9 tips to make you a better interviewer

Everyone agrees that hiring the right staff is one of the most pressing challenges facing aged care organisations, yet managers are rarely trained in interviewing. Dianne Adamson offers some practical advice.

Everyone agrees that hiring the right staff is one of the most pressing challenges facing aged care organisations, yet managers are rarely trained in interviewing. Dianne Adamson offers some practical advice.

Dianne Adamson
Dianne Adamson

We all know that no business is better than its employees. If hiring the right people is so important, then interviewing must be one of the most crucial roles we have as managers. Yet in aged care, like many other sectors, the assumption is often made that once we become managers we automatically know how to interview to get the best people possible for the position.

It’s not an easy task. I would be willing to stake a bet that there wouldn’t be a manager in existence who hasn’t regretted an interview decision. It’s not easy to assess in the short timeframe whether a person is the right person who will fit with the team, the values of the organisation and has the capacity to do the job. This is why interview panels have become so popular, along with rigid set questions – with no deviation.

Here are some pointers that will help aged care managers become skilled interviewers:

1. Understand your real needs

A great employee doesn’t just fill a slot on the organisational chart or roster. A great employee solves at least one critical business need. So while qualifications and experience are important, never forget you are not hiring a position. Identify your real need, and determine what successfully meeting that need looks like. That will define the skills and attributes you’re looking for. Think about the cultural fit and tailor your questions and conversation to find the right fit.

2. Make the interview a conversation not an examination

Questions that give room for introspection and self-analysis allow for conversation to take place. You are more likely to learn more from the conversation than from predictable questions that will give you a rehearsed answer.

3. Have a plan but wisely go off script

The best questions are almost always the follow up questions because once again they take you past the rehearsed response, giving you the opportunity to get to know the real person. This is when the how, when, why or what questions can open up a conversation. You will learn details – both positive and negative. The person shows up in the details.

4. Be clear about the competencies you require in the candidate

Some examples are business, leadership, teamwork, influencing, client focus, change orientation, compassion, functional capability, decision making, and self-reflection.

5. Ensure the candidates can come prepared

By giving them all the information they need before the interview so there are no surprises on the day.

6. Help the shy and nervous

Some people just don’t interview well but it doesn’t mean they will not do well at the job. The better you are at interviewing people the more likely you will be to help them relax, and you will more than likely find the right person.

7. Be clear about the behavioural expectations of the job and ask questions that will give examples of past behaviours that relate to the current position

As examples: Tell me about…? Describe a time when…? What gives you job satisfaction? What things frustrate you at work?

8. Set expectations and give a clear picture of the culture

A major shift for me came when I began to finish the interview by telling the candidate who we were and what we stood for. The new employee’s first day isn’t when they officially start in the role, it’s when they first engage with you in the hiring process; this is your opportunity to set standards and create expectations. Before the employee has set foot in the place a relationship and expectations hads been established.

9. Follow up

Thoroughly describe the next steps and follow through in a timely manner.

For further reading I strongly suggest the work of leadership researcher and consultant Jim Collins, and author and influencer Jeff Haden, both of whom I frequently use in my presentations.

Dianne Adamson is principal of Adamson & Associates, a business management consultancy with expertise in aged care.

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Tags: aged-care, dianna adamson, employment, hiring, interviewing, management, skills,

1 thought on “9 tips to make you a better interviewer

  1. What excellent advice this is for those wishing to hire the right person for the right position. In an interview both sides bring expectations to the mix and it is so important that an opportunity is provided for both to be clear about what they expect. Interviewers need also to be honest about the position and what if has to offer the applicant and also the potential it offers for the person to use all of the skills and qualifications that have been set as a requirement for the position. We have entrenched legal frameworks that require employers to provide work that will maintain the skills and knowledge of the person who accepts a position advertised in terms of qualifications and experience required for the job. The employer needs to be aware of this and not design work roles that could prevent a person from being able to maintain the expertise they had before taking the position, in other words, de-skilling.

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