You can conduct caregiver interviews yourself, hire an agency or independent care manager to conduct them, or divide the work. The useful distinction is not who makes the phone call. It is who turns the household's requirements into questions, checks the answers, and makes the final decision.
Use this sheet before anyone starts interviewing. If you have not yet chosen between an agency and a direct hire, complete Hire a Caregiver in St. Louis: Agency or Direct first.
1. Assign the three interview jobs
Write one name beside each job:
Person who prepares the questions: ____________________
Person who conducts the interview: ____________________
Person who accepts or rejects the candidate: ____________________
If you hire the interview out, ask: “Will you give us the candidate's actual answers, or only your recommendation?” Listen for a process that preserves notes from the conversation. Walk away from an arrangement in which the family receives only “good fit” or “not a fit” with no record of what was asked.
Then ask: “Can the family reject a candidate without changing the requested schedule or duties?” Write the answer: ____________________
2. Give every interviewer the same job summary
Prepare a one page summary with the work address, required hours, recurring duties, driving expectations, pets, smoking conditions, stairs, lifting or physical demands disclosed by the household, and the person who will give instructions. Keep private details out unless the interviewer needs them to test a job requirement.
Do not let one candidate hear “companionship” while another hears a list of meals, laundry, bathing assistance, errands, and transfers. The interview cannot produce comparable answers unless the job remains the same.
Job summary completed by: ____________________
Version given to every interviewer: ____________________
The five step hiring sheet can be used to place this interview inside the larger hiring sequence.
3. Ask for examples, not assurances
Use the same core questions for every candidate:
1. “Walk me through what you would do from arrival until the end of this shift.”
2. “Which listed duties have you performed before, and which would be new to you?”
3. “If the person refuses a planned task, what would you do and whom would you contact?”
4. “If you realize you will be late or absent, who receives the first call?”
5. “What would you record before leaving the house?”
6. “Which part of this schedule or job description could you not reliably accept?”
Listen for a sequence, a named contact, and a clear limit. Write down the candidate's example in plain words. “Very experienced,” “flexible,” and “I can do everything” are not complete answers.
Strongest specific example: ____________________
Duty the candidate said was new: ____________________
Limit the candidate identified: ____________________
4. Decide what an outside interviewer may verify
If someone else leads the interview, ask exactly which records that person will inspect and which records remain your responsibility. Do not treat an interview as a background check, registry search, reference check, identity check, driving record review, or employment eligibility process unless the person conducting it says in writing that the specific check is included.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services maintains public pages for the Family Care Safety Registry and the Employee Disqualification List. Those resources have different purposes, so record the name of each search rather than writing only “screening complete.” The desk's public source path is collected on the Sources page.
Records the interviewer will verify: ____________________
Records the family will verify: ____________________
Person who keeps the result: ____________________
5. Keep prohibited personal questions out of the interview
Build questions around availability and the work itself. Ask whether the candidate can work the stated schedule and perform the stated duties. Do not improvise questions about disability, religion, family plans, pregnancy, age, or other protected personal information.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission publishes guidance for employers on prohibited employment practices, including questions and decisions connected to protected characteristics. If you are hiring directly, use that public guidance when preparing the interview sheet. This is a reason to prepare questions in advance, not a substitute for advice about a particular dispute. The source is identified through the site's Sources page.
Person who reviews the question sheet before use: ____________________
6. Require a written handoff when the interview is hired out
Ask the outside interviewer to return five items:
1. The job summary used during the call.
2. The questions asked.
3. The candidate's answers or interview notes.
4. Any unresolved mismatch involving hours, duties, transportation, or household conditions.
5. A list of checks completed and checks still open.
Ask: “If your interviewer leaves your organization, where will these records remain?” Listen for a named file, system, or responsible role. Walk away if the only record belongs to one employee's memory or private phone.
Handoff due before the family decides: ____________________
Person who receives it: ____________________
7. Make the decision from the record
Compare candidates against the same requirements. Use three columns: confirmed, unresolved, and does not match. Do not add a new requirement after seeing a candidate unless you restart the comparison for everyone still under consideration.
Confirmed: ____________________
Unresolved: ____________________
Does not match: ____________________
The final decision belongs to: ____________________
That person should be able to point to the job summary, the interview answers, and the unfinished checks. If no one can do that, the interview process has produced an opinion, not a hiring record.
Signs to stop before making an offer
Stop when the interviewer will not disclose the questions used, the candidate was interviewed for a different schedule, important duties were described only after the call, “screened” cannot be separated into named checks, a conflict is being explained away without a follow-up question, or no one has accepted responsibility for the final decision.
Next move: collect the missing answer in writing or conduct the interview again from the same sheet. Keep the completed sheet with the other hiring records. For the desk's method for separating public facts from household decisions, see How We Write the Sheets.