By the time you have talked to three or four candidates, the answers are blurred together. One promised weekend cover on a call, another mentioned it only when asked twice, and you cannot remember which was which. This guide gives you one page that holds every candidate in the same order, so the comparison is made on what was actually said.

Build the page once

  1. Draw a grid. Put the candidates across the top, one column each, and the questions down the side. Keep it on paper or in one shared document, not in your head.
  2. Fill the questions in the order you asked them. Write what was said, in the words used, with the date of the call. Leave a blank where no answer was given. A blank is information.
  3. After each call, fill in the column within the hour. Memory after a day is not reliable enough for a decision.
  4. Ask each candidate to confirm the key answers in writing, by email or on their own form. Note in the cell whether they did.
  5. Only compare a row across the page. Do not judge a candidate by one row alone.

Candidate: ______________________   Date of call: ______________

Employer or agency name: ______________________

The rows to fill in

Keep the rows the same for every candidate. Write the answer, not a summary.

  • Who employs the caregiver, and whose name is on the paycheck or invoice.
  • Which hours they offer, written as days and times, not as a general phrase like flexible.
  • Who covers a missed shift, named by role or name.
  • What proof of insurance they will show, and the name of the document.
  • What the caregiver will do: companionship, meal help, errands, medication reminders, and pharmacy pickup as an errand. Write down that the family keeps all medicine handling, sorting, and dispensing.
  • How they describe a shift that went badly and what they did next.

Signs to walk away

  • They will not put the core answers in writing, even after you ask twice.
  • Two calls give two different answers on hours or backup, and they cannot explain the difference.
  • They ask you to skip the grid and simply trust them.

When the page is full, the decision is usually smaller than it felt. For how these sheets are built and checked, read How We Write the Sheets. For the first five moves in the hiring process, see Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Write down the one row that would stop you from choosing a candidate. Then check whether any candidate fails it before you compare the rest.