When it comes to jobs in the care industry, are second interviews even needed?
The reality is, there’s no right or wrong answer.
It’s just a case of determining what works for your organisation or company.
To help you come to a conclusion on conducting second interviews or not, here are a few factors to think about.
Think about the job itself
One of the key things to think about is whether the care job is temporary or permanent.
Let’s face it, if you’re only looking for someone for a month or two and the requirement is urgent, prolonging the interview stage isn’t always realistic.
With time-sensitive roles, such as a seasonal care assistant or home nurse, you’ll need to make a snap decision on a candidate.
In most cases, it simply isn’t possible to get a candidate to attend multiple interviews in the space of a few days.
Second interviews cost more money through resource and time consumed.
If you’re under pressure to find multiple care workers at once, can you justify spending several days carrying out second interviews and doing all the follow-ups?
Probably not.
For permanent roles, deciding whether to add another interview into the mix comes down the ‘must-haves’.
For instance, if you’re basing a role on soft skills and transferrable skills alone, a second interview probably isn’t required unless you’re struggling to make a decision.
In which case, here are some of the soft skills and qualities you should be looking out for:
- Strong-minded
- Patient
- Happy
- Multitasker
- Quick-thinker
- Punctual
- A good listener
- Kind
- Responsible
Reasons why conducting a second interview in the care industry is a good idea
On the flip side, senior care industry roles may need some more thought as qualifications are often required.
In which case, it pays to take your time and fulfil the reference checks, involve the wider team and so on.
Also, with the care industry skills shortage, a second interview might allow you to look past a candidate’s lack of qualifications and focus on finding more transferrable skills.
The bottom line is, a second interview does come with a lot of added benefits if you have the time and money to do one.
For example, you get another chance to confirm first impressions.
Was your first meet a flash in the pan? Does the candidate come across differently this time?
You can even use the opportunity to invite more people into the process.
Get them to make their judgement and ask them to focus on one area of the candidate, such as their body language, their answers to questions or the way they conduct themselves.
Power really is in numbers.
What’s more, did you forget to ask them anything during the first interview?
They’ve handled the pressure before, so it might be time to ask them a series of more challenging questions.
After all, the care industry is a demanding industry which requires a cool head.
More generally speaking, you’ll pick up on more things when you meet a candidate again.
This can include anything from attitudes to life and soft skills to accents and hobbies.
It’s vital to get to know someone, so you can match them with certain patients.
Finally, if you have the resource and time, you can treat the second interview as a trial period.
Invite them in to shadow another care assistant for a few hours.
How do they perform? Do the other workers like them? Are the early signs positive?
This will help you form a clearer idea of the candidate and make your hiring decision a lot easier.
If you’re worried about them dropping out, offer to pay them for their time to sweeten the deal.
Trust me, the overhead cost will be a lot less than if you hired the wrong person.
The verdict on second interviews
At the end of the day, you need to make the right decision on behalf of your organisation or company.
The care industry requires special people with a particular set of traits.
So, if you have the time or aren’t 100% sure who to hire, carry out a second interview.
Moving forward, it’s worth addressing your recruitment pipeline.
With the right strategy in place and a team of expert recruiters behind you, it’s easy to find someone in the care industry quickly and remove the need for second interviews.
To find out more about how Temps4Care can help you, get in touch today.
