When hiring for your new teen program, there are some important things to keep in mind. The interview, testing of various skills, and seeing how the new employee does during their first quarter are all very important things to remember when taking on a new employee. Finally, as a manager, you are ultimately accountable for what happens to these employees, and more importantly the kids themselves after you do that first quarter evaluation.
When going through the hiring process for an organization that specializes in youth services, it is very important to keep in mind that you want people who are very well rounded. They can spend a couple hours in the office before the teens arrive, so that they can fill out behavior reports, and get adequately set up for the day. According to Education Nebraska, based in both Lincoln and Omaha, the most important questions to ask are those that will help the supervisor determine if the person has enough general experience working with teens to meet your needs, and if they are able to create their own original classes to keep things interesting for the kids. It is also important to know why the person is interested in this career. For example, is this a stepping stone till they reach a higher level in their career (which meas they have drive), or are they satisfied with making this their full time career (more likely to be the case with a slightly older lady or gentleman).
It’s important to know how a new employee would act around a kid who constantly misbehaves or does not follow directions. Some of these kids don’t come from homes where discipline is stressed. Similarly, that family might get mad if we cross their line in what is acceptable discipline. The Boys and Girls Clubs of America also expresses the importance of making sure that teachers either have a lot of hands on experience in a multicultural setting, or that the teachers hired will be provided with extensive classes on commonly encountered cultures in the area. This is important because something that normally wouldn’t make a difference if it was said between a white teen and an African American may be be extremely offensive to a Cuban.
Today, there is no way around it. We live in a world that is hi tech. Although it is not the most important thing to look for in a brand new employee, a supervisor is eventually going to want a a group of employees that are fluent with the program that he or she uses to keep track of events during the day. The New South Wales Government has a wonderful way for people who are not great with computers to develop their own programs. From this program, the supervisor can keep track of everybody’s hours, attendance of both the site students and the staff, and we can also keep permanent notes as well. If 2 kids are sick on day one, and 5 kids are sick on day 2, we know that something is going around,and we are likely a point-source for the illness.
Background checks are vital with this industry (Office of Human Resources,2013). It always has been, but now, in this day and age, there are pedophiles and sex offenders, along with those who have not yet been caught, who would just love to work in a place like a teenage after school program. I would have a zero-tolerance policy for people who had anything even close to that nature show up on their background check. We hear it on the news everyday: “oh, but he was a good guy, trying to change for the better.” Obviously, they were not trying to make their lives better, and did not succeed in doing so if that was their plan.
Finally, Erika Anderson of Forbes laid out some important things to remember when giving an employee bad news (2013). First is that you are only trying to be helpful to yourself the company and the person you are talking to. It does not mean you are firing the person, so it should not be presented that way, unless that is, in fact, the case. Start by asking the employee about how they feel about their performance, what they could probably change. If they ‘get it’, then just reiterate it. If they are completely clueless, let them in on the secret.
References:
Anderson, E.(2013) How Great Leaders Deliver Bad News. Forbes.com. Retrieved From
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/03/06/how-great-leaders-deliver-bad-
news/#3416ede2b472
Boys And Girls Club Of America. (2016). Diversity and the BGCA. BGCA.
retrieved from http://www.bgca.org/Careers/Pages/Diversity.aspx
EducationNebraska.(2013). Program Staff Interview Questions - After - school program staff.
nebraska.edu. http://www.education.ne.gov/afterschool/Staffing/Prog_Staff_
Interview_Questions.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwiJ39ikzabLAhWrloMKHS0kDh8Q
FggfMAE&usg=AFQjCNH9wnFBWOWW793r6dcAONGojSbryQ&sig2=vrdj-
CwNdhF6ejaiUXaV6A
New South Wales. (n.d.) Create Test: Computing Skills. Retrieved From
http://mcq.bostes.nsw.edu.au/course/school-certificate/cst/
Office Of Human Resources. (2015). Conducting Effective Interviews and Reference Checks.
NIH. Retrieved From https://hr.od.nih.gov/hrguidance/employment/interview/.
