Reflective Journal - Week 4

 Hiring Interview:

• How do you utilize references in the hiring process?

He said that he will use references when he has decided who he wants to hire, before he officially hires them, in order to make sure they check out.

• What are some things that you see your new hires struggle with the most?

Learning how to use their specific equipment and figuring out the scheduling and working with the designers.

• What qualities do you see in your employees that impress you? 

Confident and good conversationalist. Someone that will get along well with clients and the rest of the staff and has the skills required for the job.

• What is the most important thing that a new hire would need to accomplish in the first 90 days?

Learn how to use the equipment, work with the designers, and do the installations. 

• What metrics or goals do you use to evaluate the performance of your employees?

The employees get paid on commission. Performance can be evaluated on the money they are bringing in, referrals, and client reviews. Bonuses are given for reviews that contain the employee’s name.

• Are your employees working in teams or does your company function on individualized projects?

Both. Installers work with the designers, but the installers work on the project individually after the design is given to them. Most projects only require one installer.

• What are the biggest challenges that a new employee may face in their new role?

Working with the clients and dealing with issues that may arise.

• What does a typical day look like for your employees?

It depends on if they are designers or installers. The designers go to the homes to do measurements. They also have show rooms for their clients to pick out what they want. The installers travel to the homes to install the designs, once they are decided. 

• What are some of the most important personality traits you look for in new hires?

Confident. Skilled. Personable. Good communicator.  

• What kind of background experience do you like to see in new hires?

It’s important for applicants for installers to know how to use installation equipment, or at least have a good amount of experience with it to be able to become sufficient quickly. 

• Based on your current hiring practices, would you have been hired by your company?

Yes

Response:

After the interview, I realized that your character plays just as big of a role, maybe even a bigger role, than your skills, experience, and references. It’s hard to determine your job skills through an interview, but its easy to show your character. During an interview, be yourself, open up, and be personable. This will get you further than your skills will.

Interview was done on the owner of Classy Closets

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. What did you learn from the unit.

What I learned from the hiring interview is in my response above. I also really liked what I learned about in my literature search assignment. I learned about how robotics can be used in healthcare and its benefits. The team building activity was also very fun. I learned a lot about my teammates! I think it will definitely help us work better together for the assignments this semester. 

2. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why?

I was shocked at how I felt during the very last activity - the one about who you would save in the lifeboat. I was shocked at the choices my team was making. They chose to choose the people that were going to benefit them. I went into it wanting to help the people I thought were deserving of saving, not how I think they might benefit me. They chose a criminal who had food over a cripple child. I couldn’t believe it! I would rather starve to death than live with the fact that I left a crippled child to drown.

3. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

I think the last team activity I just talked about applies to nursing practice if there was a time we had limited resources and couldn’t save everyone. I also learned from the team building activity the importance to getting to know the people you are working with and form good relationships with them.

4. Your personal feelings about the material covered.

I touched on this a lot already. My biggest feelings were about the saving people scenario. The other thing I realized was the importance of building professional relationships with the people we work with.