Get around dead-end reference checks
Get around dead-end reference checks
Get candidates to do own reference checks
In the current litigious society, most employers will not give out much if any information about their past employees when they get reference-check phone calls or letters.
There isn't much home care agencies can do about this, but here are three hints for getting background information on home health aide job applicants:
* Ask what other names the applicant has used.
Make sure you have all of a job applicant's names when you do a reference check. Even though many of your job applicants are female, remember not to ask what a person's maiden name was, or it will sound as though you're asking if the candidate is married, Usrey says. Instead, ask what other names a person has used at work, she advises.
* Ask the applicant's former employers if they would rehire the candidate.
Former employers won't always answer this, Baker says. If they do answer, and they say they wouldn't rehire the applicant, then you need to ask the candidate why this is. It is unlikely the former employer will tell you why, Baker says.
* Ask the applicants themselves what their former employers will say about them.
You can get around this problem of reference checks yielding no information by leading candidates to conduct their own background checks on themselves during their interview. For example, Usrey asks candidates this question: If I call your former employer or supervisor for a reference check, what do you think they'll tell me?
Candidates will almost always tell you their side of things if they had a conflict with their supervisor or employer when you ask this, Usrey says.
"They don't know that their former supervisor won't tell me anything, so they do their background check for me," Usrey says.
You can then analyze the candidates' responses to determine whether the conflicts the employees had with their former employers were caused by problems with the employees' characters, or if the employers caused the conflict. *
* Betty Baker, Director of home care, Alliance HealthCare, 506 Main St., Ft. Morgan, CO 80701. Telephone: (970) 867-3013.
* Annetta Poe, Executive Director, Guylene Griffin, Service Coordinator, Amarillo Area Hospital Home Care, 2001 Coulter Drive., Amarillo TX 79106. Telephone: (806) 358-7251.
* Colleen Usrey, Director, Kewanee Hospital Home Care and Hospice, 125 W. South St., Kewanee IL 61443. Telephone: (309) 853-3361.
* Linda Weinberg, Director, Anne Arundel Medical Center Home Health Care, 25 Shaw St., Annapolis, MD 21401. Telephone: (410) 280-6589.
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