Screening the Applicants

You hire personal assistants (PA) to come into your home to help you with tasks that you cannot do. Some of those tasks are intimate and very personal. The PA you hire usually is a stranger. You would not let just anyone into your home for any reason without knowing something about him. Identifying good applicants for your PA job while eliminating those who are not good is called screening.

Screening the applicants is one of your most important tasks. Good screening can save you from making mistakes in hiring. You depend on help from others. Screening carefully will help you to avoid hiring people who are unreliable or undesirable. The types of people you will want to avoid hiring are people who:

can't keep jobs because they are not responsible enough to keep commitments.
abuse drugs and alcohol and show unpredictable behavior.
are in financial trouble who may end up stealing from you.
have other undesirable traits, are not reliable or trustworthy, or may be likely to take advantage of you.

This page provides you with some guidelines for screening job applicants. Screening takes place in every step of the process. These are your opportunities to screen:

Telephone screening
Job application screening
Interview screening

Telephone Screening

Once your ad appears, you will begin to get calls. You may be there to answer the phone or you may decide to let an answering machine take the messages.

Answering machine messages

This is your first screening opportunity. Listen to the messages carefully. They tell you more than just a name and number to call. Screen the messages and return calls within twenty-four hours. Remember you do not have to respond to every call. Following are some sample messages that you might receive.

Some messages will be well organized and clear. The person will identify himself, say he is calling about the job, say something about his experience, and leave a number with the best time to call. This is a probably a good applicant.

Some may ask you to call a work site or another number at certain times because they do not have a phone. This may be a clue that the person may be in financial difficulty, unsettled or otherwise unreliable. You need to be able to contact your PA in an emergency. You probably would not return a call to this person.

Some may say they are calling for a friend. A person who does not call himself may not really want a job or may have other undesirable problems. You probably would not return a call to this person.

Anyone who sounds disoriented or irrational is not a good applicant.

Returning calls or taking calls

Whether you are at home to take the call or you are responding to a message, there is a simple plan for handling the call:

Identify yourself. "My name is Joe. I'm returning your call about the ad I ran for a personal assistant."
Before you start the telephone interview, state that you have several questions that you would like to ask first. This is where you ask your telephone interview questions that you prepared. If the person does not give you acceptable answers, thank him for his interest and politely end the call.
If the person gives acceptable answers, tell him a little about yourself, your needs, the salary range, and hours needed. Ask if this is a job he would be interested in learning more about.
Ask them to tell you a little about himself and that then you will set up an interview.
If you are mailing a job application form, ask their address and tell them when you want it sent back to you. If you decide to let the applicants fill out the application form at the first interview be sure to allow time for that.
Tell applicants to bring a driver's license or other identification, and the number of professional and personal references that you require.
Set the interview date, time and place. Ask the applicant to call you if anything should come up and he can't make it.

Job Application Screening

When you read over the job applications you are looking for two important things. (1) You are looking for a PA who has the necessary qualifications to meet your needs. (2) You are looking for someone who is comfortable to be with.

The job application is more than a list of jobs and job references. Here are some things to look for:

Is it neat? Is it covered with grease spots or coffee stains? This may be a clue about how they will do your work--sloppily.
Did they follow directions? Did they answer all the questions? This may tell you how well they follow directions. It also may show how much attention they give to detail. This is important if you have a complicated routine.
Does it raise any questions that you should ask? Did the applicant have jobs similar to PA work? Did the applicant do totally different work? Why does he want a change?
Did the applicant provide the references you asked for? If not why not?
If reading and writing are important to your job, is the applicant's writing clear and easy to read? How long does it take the applicant to fill out the form if it is done at the first meeting? Does it take a long time because he doesn't read well?
Some simply will not be suitable and you will eliminate them as possible PAs.

Interview Screening

Meeting the applicant face-to-face gives you another opportunity for screening. If the applicant will be filling out the application at the first meeting, notice if he came prepared. Did he bring his driver's license and references? Is he on time? If an applicant is late for an interview, can you expect him to be on time for work? Of course, there could be a good reason for being late. But it must be very good. If you think he might make a good PA, schedule another appointment to see if he will be on time.

Ask yourself if the applicant is someone you could work with overtime. Do you feel comfortable with her? Does she seem comfortable with you? Does she answer your questions directly and completely? Or is she uncertain, slow to answer or otherwise evasive. Does she avoid answering your questions? Does she ask you questions either to learn more information or to get clear about something you have said?

Is the applicant's appearance neat and clean?

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Hiring > Screening