For Employers: The Interview Process & Decision Making | Part 3

Green Baize Door Blog | July 2021

Interviewing - Making a Decision

Once you have interviewed all the candidates it’s time to make the decision which is rarely easy to make as it depends on many factors. The decision is crucial, especially in private households where the right personality is of paramount importance.

 Unfortunately, this is not an exact science – some really bad mistakes can be made because sometimes unsuitable domestic staff candidates perform well in interviews! There may only be a ‘gut feeling’ that one person will be suitable or another not. If there is nothing more tangible than this ‘gut feeling’ to go on, you may need to select the person YOU feel most comfortable with.

 Alternatively, if it’s possible, you may like to suggest that a candidate works in your home for a one or two day paid trial (vital if it’s a chef). Watch how the candidate works and how they interact with the other domestic staff along with the members of the family….. Follow the trial with an informal chat to ascertain how you both feel before deciding.

If you don’t find anyone you want to employ, don’t panic. When there is a lack of suitable candidates do not start thinking, “I’ve got to appoint someone.” This is the worst approach, if you can’t find domestic staff that are good enough, then do without them, and if you are desperate, get someone on a short-term contract.

Checking References

Once you’ve made the final offer, only one thing remains – to check the references of your new member of staff.

Never avoid this task, always check references carefully, while keeping in mind, that you should not take a glowing written reference as gospel, in the same way as you should not automatically discount a candidate because a past employer has written something which appears ambiguous, negative or brief......

There are a number of ways of undertaking this task, by post or email, by telephone, third party or in person. 

It is vital that you know who you are speaking with, are you absolutely certain you are talking to a legitimate past employer rather than a friend of the candidate!?

At Green Baize Door, we reach out to referees by letter or email because we feel written correspondence reduce the chance of misunderstanding, while improving the quality of the feedback received. 

Our request for reference, will explain:

• Who we are, and that
• we are reference checking one of their past employees in order to establish their suitability for a new role.

In our correspondence

• We generally provide a little insight to the new job the applicant has applied for, and include details of typical responsibilities,
• we might infer details of the style of the new job (formal/informal etc), and
• we will often include excerpts from the employee's resume - asking the ex-employer to validate its accuracy .

Finally we invite the referee to contact us at  their convenience and when they have a quiet moment to talk.

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Where children or vulnerable adults are involved, candidates must present a valid Background Check, please don't shy away from completing this task - it is important!

Once everything has been checked to your total satisfaction, you can confirm the start-date, prepare the contract and a cover letter making the domestic staff job offer in full.

NB. As part of the service offered to our clients, Green Baize Door will reference check candidates and provide draft Contracts, NDAs and Cover Letters, and process background checks.