NHS Housekeeper Interview - where did we go wrong?

wilfulsprite

Hi.
My husband applied for an NHS Housekeeper vacancy, and had an interview monday. Today they telephoned him and told him he hadn't got the job - when he asked why, they said he needed to brush up on his interview technique, but we don't really understand where it went wrong.
The job was the very junior one, in band 1, no experience necessary. He has six years extensive cleaning experience, but has never worked in a hospital. He was only in the room for five minutes, and they asked just a few questions. One was if he was ok with heavy lifting, and they wanted him to explain when he last did some heavy lifting (which was ten years ago). I'm not sure what heavy lifting had to do with it. He was asked if he could do thirty hours, and when he said yes, they said they didn't think he could (he already works part-time but is used to lots of hours). He said he would be willing to work any hours available, including weeekends. They asked if he could clean fourteen toilets, and he said yes. What else could he say? Why shouldn't he be able to clean fourteen toilets? Their response to that was that they wouldn't be able to clean fourteen toilets. The whole thing seems surreal to me. Were these trick questions, and how else should he have answered them? Are these the usual questions which are asked? They did ask one question, when he was asked what he would do if he came across a patient who objected to his presence, to which he answered that he would leave that area and inform his supervisor. There were no questions about cross-infection, MRSA, or anything else like that, only about the colour-coded buckets, which he confirmed that he knew about.
He would like to apply again when the job comes up again, but he has no idea what he should have said - he was just being honest!
Any advice greatfully received.
Thanks.

ohreally

Someone elses name was on the job.

Person_one

Was the NHS the employer or a private company with the contract to clean an NHS hospital?

wilfulsprite

ohreally wrote: »

Someone elses name was on the job.

You're probably right.

wilfulsprite

Person_one wrote: »

Was the NHS the employer or a private company with the contract to clean an NHS hospital?

NHS. The interview panel was two ladies, one being the Housekeeping Co-ordinator.

heretolearn_2

Maybe he needs to expand a bit if he was just giving basic 'yes' answers.

so if they knew he had another job, when they asked could he work 30 hours, don't just answer 'yes' but say how it would work out with his other job (i.e there's no clash in the hours and he's used to working 50 hours a week, for example).
Can he clean 14 toilets? Did he ask in how much time? And then use that as the basis of his answer, so if it's only 1 minute per toilet I'd say 'not to the required standard' but if it were 5 minutes per toilet I'd say 'that's a challenge, but yes I believe I could.' or if it were 10 minutes per toilet I'd say 'yes, absolutely, in my experience 10 minutes is more than enough to thoroughly clean a toilet'.

also it could be a case of a face not fitting, if the interviewer was the person who'd be supervising him, they need someone they can work with. So mumbling, not making eye contact etc won't go down well, nor will not really thinking about the questions and answers. For him to have answered several questions in 5 minutes means that he only gave very short answers.
He needs to realise that probably everyone they interviewed said 'yes' to all those questions. So if everyone is saying the same thing, how do they pick one? Any candidate who put in the extra effort ...

Racheldevon

I would have asked for more feedback than just 'needing to brush up on interview technique' perhaps by asking in what way, or could you give me some examples etc.

Usually, once interviews are complete, all the paperwork, the interview Qs, applicant answers/scoring etc are sent to HR/recruitment services, so you could still contact them and ask for more specific feedback which will be useful learning for next time.

The above poster raises valid points. I interview a lot of potential staff as part of my role, and some other frustrations are around people not dressing appropriately for an interview/presenting themselves in a way that is professional.

Certainly if someone is only giving very brief answers to questions, it makes it difficult to distinguish them from other applicants, and in a scoring system, someone who elaborates more and can demonstrate that they fully meet or exceed a core comptency will get the job over someone who leaves you guessing.

Also it's always worth having some good questions to ask at the end to show you've done your research, and not just 'how much holiday do I get' or 'what training's available' - sitting through a full day of these kind of things becomes very boring very quickly.

debrag

Is he British? Sorry but in 2 hospital I've worked for not 1 house keeper was from Europe.

cazziebo

I think if someone else's name was on the job, then the response would have been more along the lines of "a lot of applications, someone better suited to the role appointed". It sounds to me that the candidate has been given some pretty pointed feedback which should be explored.

I've been on many interview panels and then heard candidates give quite different accounts of what actually happened. Candidates will sometimes feel they did much worse than they actually did, or sometimes feel they gave a much better account of themselves than actually happened.

It would be useful for your husband to role-play the interview situation. how does he greet the interviewers?
How does he respond to the first icebreaker question?
Does he consider the answer before jumping in with the response?
Does he use the interview to showcase his experience and relevant skills?

HeretoLearn gives some very valid points on the toilet cleaning question.

Cleaning is an important role and increasingly under scrutiny in the NHS. I would think that interviewers would recruit for attitude and competence rather than knowledge - infection control etc can be trained. However, attention to quality and detail are not so easy to instil if it's not already there. The interviewers might have been looking for evidence of this and one word answers don't convey that.

I'd suggest a role play of an interview to rehearse all these skills. Might sound quite false but it's amazing how many people aren't aware that they don't maintain eye contact, fidget, mumble, or answer questions properly.
Every question is an opportunity to support your application.

As for the poster who asked about being British - why should that matter? The employer has to do eligibility to work checks anyway so not relevant to application process.

thebull

As mentioned before , the position will allready have been sorted out before advertising it.Thats how I got mine :j.
Best plan is to get in by becoming a "Bank worker" then work hard ,crawl and keep in with the muppet in charge then Bingo .Good Luck

Februarycat

Sounds like a very short interview 5 mins! When I got my cleaning job it was an hour's interview and lots of questions. I came out of the interview thinking I had not done that well but did manage to give an answer to every question and luckily I got the job.