September 3, 2025 • 33 mins
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Episode Summary:
Hiring in senior living is more than filling a position—it’s about protecting culture, improving retention, and attracting people who want to stay. In this episode, I sit down with Dana Weaver, CEO of Weaver Solutions, to unpack the CARE Framework—a practical, people-centered approach to interviewing that reduces turnover and raises the bar for leadership.
We explore why interviews are often overlooked, how your energy shapes the outcome, and the simple shifts leaders can make to walk into the interview room with confidence, clarity, and purpose.
If you’ve ever wondered how to attract A-players, how to ask better questions, or how to build a team that lasts, this episode is a must-listen.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why turnover starts (or stops) in the interview room
- The 4 steps of the CARE Framework: Clarity, Ask Better Questions, Reflect, Engage with Intention
- How your energy and story as a leader shape who you attract
- The cost of turnover—and why improving your interview skills could save thousands
- Practical tools to bring more confidence, alignment, and purpose into your next interview
Links & Resources:
- Learn more about Dana Weaver and the CARE Framework: weaversolutionsllc.com/care
- Register for Dana’s upcoming training webinar on September 10th
New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue
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Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin (00:00):
Today we are going to be talking about interviewing and a
lot of us take for granted thepower of an interview.
I have said several times topeople, what do you think about
when you're interviewingsomebody?
When you're going into aninterview?
What is it?
Are you motivated?
Are you demotivated?
Does it matter?
Do you feel like it doesn't evenmatter what you say or what you
(00:22):
do, but the problem is, is thatit does, and it won't change
until you change.
The retention rates that we'reseeing over 60% inside of our
frontline, and maybe even ashigh as a hundred percent in
turnover for our administrators,all boils down to the energy
(00:43):
that you're bringing into theinterview room.
'cause you attract becauseenergy that's inside of.
And if you go into an interviewand you feel like it's a waste
of your time, you're not goingto attract your a plus players.
And even more important is doyou know how to interview?
(01:03):
Is it overwhelming to you?
There are some key things thatmy guest today is gonna go over
and it's far more than you wouldever realize of how important
the interviewing process is.
Dana Weaver is our guest.
She's the founder and CEO ofWeaver Solutions, and she made a
post on LinkedIn that caught myeye.
(01:25):
And it is a simple frameworkthat's gonna teach us how to
master the interview processinside of our communities.
So Dana, welcome.
I'm so happy to have you here.
Dana (01:36):
Thank you.
I'm excited to be here and Iappreciate you having me on.
Erin (01:41):
Absolutely.
you know, I love frameworks.
To me, it's all about my, mysaying now is, there is freedom
and frameworks and God knows weneed freedom in this interview
process and hiring process.
So we don't feel so heavy, whenwe are, have to do so many of'em
So I'm excited to jump intothis.
(02:02):
Tell us a little bit about.
This webinar that you're gonnado, this topic and how you
support the industry, I wannadive into it.
So I'll let you take the lead.
Dana (02:13):
thank you.
interviewing is one of thosethings that we all do, when
we're looking, for people,especially in senior living.
the turnover is very high, andwe'll probably talk about that
in a little bit.
However, how many of you havebeen taught to interview.
You've maybe experienced aninterview, you've been in
interviews where people areinterviewing you and maybe
(02:36):
you've had interviews whereyou're interviewing other
people, but have you actuallyhad a course on how to interview
someone?
I don't, I never had a course onhow to interview someone, and
I've interviewed hundreds ofpeople over the years and.
I realized when I was asked todo a training that on
(02:56):
interviewing that there's not alot of training out there, and
if it is, it's not specific toaging.
It's definitely not specific toaging, so.
I created this framework andit's the care framework and
we'll go into it in a littlebit.
for a senior living community, Ihave a background.
(03:16):
I've worked in senior living forwell over 20 years.
My very first job was in anindependent living as a dietary
aide, and I have been a nursinghome administrator.
I have been an activitydirector, which instantly was my
favorite job.
And I've also, worked in anassociation where We were
advocating for senior livingcommunities and aging services
(03:39):
providers.
So I have this big, well-roundedknowledge.
And another thing that I did wasfocus on workforce issues
because turnover is so high, it,there's a lot of people out
there trying to figure out howdo we reduce turnover in nursing
homes?
And there's a lot of ways to dothat.
It's not one size fits all, butthis interviewing piece is a key
(04:02):
component to getting the rightperson in the room, to getting
the right person working foryour organization that might
wanna stay longer, that alignwith your values, and also maybe
has a heart for working inaging.
Erin (04:17):
Yeah, I, I do think it's very important the questions
that we ask, and.
I underestimated the power ofquestions until recently.
I understand the power ofquestions because when you're a
leader and you're askingquestions, people take ownership
of the answer.
And when you're a leader justtelling people what to do, you
(04:38):
own the responsibility.
Dana (04:39):
Absolutely.
Erin (04:40):
And so asking questions inside that interview process is
really how you.
Correct me if I'm wrong, own theroom, own the conversation, and,
and can control the narrative,the flow of the interview
because you understand whatyou're looking for and I think
not enough people know whatthey're looking for and they
(05:03):
walk into the room with Zerodirection.
Dana (05:07):
Absolutely.
or, and the, they may have beengiven a list of questions from
hr.
To ask.
'cause you have to, let's askeveryone the same question.
Well, not everyone is.
You can, you can't put everyonein a box.
We're all individuals.
We're all people.
So the question, a lot of thequestions that they have created
(05:30):
for you to ask during theinterview aren't designed to
help you really dig deeper intofinding out who that person is.
You can have a standard set ofquestions, but they need to be
designed right so that you canreally get to the crux of that
person, who they are, what theybring to the table, what are
their strengths, what are nottheir strengths, and so having
those questions createdbeforehand, doing that pre-work
(05:54):
is really important for when youactually sit in the interview.
Erin (05:59):
Yeah.
Absolutely know what you want.
I was actually talking orspeaking to a coaching client a
few weeks ago and we weretalking about their next hire.
And a manager, and it was, okay,what do you need?
What does your community need?
you hire, do you hire forleadership and you teach skill.
(06:20):
or do you hire for skill and youteach leadership?
Because I think that's twodifferent things.
And then depending on what yourcommunity needs, do you have a
lot of skill players but not anyleadership?
Or do you have a lot of peoplewho don't need the leadership,
but need that skill, that skilltype manager and that, and
that's really important to note.
Dana (06:40):
absolutely understanding who your players are on your
team.
So if you're an executivedirector and you're hiring for a
critical manager position onyour management team or
executive team, knowing thestrengths and the weaknesses of
all the people on that team, youcan hire, just like you said, to
fill the gap of the weakness andtheir strength may be.
(07:03):
Filling that gap that othersdon't have, and that makes a
really strong team, but we oftendon't think that far ahead.
Erin (07:10):
Yeah.
So true.
Okay, I'm ready to dive in.
Sure.
To this framework, because Ilove frameworks.
So tell us this, the careframework, where did it come
from and how.
Just tell us all the things.
Okay.
Tell us all the things aboutthis framework and hopefully the
listeners can take this withthem, to their next interview.
Dana (07:34):
Yes, I can guarantee you'll take at least one thing
with you to your next interviewthat will help you.
In the process.
So just to give you a little bitof background, when I created
this or who I created it for, Ihad the HR director tell me that
they were really frustrated withthe interview process because
(07:55):
they would bring people in to beinterviewed or people would
apply, you know, for theposition to be interviewed.
And some of their managersweren't even showing up.
They weren't showing up for theinterview because they thought
possibly that, the other personmight not show up or that even
if they did the interview, theyweren't going to, be a good
(08:16):
candidate.
Or maybe they'll ghost thembefore the first day because
that happens a lot in thisfield.
And so, that really shocked meas I was hearing that.
And also I was learning throughhaving conversations with them
that.
There were people on their teamwho didn't know anything about
interviewing, and they'd sitdown across from someone and the
(08:38):
interviewee would spill theirguts, their whole life story,
and he didn't know how to take.
Control of that situation sothat he could interview and
really get to know that personin the way that he needed to.
So that's kind of how the careframework was born.
And true confession, I put allof the pieces together for this
(09:02):
training and I thought, okay, Ineed to organize it in a way
that people will understand it.
Thus the framework, creating thefreedom.
I love how you say that.
And I threw it into chat, GPT.
And I'm like, can you help mecreate something?
And what it spit out was reallyinteresting.
It said,'cause I wanted amnemonic, I wanted something
(09:23):
that would rhyme or somethinglike that.
And it said.
Let's do the care frameworkbecause what are they doing?
They're caring for people insenior living.
It makes total sense and it'ssomething that you can remember.
So care stands for clarity, soyou wanna find clarity and know
exactly what you're hiring forbefore you have people in that
(09:47):
interview.
Program or the interviewprocess.
you wanna know what you'relooking for, what gaps or what,
what type of culture you have.
So who are you looking for tofit in that culture?
What is the need?
just know exactly what you'rehiring for.
And then the thing is, is if youdon't know what you're hiring
for or you're not clear aboutit, you're just gonna hire
(10:08):
confusion.
And then that's gonna lead tothe turnover that none of us
want.
So that's why that's one of thereasons that this is so
important.
The A is ask better questions.
And Erin alluded to it just amoment ago.
I really believe that askingquestions is a key component to
leadership, and I think it's thefoundational component to being
(10:30):
a good communicator.
And you have to be a goodcommunicator in order to be a
good leader.
And it all builds upon eachother.
So when you can master the artof asking really good questions
to understand people better,They're gonna feel seen and
heard, and you're gonna be ableto build credibility with them,
(10:50):
and they're gonna see you assomeone with credibility and a
leader and in charge of thesituation.
Whereas if you walk in notknowing what you're doing,
you're not gonna have that, thatlevel of, charge.
What I like to say with this inthe asking better question
questions is asking greatquestions opens the door to
(11:12):
alignment and alignment, andweak questions let misalignment
slip by unnoticed.
So if you're asking.
Weak questions.
Are you not even payingattention to the questions that
you're asking?
You're just going through themotions.
You're getting, you're lettingmisalignment sleep.
Slip in, and you might not behiring the right person for that
(11:34):
position, and they might notshow up because it's not
aligned.
They might only stay for, acertain amount of time.
We know that.
Retention is way bigger than theinterview process.
But if you don't get this partright, you're more likely to
have turnover than if you get tothe interview process.
Right?
The R is reflect and relate and.
(11:58):
You wanna be able to, after youask those really good questions,
reflect back to that person whatit is that they told you so they
know that you understood, andyou can be clear on what they
were trying to tell you, becauseif you get it wrong or you
assume that you understand whatthey're saying without asking.
(12:19):
Questions back or trying toreflect back to them what they
said, then you might have anexpectation for them when they
start work that they reallydidn't tell you or they weren't
trying to tell you, and there'sa mismatch and all of a sudden
you, you start off on the wrongfoot.
And then the e engage withintention.
you engage the conversation withintention, which means it goes
(12:42):
back up to the C in clarity too.
If you're gonna engage them withattention, you have to have.
Taking the time at the beginningof the interview before you even
meet with the person to reallyunderstand and get clear on what
you're looking for.
So then once you have thatclarity and you're going through
the conversation, you can goback and you can engage them in
(13:05):
additional questions.
The best candidates areevaluating you too.
So if you're coming in there andyou're not, if you're not
prepared or you show up late oryou look disheveled or whatever,
it's the same on both sides.
They're evaluating you and ifyou don't show up in a way that
represents the organizationwell, or even represents
(13:27):
yourself well, because let's behonest, we, we are our own
brands.
It is becoming a bigger andbigger deal.
So if you're not showing up,well that shows in the people
that you're trying to interviewand your team.
Yeah.
you wanna make sure that you'reshowing up well, they're
evaluating you and frankly,interviewing is the first step
(13:51):
to onboarding.
'cause that is one of the firsttouches they have with your
organization.
If that doesn't go well, whywould they wanna work with you?
Erin (14:01):
it's so true.
So maybe, okay.
C is for clarity.
Yes.
A is for alignment, R is forreflection, which is a word that
I love.
And e is for engage withintention.
Dana (14:12):
Let me, the A is actually ask better questions.
Erin (14:16):
Ask better questions.
Yep.
which can be alignment.
Yes, yes, but it's ask betterquestions.
Dana (14:22):
Yes.
Erin (14:22):
I should know that.
That's like my favorite.
Okay.
That is important because a lotof that is coming in there with
direction.
if you could put four letters tospell direction, it would be
this framework.
be intentional if you want morepeace, if you want more freedom,
(14:43):
if you want more, Alignment inyour community.
The only control that you haveover that to me is
communication.
The interview process and howyou protect and respect the
boundaries of policies andprocedures and, you know, staff
handbooks and, and all thosetypes of things.
And I think, you're right, wedon't pay enough attention to
(15:04):
the interview process.
Dana (15:07):
Mm-hmm.
At all.
We know what's happening asexecutive directors, we know
it's happening and we're hopingit's going right, but we don't
really put the thought into.
Have we prepared them to have agood interview?
Mm-hmm.
Erin (15:19):
Yeah.
It, to me, diving into this ideaof control and stewardship, and
it is, when you, when you talkabout the interview process this
way, you have to really look atit as a leader.
Stewardship is really the mostimportant thing you can come
into To the interview processwith, because stewardship is all
(15:43):
that you can control, which ishow you show up, how you
prepare.
The questions that you ask andcontrol is you think you're
gonna walk in there and they'relucky to be in this interview
with you.
Well, that's not the case.
You know the industry, anddepending on the small town that
you're in, they know what typeof community.
(16:05):
Potentially through word ofmouth.
This community is, and it's yourresponsibility to, like you
said, represent it as good as itis.
Change the narrative becauseyou're turning it around or to
reinforce the negative words orpositive words that they have
heard.
(16:25):
Yes, and that's reallyimportant.
Dana (16:27):
Yes, most definitely.
And that go, that goes back tothat engage with intention,
going back and asking clarifyingquestions, as people go deeper,
I think that helps to, it helpsyou to get, obviously more
information, but it also givesyou a bigger picture of what
this person is all about andwhat they can bring to the
(16:49):
table.
Erin (16:50):
can you create buy-in from them as as the interview?
especially if you're trying tobuild a culture that is based on
your strengths as a leader.
You wanna be able to identifywhat that looks like in, in
potential new hires and, and Ithink.
I, I say this often, but when weare a leader, whether we're
(17:14):
turning around a community or weare in a community that's doing
well, there's 80% of your comm,your team that's not performing
as well as the 20% of your team.
And so when you talk to the 20%,when you talk to the people who
are moving the needles, you aregoing to get more buy-in from
(17:34):
maybe another 20% of the 80% andmove them over.
When you go into the interview,I think it's important for you
to know what that 20% looks likein your community.
Dana (17:47):
Yeah.
Erin (17:48):
How do they work?
What are some commoncharacteristics?
what do they appreciate from youas a leader?
And then to bring that energyinto the interview process, into
this care framework.
Yeah.
Dana (18:05):
that's really important.
I haven't talked enough aboutthe energy piece because you
mentioned it at the top of thepodcast, and we've had the
conversation a little earlier.
This whole energy that you bringto an interview, if you come in
and you look a certain way,you're disheveled, you aren't
prepared, all the things, that'sa negative energy that you put
(18:26):
in there.
And then if you sit back.
And you're tell me about you,because it happens.
Sadly, this happens.
Tell me about you.
You're not gonna get very muchinformation and you're already
telling them that you're no funto work for.
you're not gonna be a greatplace to work.
I mean, you energy.
Is so important.
(18:46):
If you started off with highenergy and positive energy,
you're gonna get a positiveresult from that person.
And if you don't, you knowthat's the person that you don't
wanna hire for that position.
Yeah.
So preparing all of these thingsand bringing that great energy
shows you, it makes it a loteasier to say, yes, I think this
person is gonna fit here nicely,or No, I don't think this person
(19:09):
is gonna fit here nicely.
It gives you more clarity aroundthat and goes back to the c.
Erin (19:14):
Yeah, it's, yes.
I, I think it's important.
I say that word a lot important.
you as the leader need to knowyour story, your community
story, and communicate iteffectively.
And the leader, you can makethat story up, not and falsify
(19:36):
it, but it doesn't have to comefrom the corporate office.
It's your community.
What do your residents love themost about living here?
What do your residents reallycompliment the most?
What does your team say aboutworking here?
And then you create that storyfor you to take into every
(19:57):
interview.
Dana (19:58):
Absolutely.
And stories are so important.
I know that kind of gets offtopic, but if you can tell a
really good story about yourorganization or your company or
your lo individual location,that that is a bridge that
bridges the person beinginterviewed to you and your
organization and bridges arereally important for us to
(20:22):
build.
Erin (20:24):
I think the main thing to take away from this episode is
you are in more control of whoyou hire than you think.
You just have to value theinterview process more than you
are right now.
Dana (20:37):
even if you can put 20% more effort into the interview
process, you're gonna havebetter results.
Yeah, so doing that, I didpromise, I'm not sure when, if
we're about done or not, but Idid promise that everybody would
walk away with one thing thatthey could do differently in the
interview process if they don'ttake anything else away from
(20:58):
this conversation.
When you're interviewing someoneand you ask them a question, and
it could be the simple, tell mea little bit about you.
'cause everybody gets.
To that, and they only give youfive words as an answer.
'cause that's gonna happen.
If you're interviewing hands-oncaregivers.
if you're hiring for, dietary,different things like that.
If they're not used to talkingabout themselves, you're gonna
(21:20):
get that five word answer andyou wanna know a lot more about
them.
And the easiest thing that youcan do is say, that's great.
Tell me more about this.
And that takes'em to a differentLA layer.
They might be comfortuncomfortable at first, or they
might just sit there and look atyou, count to eight, or count to
(21:40):
12, either one, and just bequiet and be comfortable with
the silence.
And they will start talkingbecause they're gonna get
uncomfortable with the silencetoo.
And they will start telling youmore, and you can keep going as
many layers into that as youwant.
By just saying, wow, that'sinteresting.
Tell me more about that.
And that you can ask thatquestion after any question that
(22:04):
you ask in the interviewprocess, and you're going to get
a better answer than if you justsat there and listened to them
and said, thank you.
And then go onto the nextquestion.
So one of your goals should beto dig deeper into that
conversation or into the answerthat they give you.
Erin (22:19):
Yes, I, there's two questions that I always ask in
an interview.
one of them was, tell me, well,I guess it was three.
Tell me about the bestsupervisor that you ever had.
And I got to hear that story.
Tell me about the worstsupervisor you ever had, and I
got to hear that story.
And it, it's the worstsupervisor that you ever had
that really can give you somedetails about, Their
(22:43):
relationship with authority andhow they treat authority and the
way that they talk about otherpeople.
It, it can be a real eyeopener.
The other question that I used alot, was my community is the
Chick-fil-A of the senior livingindustry inside my area.
(23:03):
Okay.
So can you tell me what makesChick-fil-A different from Taco
Bell?
Dana (23:10):
Oh, did they ask you, did they ask you any clarifying
questions about that?
Erin (23:18):
Most of them did not.
And then I got responses likethat ranged from, well, taco
Bell sells Taco and Chick-fil-Asells chicken.
And I'm like, well, that's true.
that's true.
One time I got an answer,Chick-fil-A discriminates
against, homosexuals, and I wasjust like, well, that, that's.
That's not true, but, and that'snot where I was going with this,
(23:40):
it was more, obviously it'sservice, it, it's the service
and, and it was like, I want thecars to be wrapped around the
building where people wanna movein here because we provide such
excellent service.
So, can you smile?
Can you say, when somebody saysthank you, that it's my
pleasure.
(24:00):
like, can you, do you have thatability to, to say that?
I mean, that wasn't arequirement.
We didn't necessarily make that,but it was just, can you live up
to that standard?
but it was always so much fun tohear people's responses.
I.
Yeah,
Dana (24:16):
it's a great critical thinking question because they
can an, they're probably notthinking about what's behind the
question, but if they can reallythink about to that level of
service or they can, ask youadditional questions to really
understand what you're trying toget at, that shows that they're
a critical thinker and they'regoing to.
(24:37):
Do everything they can foreither the older person that
lives in the community orwhatever their job is to go
above and beyond because theyknow to get deeper and ask those
questions, and then ultimatelywhat delight their customer.
Erin (24:51):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So true.
Okay, so you have somethingreally exciting coming up that
everybody who's listening tothis episode can sign up for
because we believe and are verypassionate about the
interviewing process.
the interviewing process is justas important as the discovery
and the sales process.
The only difference is the salesdiscovery process is a revenue
(25:15):
generating.
activity for your community, butwith as high as retention rates
are in the industry right now,interviewing could almost rival
and save you as much money asgetting a new resident into the
community.
I mean, let's face it, seniorliving is a 91 over$91 billion
(25:36):
industry.
And we are talking aboutretention rates that are higher
than almost any other industry,and it is wreaking havoc on, the
finances and the stabilityinside of our communities.
So paying attention to theinterview process is a huge
responsibility that companiesshould want to invest inside
(25:58):
their leaders and leaders.
If you're listening, you'regoing to want to invest in
yourself.
So, Dana, tell us all about youropportunity.
Dana (26:09):
Sure.
Can I, I wanna add on what youjust said.
Just go ahead a little bit.
Go ahead and, because what I,I've done a little bit of
research recently to find outwhat is the actual cost of
turnover, because when I used totalk about it a lot, it was
between two and$3,000, maybe upto$5,000, depending on.
(26:29):
The part of the country thatyou're in, but now it's anywhere
from$2,000 to eight to$10,000for turnover.
Per person.
That just blows my mind.
And so if you are having such ahigh percentage of turnover,
let's even say you have 50%turnover, think of how much
money that is going out thedoor.
That you could be putting backinto your team to train them to
(26:52):
do better, to help them learnwhat you need them to do better.
You know, all the things.
And then some of that money canalso go back to the residents
and help them.
Have better experiences and abetter life.
So, the exciting thing is, isyou can reduce that with this.
And I have created a webinarthat I'm super excited about
(27:14):
that dives really deep into thiscare process.
It's gonna be September 10th at10:00 AM on, central Time.
I'm in central Time, and thewebsite to go to is.
and she'll probably put it inthe show notes, but
www.weaversolutionsllc.com/careand the webinar is$47 for an
(27:41):
hour and a half, so it's reallygood money for learning a lot of
really important things thatpotentially could save you
hundreds of thousands ofdollars.
And whoever you bring to thiswebinar, you will be able to, or
they will be able to walk awaywith the confidence that they
need to sit in front of theperson that they're interviewing
(28:03):
and guide the process.
So the story I told about, Idon't remember if I said it
before or after, but there is astory that, there was a
gentleman that came into mytraining and said.
I don't feel confident inleading the conversation and,
And, I don't feel comfortable inleading the conversation and.
(28:27):
The other person just completelytakes over the, the whole
interview and tells me theirlife story, and I don't get
enough information.
I don't feel confident.
And so after this training hetold me, he came up to me
actually and said, I feel like Ican lead this conversation now.
And he did lead the nextconversation he had, and he was
able to make a hire that he wasproud of.
(28:49):
And when your team can be proudand confident, they're gonna
keep doing things to make themfeel proud and confident in our
field.
Such a negative Nelly, for lackof a better word.
I mean, it's just, it can beDebbie Downer all the time.
And when you can put thatconfidence into your team, that
(29:12):
is invaluable for you because itsaves you time and angst and
also for your team and for yourresidents.
And it just, it really is thefirst step in building
retention.
Yeah,
Erin (29:29):
it's certainly a step you wanna be prepared for and to
truly understand you attract whoyou are.
Yes.
join this webinar.
I think it's really important,the care framework is.
To me, again, there is freedomin this framework.
Being able to be clear andintentional and asking the
(29:52):
appropriate questions and beingreflective, which I'm just going
to say because I was anon-reflective person, in a lot
of different ways.
Reflecting is a very powerfultool.
It really is the power of thepause.
The ability to reflect.
(30:13):
Even now I'm guilty of shinyobject, the shiny objects I
wanna chase after this.
I like this idea, but it istruly can you perfect one skill
at a time and it is worth thepause to do that.
So if you have time, registerfor this webinar and make
(30:34):
interviewing a skill that youwant to improve.
Very, very important.
Thank you, Dana, for being here,being a guest and bringing this
important topic to ourattention.
Dana (30:45):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me.
I always like to talk about thisstuff.
Erin (30:49):
Yes, Me too.
Alright.
for my listeners, aspire formore for you so you can own your
story, create your future,knowing that enough is your
foundation.
Have a great day.
Today we are going to be talking about interviewing and a
lot of us take for granted thepower of an interview.
I have said several times topeople, what do you think about
when you're interviewingsomebody?
When you're going into aninterview?
What is it?
Are you motivated?
Are you demotivated?
Does it matter?
Do you feel like it doesn't evenmatter what you say or what you
(00:22):
do, but the problem is, is thatit does, and it won't change
until you change.
The retention rates that we'reseeing over 60% inside of our
frontline, and maybe even ashigh as a hundred percent in
turnover for our administrators,all boils down to the energy
(00:43):
that you're bringing into theinterview room.
'cause you attract becauseenergy that's inside of.
And if you go into an interviewand you feel like it's a waste
of your time, you're not goingto attract your a plus players.
And even more important is doyou know how to interview?
(01:03):
Is it overwhelming to you?
There are some key things thatmy guest today is gonna go over
and it's far more than you wouldever realize of how important
the interviewing process is.
Dana Weaver is our guest.
She's the founder and CEO ofWeaver Solutions, and she made a
post on LinkedIn that caught myeye.
(01:25):
And it is a simple frameworkthat's gonna teach us how to
master the interview processinside of our communities.
So Dana, welcome.
I'm so happy to have you here.
Dana (01:36):
Thank you.
I'm excited to be here and Iappreciate you having me on.
Erin (01:41):
Absolutely.
you know, I love frameworks.
To me, it's all about my, mysaying now is, there is freedom
and frameworks and God knows weneed freedom in this interview
process and hiring process.
So we don't feel so heavy, whenwe are, have to do so many of'em
So I'm excited to jump intothis.
(02:02):
Tell us a little bit about.
This webinar that you're gonnado, this topic and how you
support the industry, I wannadive into it.
So I'll let you take the lead.
Dana (02:13):
thank you.
interviewing is one of thosethings that we all do, when
we're looking, for people,especially in senior living.
the turnover is very high, andwe'll probably talk about that
in a little bit.
However, how many of you havebeen taught to interview.
You've maybe experienced aninterview, you've been in
interviews where people areinterviewing you and maybe
(02:36):
you've had interviews whereyou're interviewing other
people, but have you actuallyhad a course on how to interview
someone?
I don't, I never had a course onhow to interview someone, and
I've interviewed hundreds ofpeople over the years and.
I realized when I was asked todo a training that on
(02:56):
interviewing that there's not alot of training out there, and
if it is, it's not specific toaging.
It's definitely not specific toaging, so.
I created this framework andit's the care framework and
we'll go into it in a littlebit.
for a senior living community, Ihave a background.
(03:16):
I've worked in senior living forwell over 20 years.
My very first job was in anindependent living as a dietary
aide, and I have been a nursinghome administrator.
I have been an activitydirector, which instantly was my
favorite job.
And I've also, worked in anassociation where We were
advocating for senior livingcommunities and aging services
(03:39):
providers.
So I have this big, well-roundedknowledge.
And another thing that I did wasfocus on workforce issues
because turnover is so high, it,there's a lot of people out
there trying to figure out howdo we reduce turnover in nursing
homes?
And there's a lot of ways to dothat.
It's not one size fits all, butthis interviewing piece is a key
(04:02):
component to getting the rightperson in the room, to getting
the right person working foryour organization that might
wanna stay longer, that alignwith your values, and also maybe
has a heart for working inaging.
Erin (04:17):
Yeah, I, I do think it's very important the questions
that we ask, and.
I underestimated the power ofquestions until recently.
I understand the power ofquestions because when you're a
leader and you're askingquestions, people take ownership
of the answer.
And when you're a leader justtelling people what to do, you
(04:38):
own the responsibility.
Dana (04:39):
Absolutely.
Erin (04:40):
And so asking questions inside that interview process is
really how you.
Correct me if I'm wrong, own theroom, own the conversation, and,
and can control the narrative,the flow of the interview
because you understand whatyou're looking for and I think
not enough people know whatthey're looking for and they
(05:03):
walk into the room with Zerodirection.
Dana (05:07):
Absolutely.
or, and the, they may have beengiven a list of questions from
hr.
To ask.
'cause you have to, let's askeveryone the same question.
Well, not everyone is.
You can, you can't put everyonein a box.
We're all individuals.
We're all people.
So the question, a lot of thequestions that they have created
(05:30):
for you to ask during theinterview aren't designed to
help you really dig deeper intofinding out who that person is.
You can have a standard set ofquestions, but they need to be
designed right so that you canreally get to the crux of that
person, who they are, what theybring to the table, what are
their strengths, what are nottheir strengths, and so having
those questions createdbeforehand, doing that pre-work
(05:54):
is really important for when youactually sit in the interview.
Erin (05:59):
Yeah.
Absolutely know what you want.
I was actually talking orspeaking to a coaching client a
few weeks ago and we weretalking about their next hire.
And a manager, and it was, okay,what do you need?
What does your community need?
you hire, do you hire forleadership and you teach skill.
(06:20):
or do you hire for skill and youteach leadership?
Because I think that's twodifferent things.
And then depending on what yourcommunity needs, do you have a
lot of skill players but not anyleadership?
Or do you have a lot of peoplewho don't need the leadership,
but need that skill, that skilltype manager and that, and
that's really important to note.
Dana (06:40):
absolutely understanding who your players are on your
team.
So if you're an executivedirector and you're hiring for a
critical manager position onyour management team or
executive team, knowing thestrengths and the weaknesses of
all the people on that team, youcan hire, just like you said, to
fill the gap of the weakness andtheir strength may be.
(07:03):
Filling that gap that othersdon't have, and that makes a
really strong team, but we oftendon't think that far ahead.
Erin (07:10):
Yeah.
So true.
Okay, I'm ready to dive in.
Sure.
To this framework, because Ilove frameworks.
So tell us this, the careframework, where did it come
from and how.
Just tell us all the things.
Okay.
Tell us all the things aboutthis framework and hopefully the
listeners can take this withthem, to their next interview.
Dana (07:34):
Yes, I can guarantee you'll take at least one thing
with you to your next interviewthat will help you.
In the process.
So just to give you a little bitof background, when I created
this or who I created it for, Ihad the HR director tell me that
they were really frustrated withthe interview process because
(07:55):
they would bring people in to beinterviewed or people would
apply, you know, for theposition to be interviewed.
And some of their managersweren't even showing up.
They weren't showing up for theinterview because they thought
possibly that, the other personmight not show up or that even
if they did the interview, theyweren't going to, be a good
(08:16):
candidate.
Or maybe they'll ghost thembefore the first day because
that happens a lot in thisfield.
And so, that really shocked meas I was hearing that.
And also I was learning throughhaving conversations with them
that.
There were people on their teamwho didn't know anything about
interviewing, and they'd sitdown across from someone and the
(08:38):
interviewee would spill theirguts, their whole life story,
and he didn't know how to take.
Control of that situation sothat he could interview and
really get to know that personin the way that he needed to.
So that's kind of how the careframework was born.
And true confession, I put allof the pieces together for this
(09:02):
training and I thought, okay, Ineed to organize it in a way
that people will understand it.
Thus the framework, creating thefreedom.
I love how you say that.
And I threw it into chat, GPT.
And I'm like, can you help mecreate something?
And what it spit out was reallyinteresting.
It said,'cause I wanted amnemonic, I wanted something
(09:23):
that would rhyme or somethinglike that.
And it said.
Let's do the care frameworkbecause what are they doing?
They're caring for people insenior living.
It makes total sense and it'ssomething that you can remember.
So care stands for clarity, soyou wanna find clarity and know
exactly what you're hiring forbefore you have people in that
(09:47):
interview.
Program or the interviewprocess.
you wanna know what you'relooking for, what gaps or what,
what type of culture you have.
So who are you looking for tofit in that culture?
What is the need?
just know exactly what you'rehiring for.
And then the thing is, is if youdon't know what you're hiring
for or you're not clear aboutit, you're just gonna hire
(10:08):
confusion.
And then that's gonna lead tothe turnover that none of us
want.
So that's why that's one of thereasons that this is so
important.
The A is ask better questions.
And Erin alluded to it just amoment ago.
I really believe that askingquestions is a key component to
leadership, and I think it's thefoundational component to being
(10:30):
a good communicator.
And you have to be a goodcommunicator in order to be a
good leader.
And it all builds upon eachother.
So when you can master the artof asking really good questions
to understand people better,They're gonna feel seen and
heard, and you're gonna be ableto build credibility with them,
(10:50):
and they're gonna see you assomeone with credibility and a
leader and in charge of thesituation.
Whereas if you walk in notknowing what you're doing,
you're not gonna have that, thatlevel of, charge.
What I like to say with this inthe asking better question
questions is asking greatquestions opens the door to
(11:12):
alignment and alignment, andweak questions let misalignment
slip by unnoticed.
So if you're asking.
Weak questions.
Are you not even payingattention to the questions that
you're asking?
You're just going through themotions.
You're getting, you're lettingmisalignment sleep.
Slip in, and you might not behiring the right person for that
(11:34):
position, and they might notshow up because it's not
aligned.
They might only stay for, acertain amount of time.
We know that.
Retention is way bigger than theinterview process.
But if you don't get this partright, you're more likely to
have turnover than if you get tothe interview process.
Right?
The R is reflect and relate and.
(11:58):
You wanna be able to, after youask those really good questions,
reflect back to that person whatit is that they told you so they
know that you understood, andyou can be clear on what they
were trying to tell you, becauseif you get it wrong or you
assume that you understand whatthey're saying without asking.
(12:19):
Questions back or trying toreflect back to them what they
said, then you might have anexpectation for them when they
start work that they reallydidn't tell you or they weren't
trying to tell you, and there'sa mismatch and all of a sudden
you, you start off on the wrongfoot.
And then the e engage withintention.
you engage the conversation withintention, which means it goes
(12:42):
back up to the C in clarity too.
If you're gonna engage them withattention, you have to have.
Taking the time at the beginningof the interview before you even
meet with the person to reallyunderstand and get clear on what
you're looking for.
So then once you have thatclarity and you're going through
the conversation, you can goback and you can engage them in
(13:05):
additional questions.
The best candidates areevaluating you too.
So if you're coming in there andyou're not, if you're not
prepared or you show up late oryou look disheveled or whatever,
it's the same on both sides.
They're evaluating you and ifyou don't show up in a way that
represents the organizationwell, or even represents
(13:27):
yourself well, because let's behonest, we, we are our own
brands.
It is becoming a bigger andbigger deal.
So if you're not showing up,well that shows in the people
that you're trying to interviewand your team.
Yeah.
you wanna make sure that you'reshowing up well, they're
evaluating you and frankly,interviewing is the first step
(13:51):
to onboarding.
'cause that is one of the firsttouches they have with your
organization.
If that doesn't go well, whywould they wanna work with you?
Erin (14:01):
it's so true.
So maybe, okay.
C is for clarity.
Yes.
A is for alignment, R is forreflection, which is a word that
I love.
And e is for engage withintention.
Dana (14:12):
Let me, the A is actually ask better questions.
Erin (14:16):
Ask better questions.
Yep.
which can be alignment.
Yes, yes, but it's ask betterquestions.
Dana (14:22):
Yes.
Erin (14:22):
I should know that.
That's like my favorite.
Okay.
That is important because a lotof that is coming in there with
direction.
if you could put four letters tospell direction, it would be
this framework.
be intentional if you want morepeace, if you want more freedom,
(14:43):
if you want more, Alignment inyour community.
The only control that you haveover that to me is
communication.
The interview process and howyou protect and respect the
boundaries of policies andprocedures and, you know, staff
handbooks and, and all thosetypes of things.
And I think, you're right, wedon't pay enough attention to
(15:04):
the interview process.
Dana (15:07):
Mm-hmm.
At all.
We know what's happening asexecutive directors, we know
it's happening and we're hopingit's going right, but we don't
really put the thought into.
Have we prepared them to have agood interview?
Mm-hmm.
Erin (15:19):
Yeah.
It, to me, diving into this ideaof control and stewardship, and
it is, when you, when you talkabout the interview process this
way, you have to really look atit as a leader.
Stewardship is really the mostimportant thing you can come
into To the interview processwith, because stewardship is all
(15:43):
that you can control, which ishow you show up, how you
prepare.
The questions that you ask andcontrol is you think you're
gonna walk in there and they'relucky to be in this interview
with you.
Well, that's not the case.
You know the industry, anddepending on the small town that
you're in, they know what typeof community.
(16:05):
Potentially through word ofmouth.
This community is, and it's yourresponsibility to, like you
said, represent it as good as itis.
Change the narrative becauseyou're turning it around or to
reinforce the negative words orpositive words that they have
heard.
(16:25):
Yes, and that's reallyimportant.
Dana (16:27):
Yes, most definitely.
And that go, that goes back tothat engage with intention,
going back and asking clarifyingquestions, as people go deeper,
I think that helps to, it helpsyou to get, obviously more
information, but it also givesyou a bigger picture of what
this person is all about andwhat they can bring to the
(16:49):
table.
Erin (16:50):
can you create buy-in from them as as the interview?
especially if you're trying tobuild a culture that is based on
your strengths as a leader.
You wanna be able to identifywhat that looks like in, in
potential new hires and, and Ithink.
I, I say this often, but when weare a leader, whether we're
(17:14):
turning around a community or weare in a community that's doing
well, there's 80% of your comm,your team that's not performing
as well as the 20% of your team.
And so when you talk to the 20%,when you talk to the people who
are moving the needles, you aregoing to get more buy-in from
(17:34):
maybe another 20% of the 80% andmove them over.
When you go into the interview,I think it's important for you
to know what that 20% looks likein your community.
Dana (17:47):
Yeah.
Erin (17:48):
How do they work?
What are some commoncharacteristics?
what do they appreciate from youas a leader?
And then to bring that energyinto the interview process, into
this care framework.
Yeah.
Dana (18:05):
that's really important.
I haven't talked enough aboutthe energy piece because you
mentioned it at the top of thepodcast, and we've had the
conversation a little earlier.
This whole energy that you bringto an interview, if you come in
and you look a certain way,you're disheveled, you aren't
prepared, all the things, that'sa negative energy that you put
(18:26):
in there.
And then if you sit back.
And you're tell me about you,because it happens.
Sadly, this happens.
Tell me about you.
You're not gonna get very muchinformation and you're already
telling them that you're no funto work for.
you're not gonna be a greatplace to work.
I mean, you energy.
Is so important.
(18:46):
If you started off with highenergy and positive energy,
you're gonna get a positiveresult from that person.
And if you don't, you knowthat's the person that you don't
wanna hire for that position.
Yeah.
So preparing all of these thingsand bringing that great energy
shows you, it makes it a loteasier to say, yes, I think this
person is gonna fit here nicely,or No, I don't think this person
(19:09):
is gonna fit here nicely.
It gives you more clarity aroundthat and goes back to the c.
Erin (19:14):
Yeah, it's, yes.
I, I think it's important.
I say that word a lot important.
you as the leader need to knowyour story, your community
story, and communicate iteffectively.
And the leader, you can makethat story up, not and falsify
(19:36):
it, but it doesn't have to comefrom the corporate office.
It's your community.
What do your residents love themost about living here?
What do your residents reallycompliment the most?
What does your team say aboutworking here?
And then you create that storyfor you to take into every
(19:57):
interview.
Dana (19:58):
Absolutely.
And stories are so important.
I know that kind of gets offtopic, but if you can tell a
really good story about yourorganization or your company or
your lo individual location,that that is a bridge that
bridges the person beinginterviewed to you and your
organization and bridges arereally important for us to
(20:22):
build.
Erin (20:24):
I think the main thing to take away from this episode is
you are in more control of whoyou hire than you think.
You just have to value theinterview process more than you
are right now.
Dana (20:37):
even if you can put 20% more effort into the interview
process, you're gonna havebetter results.
Yeah, so doing that, I didpromise, I'm not sure when, if
we're about done or not, but Idid promise that everybody would
walk away with one thing thatthey could do differently in the
interview process if they don'ttake anything else away from
(20:58):
this conversation.
When you're interviewing someoneand you ask them a question, and
it could be the simple, tell mea little bit about you.
'cause everybody gets.
To that, and they only give youfive words as an answer.
'cause that's gonna happen.
If you're interviewing hands-oncaregivers.
if you're hiring for, dietary,different things like that.
If they're not used to talkingabout themselves, you're gonna
(21:20):
get that five word answer andyou wanna know a lot more about
them.
And the easiest thing that youcan do is say, that's great.
Tell me more about this.
And that takes'em to a differentLA layer.
They might be comfortuncomfortable at first, or they
might just sit there and look atyou, count to eight, or count to
(21:40):
12, either one, and just bequiet and be comfortable with
the silence.
And they will start talkingbecause they're gonna get
uncomfortable with the silencetoo.
And they will start telling youmore, and you can keep going as
many layers into that as youwant.
By just saying, wow, that'sinteresting.
Tell me more about that.
And that you can ask thatquestion after any question that
(22:04):
you ask in the interviewprocess, and you're going to get
a better answer than if you justsat there and listened to them
and said, thank you.
And then go onto the nextquestion.
So one of your goals should beto dig deeper into that
conversation or into the answerthat they give you.
Erin (22:19):
Yes, I, there's two questions that I always ask in
an interview.
one of them was, tell me, well,I guess it was three.
Tell me about the bestsupervisor that you ever had.
And I got to hear that story.
Tell me about the worstsupervisor you ever had, and I
got to hear that story.
And it, it's the worstsupervisor that you ever had
that really can give you somedetails about, Their
(22:43):
relationship with authority andhow they treat authority and the
way that they talk about otherpeople.
It, it can be a real eyeopener.
The other question that I used alot, was my community is the
Chick-fil-A of the senior livingindustry inside my area.
(23:03):
Okay.
So can you tell me what makesChick-fil-A different from Taco
Bell?
Dana (23:10):
Oh, did they ask you, did they ask you any clarifying
questions about that?
Erin (23:18):
Most of them did not.
And then I got responses likethat ranged from, well, taco
Bell sells Taco and Chick-fil-Asells chicken.
And I'm like, well, that's true.
that's true.
One time I got an answer,Chick-fil-A discriminates
against, homosexuals, and I wasjust like, well, that, that's.
That's not true, but, and that'snot where I was going with this,
(23:40):
it was more, obviously it'sservice, it, it's the service
and, and it was like, I want thecars to be wrapped around the
building where people wanna movein here because we provide such
excellent service.
So, can you smile?
Can you say, when somebody saysthank you, that it's my
pleasure.
(24:00):
like, can you, do you have thatability to, to say that?
I mean, that wasn't arequirement.
We didn't necessarily make that,but it was just, can you live up
to that standard?
but it was always so much fun tohear people's responses.
I.
Yeah,
Dana (24:16):
it's a great critical thinking question because they
can an, they're probably notthinking about what's behind the
question, but if they can reallythink about to that level of
service or they can, ask youadditional questions to really
understand what you're trying toget at, that shows that they're
a critical thinker and they'regoing to.
(24:37):
Do everything they can foreither the older person that
lives in the community orwhatever their job is to go
above and beyond because theyknow to get deeper and ask those
questions, and then ultimatelywhat delight their customer.
Erin (24:51):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So true.
Okay, so you have somethingreally exciting coming up that
everybody who's listening tothis episode can sign up for
because we believe and are verypassionate about the
interviewing process.
the interviewing process is justas important as the discovery
and the sales process.
The only difference is the salesdiscovery process is a revenue
(25:15):
generating.
activity for your community, butwith as high as retention rates
are in the industry right now,interviewing could almost rival
and save you as much money asgetting a new resident into the
community.
I mean, let's face it, seniorliving is a 91 over$91 billion
(25:36):
industry.
And we are talking aboutretention rates that are higher
than almost any other industry,and it is wreaking havoc on, the
finances and the stabilityinside of our communities.
So paying attention to theinterview process is a huge
responsibility that companiesshould want to invest inside
(25:58):
their leaders and leaders.
If you're listening, you'regoing to want to invest in
yourself.
So, Dana, tell us all about youropportunity.
Dana (26:09):
Sure.
Can I, I wanna add on what youjust said.
Just go ahead a little bit.
Go ahead and, because what I,I've done a little bit of
research recently to find outwhat is the actual cost of
turnover, because when I used totalk about it a lot, it was
between two and$3,000, maybe upto$5,000, depending on.
(26:29):
The part of the country thatyou're in, but now it's anywhere
from$2,000 to eight to$10,000for turnover.
Per person.
That just blows my mind.
And so if you are having such ahigh percentage of turnover,
let's even say you have 50%turnover, think of how much
money that is going out thedoor.
That you could be putting backinto your team to train them to
(26:52):
do better, to help them learnwhat you need them to do better.
You know, all the things.
And then some of that money canalso go back to the residents
and help them.
Have better experiences and abetter life.
So, the exciting thing is, isyou can reduce that with this.
And I have created a webinarthat I'm super excited about
(27:14):
that dives really deep into thiscare process.
It's gonna be September 10th at10:00 AM on, central Time.
I'm in central Time, and thewebsite to go to is.
and she'll probably put it inthe show notes, but
www.weaversolutionsllc.com/careand the webinar is$47 for an
(27:41):
hour and a half, so it's reallygood money for learning a lot of
really important things thatpotentially could save you
hundreds of thousands ofdollars.
And whoever you bring to thiswebinar, you will be able to, or
they will be able to walk awaywith the confidence that they
need to sit in front of theperson that they're interviewing
(28:03):
and guide the process.
So the story I told about, Idon't remember if I said it
before or after, but there is astory that, there was a
gentleman that came into mytraining and said.
I don't feel confident inleading the conversation and,
And, I don't feel comfortable inleading the conversation and.
(28:27):
The other person just completelytakes over the, the whole
interview and tells me theirlife story, and I don't get
enough information.
I don't feel confident.
And so after this training hetold me, he came up to me
actually and said, I feel like Ican lead this conversation now.
And he did lead the nextconversation he had, and he was
able to make a hire that he wasproud of.
(28:49):
And when your team can be proudand confident, they're gonna
keep doing things to make themfeel proud and confident in our
field.
Such a negative Nelly, for lackof a better word.
I mean, it's just, it can beDebbie Downer all the time.
And when you can put thatconfidence into your team, that
(29:12):
is invaluable for you because itsaves you time and angst and
also for your team and for yourresidents.
And it just, it really is thefirst step in building
retention.
Yeah,
Erin (29:29):
it's certainly a step you wanna be prepared for and to
truly understand you attract whoyou are.
Yes.
join this webinar.
I think it's really important,the care framework is.
To me, again, there is freedomin this framework.
Being able to be clear andintentional and asking the
(29:52):
appropriate questions and beingreflective, which I'm just going
to say because I was anon-reflective person, in a lot
of different ways.
Reflecting is a very powerfultool.
It really is the power of thepause.
The ability to reflect.
(30:13):
Even now I'm guilty of shinyobject, the shiny objects I
wanna chase after this.
I like this idea, but it istruly can you perfect one skill
at a time and it is worth thepause to do that.
So if you have time, registerfor this webinar and make
(30:34):
interviewing a skill that youwant to improve.
Very, very important.
Thank you, Dana, for being here,being a guest and bringing this
important topic to ourattention.
Dana (30:45):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me.
I always like to talk about thisstuff.
Erin (30:49):
Yes, Me too.
Alright.
for my listeners, aspire formore for you so you can own your
story, create your future,knowing that enough is your
foundation.
Have a great day.
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