caregiver attitudes?
These are three very important questions to any home care owner, administrator, or CEO who wants to build a company based on caregiver quality. If you want to differentiate your company from your competitors based on the quality of your caregivers, then you need to consider these questions.
Attitudes are Habits of Thought
Attitudes are habits of thought, or patterns of thinking. How a person thinks determines how they will behave. And how they behave determines whether or not they will show up when scheduled, whether or not they will tell you the truth, and whether or not they will steal from your clients.
Attitudes are a critical element of the caregiver selection process. You want to hire caregivers who bring attitudes, or habits of thought that are consistent with your company goals, your client goals, and the expectations of your clients’ families.
How do you measure Attitudes?
Seven years ago when we began our research into the top techniques for recruiting and selecting high quality caregivers, we discovered a pre-employment assessment tool that accurately measures attitudes. Based on proven psychological testing methods, this assessment tool gives you a highly accurate picture of how a person thinks. It shows you the risks involved in hiring this person.
There are three attitudes that are critically important for you to consider in your selection process:
1. Hostility – this attitude or pattern of thinking addresses the extent to which a person is able to control their feelings and anger, or whether the person will become disruptive or hostile.
2. Conscientiousness – this attitude addresses the extent to which a person is likely to be reliable and dependable. Since clients and families measure the quality of a home care company based on dependability and continuity of care, this attitude of conscientiousness is very important to your business
3. Integrity – this attitude addresses the extent to which a person is likely to be honest and tell the truth.
The attitudes scale in the Caregiver Quality Assurance pre-employment assessment gives you a clear picture of the risk associated with each of these attitudes. The lower the score, the less risk is involved in hiring this caregivers.
There are three other attitudes that you may also want to consider in your selection decision.
4. Substance Abuse – this attitude measures the risk of this caregiver being involved in the abuse of drugs or alcohol.
5. Sexual Harassment – this attitude measures the risk of this caregiver engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior.
6. Computer Misuse – this attitude measures the risk of an employee misusing their company computer for inappropriate purposes.
These last three elements are optional, and you can turn them off in the online assessment.
Here’s a sample of the graph that shows you visually the risks involved in hiring a particular applicant.
What’s the value of a Pre-employment Assessment versus personal interviews and background checks?
As one frequent user of the Caregiver Quality Assurance Pre-employment Assessment says …
“Criminal background checks and interviews evaluate what has already happened. The pre-employment assessment measures what is likely to happen. Do you want to be looking backwards or forwards?”
If you would like to see a sample of the CQA Pre-employment Assessment, and get a clearer picture of the attitudes of your caregivers, go to http://www.caregiverquality.com/ and ask for a free demonstration.
