Interviewing Mistakes - What Not to Do!

Many families have little or no practical experience in interviewing prospective employees. Add in the anxiety of interviewing the person you may be leaving your precious children with, and you have a recipe of mistakes and missed opportunities.

Common interviewing mistakes made by hiring families include:

Failure to establish rapport with the prospective nanny. "Small talk" that establishes some commonality between the interviewer (family) and interviewee (nanny candidate) is a vital starting point. When this is missing, there is never common ground established and the interview never really gets off the ground.
Interviewer doesn't really know what information is needed. In these situations, the interviewer doesn't know what questions to ask the applicant. 4nannies.com can help here - refer to the Sample Interview Questions
Interviewer concentrates on the interviewee (nanny candidate) solely as a person. The interviewer fails to compare the nanny candidate's demonstrated abilities and experiences with the actual job requirements.
The Behavorial Interview ApproachSee The Behavorial Interview Approach
Not listening or remaining silent long enough. When you talk too much you lose the opportunity to obtain meaningful information from the job applicant.
Biases for/against certain applicants (stereotypes) often interfere with the ability of the interviewer to observe and draw conclusions from the nanny candidate's presentation on its merits. When this happens, hiring decisions can be made on irrational, rather than sound, rational, reasons.
Not asking the right or enough questions. Again, 4nannies.com offers Sample Interview Questions which can help. Good interviewing moves from broad, general questions to much more specific, perhaps even close ended questions. Using close ended questions (yes/no) too early causes the interviewer to miss out on important hiring information.
Making decisions based too heavily on intuition. Intuition can be a powerful interview tool, however it can blind the interviewer to good candidates who are different from the perceived 'optimum.' Hiring decisions might be made based on educational qualifications, physical appearance, age, etc. that can cause you to overlook more qualified, experienced, historically successful candidates.
Comparing the applicant's life to one's own life. This wastes interview time and fails to elicit important information.
Too many 'yes' and 'no' questions being asked. These questions don't give the interviewer any insight into the nanny candidate and his/her thought processes.
"Leading the witness" or asking judgmental or leading questions. All this accomplishes is queuing the nanny candidate in to the answer you want to hear.

In conducting the interview, you want to be prepared, yet flexible, and create a communication climate in which the nanny candidate will feel comfortable. Signal your interest, but avoid leading the nanny to respond in particular ways. Listen carefully, be sure to ask secondary/probing questions.

4nannies.com strongly recommends that you conduct the candidate interview (whether in person or at length over the telephone) prior to doing any candidate reference checks. Be sure to use the information you garnered in the interview wisely in your reference checks. If your candidate indicates that she interacted with the former charge's teachers to assist in the development of a certain skill (reading, spelling, etc.) make sure you ask the family about both their perception of the obstacle their child faced and the effectiveness of the nanny's role in the problem resolution. If the nanny candidate indicates she had full charge responsibility for her former charges, ask the family to define what that role was and confirm whether all of you define full charge the same way.

When in doubt, contact the candidate back for clarification. And all things being equal, don't overlook your intuition. Intuition is a powerful tool, just not the only one you should use in this important interview process.

The Behavorial Interview ApproachThe Behavorial Interview Approach
Sample Nanny Interview Questions
Nanny Character Reference Checking Form
Nanny Childcare Reference Checking Form
Nanny Employment Reference Checking Form