I always do a telephone interview regardless of whether it is an email enquiry or telephone enquiry initially. I think less and less people are telephone people as a result of the convenience of text and email but I think communication via telephone is much more professional and personal which in this job I think is very important. You get a much greater sense of who and what you are dealing with. An email can be edited time and time again to read correctly whereas on the phone a person is put on the spot and if they are hesitant to answer some of my red flag questions or um and ah it can tell me a lot about the relationship we would have. I think if you make a connection over the phone you are more than half way there to securing a family if the fit is right.

Over the years of interviewing face to face I have learnt that even the families with the best of intentions can be complete and utter time wasters. The telephone interview is a great way to weed those people out. It's a time to establish any reasons why the. Placement wouldn't work. Allergies, pets, hours, values, parenting style, a parent who hasn't confirmed hours, not sure if they want to take extended leave....the list is endless. I am no longer willing to give up my family time for an hour or two for a family to say no for a reason that could have easily been established prior to meeting.

I interview on a first come first serve basis but I will always honour all my scheduled appointment prior to making a decision. Say I have 4 interviews in a week and the first calls back the very next morning saying they want the spot, I will never agree to it until I have interviewed everyone and then it is up to me to decide which is the better fit for me. There is nothing worse than having an interview cancelled prior to even making it there because the spot was give a way. I think that is unprofessional. We have to do what is best for our business, absolutely, but there is way to conduct ourselves professionally, after all we have a reputation to think about.