Ever want to look into a crystal ball?

• A staffing crisis has hit your facility...
  
• Revenue forecasts are not what you had hoped for...
  
• An overbearing survey team just walked in...
  
• A minute ago the CEO asked why RUG scores are so low...
• You face challenges every day! When you come up stumped... Ask Clint or Cheryl!

To ask Clint or Cheryl a question just email us at askclint@ihnsolutions.com

Click here for the Ask Clint Archived Articles

Ask Clint or Cheryl it helps!

 

What interview questions should I ask when talking to a new job candidate?

Background Good interviews are performance based. The best predictor of future performance is past performance. Instead of asking potential employees, "What would you do?", we need to ask, "What did you do?" The key to effective interviewing is to get people not to tell you what they philosophically may or may not believe, but how they have actually handled specific situations in the past. Asking about past performance will help you discern whether or not to hire. It is very important when asking these sorts of questions to wait for the person to come up with their answer. Sometimes you are going to want to jump into the silence and let the potential employee off the hook. Don't! Do not let the candidate off the hook. Prompt the interviewee to take all the time needed because the answers to these questions are that important. Use the questions listed below as guides for making up your own performance based questions. Dependability It isn't always easy to get to work even when we want to. Cars can refuse to start and the weather can turn bad. Think back to a time when you were scheduled to work and something came up like car trouble or bad weather. Describe the situation and tell me how you handled it. Positive Attitude Most jobs contain what we might call, little irritations. Please describe what was for you personally, the most irritating thing about your last job and tell me how you dealt with it. Compassion Some customers are not as easy to like as others. I am sure you have cared for some difficult customers. Tell me about the customer who most sticks out in your mind as being hard to get along with, and tell me what it was about them that was so difficult. Then describe how you felt about them and how you handled them and your feelings. Initiative Sometimes in our jobs, it seems like we are always running out of things. Please tell me the last time you needed a certain supply right away and could not find any. Tell me specifically, what the supply was, why you needed it and how you handled the situation. Loyalty Sometimes it seems that complaining is a way of life in healthcare. Think about the last time you heard someone either in the organization or in the community say something about your employer that you felt was unfair or untrue. Tell me what they said and how your responded to it. Efficiency The workday always seems to be filled with more work than time to do it. Most people have had to develop their own unique ways to save time and get more done. Tell me about your favorite method for saving time on the job. Estimate for me, about how much time you think you save.

Dear Cheryl - My name is Lori, I am a dietitian in longterm care, working in NH. I was lucky enough to hear your presentation at the NH HealthCare Association meeting held in September - "Enhancing Dining - beyond the cloth napkin". You had so many great ideas! I have shared a number with my facilities. One of my buidings wishes to implement the idea of warm washcloths at the end (or maybe at the beginning) of the mean. We have done a couple 'test runs', but have encountered some issues - namely keeping a constant temp., not too hot or too cold... Maybe you could share with me the specific "hot to's"? What type of container was used? How were the cloths moistened? How wer ethe colths warmed? Were the cloths temped in ordered to be certain they were not too hot? Finally, how were they distributed to the residents - presumablely they are given right as the resident is finished? Any info you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much - Lori

The facilities I have worked with had the water temperature within the safe range right out of the faucet...but poured the water onto the cloths which were in a ice cooler...(keeps things warm as well as cold I guess) someone did this as the meal is nearing its end...they used a "tongs" to pick up the cloths that were "rolled" and they gave them to the residents like in the nice restaurants...one facility put them on a special plate at the side of the placemat...There were some folks that used rolled cloth napkins instead of the wash cloths... Thanks for the nice words...Good Luck.