Workforce Questions in Your Consultant Interview — You Don't Need to Be an HR Expert

Workforce questions are not testing your HR experience. They are testing whether you can describe what makes a nice working environment for people and how you can contribute to making this a place where people want to work and stay.

Hi, I'm Tessa.

And I'm Becky. And this is the Ace Your Consultant Interview podcast, where we help you stand out and succeed in your consultant interview.

Before we get into today's episode, if you're prepping for your interview, make sure you're signed up to our free 5-day email crash course. It breaks down exactly what you need to do to stand out, and you can sign up via the link in the description. Coming up in this episode, we're going to look at how to talk about staff retention tactics, thinking about how to look at the staff survey and how to come up with some helpful suggestions on how to improve retention within the workforce. All right, let's get stuck in. So first up, we're going to look at a student question of the week. This is from one of our Academy students. What question have we got this week?

Okay, so the question is, how am I supposed to answer a staff retention question when I've never been the person in charge of staff retention?

Well, most people have not been the person in charge of staff retention, I think is the first thing to say, and certainly most people going for an interview for a substantive consultant job. have not been the person in charge of staff retention. So, you don't need to be the boss of retention, or the retention overlord, or whatever, to be able to answer this question. So, don't worry. They're asking you to think about how you might help improve staff retention. And I guess that goes into thinking about reasons why staff retention might not be good.

Mm-hmm.

And also what you know about them from your pre-interview visits, and where they're facing challenges. And they might have told you they've got a problem, Particularly if they're asking this question in the interview. They've got a problem, this is what they're trying, this is what they think the reasons are. So, yeah, you're trying to draw all of that in, I think, to answer that question.

Yeah, I think so. I think also, it's important to kind of recognise that anyone senior-ish, really, is playing a role in whether staff stay. So, you know, whatever happens day to day on the shift affects how you feel about your job in general. You know, not just one bad day, but if, you know, how you feel generally about your job affects the way you, you know, whether you want to stay. And I, you know, I think about what keeps you wanting to stay there. You know, it's a nice team. It's probably the ability to provide the patient care that you want to provide. you being developed as an individual and a professional, and feeling valued. And actually, if you, even if you just talked about a few of those things that, you know, actually one of the things that I do, you know, I know that, you know, people like to feel that they're developing professionally. One of the things that I do is make sure that I integrate regular teaching on the shop floor. And here's an example of how I do it. You know, even things like that, you don't have to have created a trust strategy for staff retention. It's about what you do day to day that means that people want to keep on coming back here.

Yeah. So, it's a— actually, when you think about it, it's a fairly easy question, because it's stuff that you know about yourself, why you choose to stay in places, why you want to work in places, and why other people do. And you're just drawing in that experience. That's it. Plus, anything that you've learned about them from the pre-interview meetings. It's, I think, initially, Yeah, if you— it goes back to like, you're not expecting to be the expert on everything, but that doesn't mean you can't have thoughts about it and ideas from your own experiences, from things when you've been in that position, but also in departments you've been in, what they've done. That's what you're bringing to the interview, to all questions, is your experience. You don't need to have done an amazing project in every single thing that they ask you.

No, exactly. I think it's about, you know, thinking about what allows you to be your best self at work.

Yeah.

And, you know, how to recreate those conditions for other people. It doesn't need to be anything absolutely mega. Yes.

So let's go on to look at our golden example of the week. This is an example from a student. This is a conflict with a patient example. So this is a time where a patient had been waiting a really long time to be seen, and they started throwing their weight around and shouting, and they were saying in particular that the nurse had been rude to them. And I guess it's your job is to intervene or address it. What do you think about this as a conflict with a patient example?

It's quite a common example, isn't it?

Yeah.

And that's kind of what we want out of these conflict examples. We don't want there to have been anything absolutely hideous that happened that the panel's going to get completely sidetracked on because they can't stop thinking about it. So, you know, a I've been waiting too long situation happens, I would say, every day, sadly. And so, you know, your role is to demonstrate that you're somebody who can de-escalate this situation, keep everything safe and professional, and to show what you've learned about conflict. I think a key point about this particular example is don't be throwing the nurse under the bus.

Yeah, like, yeah, well, she is always rude.

She is quite rude. Um, so I think, you know, you gotta stand, you know, beside your colleague metaphorically, um, you know, and say, you know, I'm Sorry that you're having a difficult day. I understand that it's worrying when you're waiting. You know, do all of that kind of stuff. So I think what we need to hear is how you de-escalated it in a professional way. So I like this as an example.

Yeah. And also, I guess part of it is making sure the nurse is okay as well afterwards, because yeah, they probably feel pretty crap about the whole situation, because it's not pleasant being in this kind of thing. So yeah, looking after your team as well, de-escalating the patient, standing your ground, being firm but polite, and that rudeness and shouting is not an acceptable way to behave. Yeah.

Good. Yeah. And then, as ever with any of these, you know, tell me about a time when questions, we want a bit of reflection at the end about What— so as a result, what I've learned about managing conflict is— and then just tell them that, because you need to show sort of insight and learning as a result of this too.

Yep. And I think out of all the golden examples, the conflict with a patient is usually the one I think our students find the easiest to come up with, because you can usually find relatable everyday conflicts. I think the ones to steer away from is where there is some sort of significant Escalation, any sort of legal involvement, where the patient is massively vulnerable, I think also is not a great example. So that is terminally ill patient being given very bad news, or a patient with significant mental health issues who's behaving in a particular way. I would keep these out because although they are still conflicts, there's so much more going on. with the conflict, whereas this is a simple thing. They're waiting a long time, they're annoyed, and they're getting frustrated and angry about it.

Yeah, yeah.

It's much more straightforward than— and then you can just focus on the de-escalation.

Yeah, 'cause I think here you can be kind of, you know, quite clear. I'm sorry, you know, I understand that you're worried, stressed, that you've been here a long time. You know, what I want to do is make sure that, you know, you, your child, your relative is, is safe, and we'll focus on that. I do also need you to know that shouting at our staff is not acceptable, and if it continues, then I'm going to need you to leave the department. So then you're kind of showing that you can de-escalate, but also put the foot down when required.

Yep, agreed. So this is a great— I think this is a great example of that. So good, good example. Okay, next up we're going to look at an interview question that someone's got. So this question is, we're in the lowest 10th percentile for staff who would recommend us as a place to work. What would you do to help us address this? What do you think about this? You'd be like, oh really? I think I'd be like, Really? The lowest 10%?

Ouch. Oh, actually, maybe I don't want to work here.

I do realise it's quite hard. Is that my phone? Is that my phone going off? I think I need to go.

Yeah, so we talked about this, you know, a little bit before, didn't we, about, you know, retention. So, so I think some of it's about that. You know, what maybe— so it says, what would you do departmentally and organisationally?

Yes, that was the one.

So I think the stuff, you know, there's the individual kind of team stuff that we talked about a little bit earlier. I think some of it is about, you know, programmes, valuing people, making sure that we're developing people, all of those kind of things. Organisationally, I mean, I think often things like, you know, thinking a bit bigger about the organisation. What does the staff survey say around this? What's coming up on that. What are the big issues that people don't like about the organisation? Because actually, sometimes it's about things like, there's nowhere to park my car, or the car parking costs me an arm and a leg, or whenever I'm on call, I can't get a hot dinner after 7 PM. Those things actually really annoy people for good reasons. So, Reference what's coming up there, and then you can show a sort of bigger picture view about things that the organisation could do to address it.

Yeah, I think also probably saying something nice to them, like, I know that this was for the whole trust, or whatever, or, I know this is— it's not nice if you, let's say this was for your actual team, That would be pretty bad feedback to have got. And they will be thinking about it a lot, because nobody would want to run a team like that. So, I think the context is probably important. Was it the trust as a whole? Is it the service? What have they said to you about it in the pre-interview visit? Because if this was a significant finding, which it would be, it's likely to have come up in your chats beforehand. And just saying, I know this has been really stressful for you all, because I know when I was speaking to wherever, whatever, and I also once worked in a place where— X happened, and even the results of that have an impact on staff morale itself.

Yeah.

But there's loads— I know how many great things are happening here, or something like that, because it's kind of easy to just keep, like, negative, negative, negative in this. And remembering, this is a place you want to work, you want them to give you a job. So, within the context of that feedback, how can you still show enthusiasm, I think, is probably important. Here.

That's very nice of you. I like that a lot. I think also recognising that, you know, you are now going to be part of this team.

Yeah.

It's not referencing this as a you problem.

No, you better sort this out before I start.

Exactly. Yeah. I don't know, what can we do? You know, how can I help with this? And again, it doesn't need to be anything absolutely massive that you've done, but just some thoughts about how do we make this nicer, Day-to-day as a place to work.

Yeah, and it's, yeah, I think it is quite a confronting question. If you weren't expecting it, you would be like, oh. So, you should ideally have a heads up about this before, which kind of takes us on to our tip and trick, which is about the staff survey results and using them in your interview. So, these would be available, should be available online in some form for your trust. You should be able to find it if you dig about their internet. page. And so, you might— it might be in various levels of detail, but it's probably also worth trying to find out in the pre-interview visits as well, if you can't find them fully beforehand, because actually it is a really good way to see what's coming up for the team and what the issues are.

Yeah.

The trust will do an overall summary of it. I don't know how easy it would be to get your individual departments feedback without asking directly? Do you know?

Um, no, but I think you could probably ask the, the senior nursing team or the management for that, and they might be able to give it to you, or at least kind of talk you through it a little bit.

Because it's a cool thing to be able to reflect back and say, actually, I do know this. Um, I know that, you know, however many said They were happy and blah blah blah. That's actually quite a nice thing to be able to drop in.

Yeah, and the department might have done some stuff like, you know, you said we did, um, around, you know, either specific staff survey feedback or, or other feedback that they've had from the staff to show, you know, what they're developing. Um, you know, because, because actually, you know, stuff comes up. You know, you said that the staff room was completely uninviting and the fridge was Full of mould.

We put a poster up.

Yeah, exactly. You know, but just try and think about stuff that they've done recently, if you can. I mean, if you already work there, that's great, because you'll know what kind of things have changed recently.

Yep. That is a good— that's an underrated tip there. That's a good one. Okay, cool. I think we've come to the end of the episode. So, thank you. We will be back next week with more great interview prep tips, and I shall see you there.

I'll see you then.