Phone Screen Interviews: The Essential Step in Your Recruitment Process

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<h2>Key Takeaways</h2>
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<li>Telephone Interviews help you avoid wasting time doing interviews with unsuitable or uncommitted applicants.</li>
<li>To arrange Telephone Interviews, warm up applicants with a text message before phoning them.</li>
<li>Throughout the recruitment process remind candidates of the Promise of a Reference Call.</li>
<li>Use set questions for the Telephone Interview to help you compare candidates with your Great Performance Profile.</li>
<li>Make a decision and promptly set up interviews with the successful candidates; immediately tell unsuitable applicants that they’ve been unsuccessful.</li>
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Speak With Shortlisted Applicants Immediately

As soon as you shortlist a job applicant, you should do a Telephone Interview with them. Telephone Interviews are a quick and easy way of screening applicants and help you to:

• Avoid unnecessary interviews, because by having a professional conversation with the applicant early on you can quickly see if they’re likely to be a good fit.
• See if the applicant is serious about your job, or just applying to anything.
• Avoid chasing after “ghosts” (applicants you’re chasing for an interview but who don’t reply to you).
• Judge if your Great Performance Profile is realistic.
• Save money. Holding a face-to-face interview costs a minimum of £50. In comparison, a Telephone Interview costs about £10 and takes far less time to complete.

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How to Arrange a Telephone Interview

There’s little point in trying to arrange a time to call as this often turns into a long-winded process. Instead try the following

First, send the applicant a text message. This will help them get familiar with who you are and why you’re contacting them

Next, phone the applicant. Ask them if they’re free to talk. If you can’t get through, leave a voicemail.

Send an email. If you can’t talk to the candidate, send an email.

Follow up a few days later. Contact them one final time by text, calling and email, but if you can’t reach them after a few attempts it may be time to cross them off your shortlist.

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How to Perform a Telephone Interview

• It’s a good idea to ask a fixed set of questions to each candidate. This allows you to compare candidates with the Key Competencies defined in the Great Performance Profile.
• Organise a quiet location for the call. 
• Have the candidate’s CV to hand.
• They should be carried out by someone who’ll also be involved in the later Structured Interviews because they’ll be able to spot any inconsistencies in candidates’ answers. 
• This is a screening stage, so keep calls brief; between 5 and 15 minutes. 
• Don’t ask all the questions if the candidate is irrelevant. Just skip to the end, where you decline them.

Here is a good structure for a Telephone Interview with a few example questions. You can find a full Script for Telephone Interviews in the Guides & Checklists section of our website starget.co.uk

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Opening remarks

• Introduce yourself and explain the purpose of the call. 
• Introduce the Promise of a Reference Call (PORC). One of the most powerful tools to use in the recruitment process are Reference Calls – more specifically, telling the candidate explicitly that they will be helping to arrange Reference Calls. The PORC is my SECRET to get more honest answers.

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Disqualification Questions

• These are broad questions intended to uncover any big issues and to see if the candidate is likely to be a good fit. If you find red flags, then speed up or skip ahead. 
• Here are a few questions that you might use:
  • “What’s most important for you about your next job?”
  • “What are you really good at professionally?”
  • “What would you not like to do again?”
  • “What are your long-term career goals, and do you feel like you’re on target to reach them at the moment?”
  • “During the last stage of this process, and before any job offer, you must arrange Reference Calls with your previous bosses. Is that okay?”

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Employment Overview

• If you’re happy with what you’ve heard so far, then begin exploring the candidate’s recent employment and experience.
• You might ask:
  • “What were/are your main responsibilities?”
  • “What were/are your successes and accomplishments?”
  • “How would your boss rate your performance?”
  • “What would they say about your areas for improvement?”
• “Why are you leaving your current job?”  Often, the first answer is a superficial one. Keep probing to get the real reason:
  • If they say they saw a new job, then, “Why did you start looking for a new one?”‍
  • If they were made redundant, “How many others were made redundant at the same time?”‍
  • If the company moved, “Where did it move to and were you offered relocation?”‍
  • If they had a horrible boss, ask them, “In what way?”... “Who else left for the same reason?”
• “What other job opportunities are you considering?” It’s important to understand whether the candidate is applying for similar jobs; lacking focus could mean they are desperate. 

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Do They Want This Job?

• You could ask:
  • “What do you know about our organisation?”
  • “What questions do you have about the job?”
• Don’t rule out a candidate just because they don’t know much about your job or company; this is often the case because they may be applying for lots of jobs. On the other hand, if they have read up, then you may have found a serious candidate. 
• Asking the candidate if they have any questions can give you a sense of how keen they are – watch out if they’re only interested in the money rather than the actual job. 

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Salary Expectations

• I like to know whether a candidate is affordable by discussing salary expectations early in the recruitment process.
• “So I don’t waste anyone’s time, I want to ensure we can afford you. What is your current salary and benefits package?”

Get their complete package including basic salary, bonuses and commission, upcoming payments, and valuable benefits such as healthcare, holiday allowance, company cars, etc.

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Availability

• Finally, ensure you can recruit the candidate within a reasonable time frame.
• “What is your availability for an interview?”
• “How much notice do you need to give your current employer?” or “When are you available to start?”

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Making a Decision

• Having spoken to the candidate, ask yourself: “Do they have the Key Competencies needed for the job?”, “Will we be able to deal with any weaknesses?”, “Are we excited about this person?”
• Beware of anyone who lies or exaggerates. Deceit is often worse than any deficiency the candidate is trying to conceal from you!

You’ll now have unsuitable candidates, ones that you’re unsure about and ones that you want to take forward.

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Unsuitable Applicants

• Tell them respectfully and clearly that they’ve been unsuccessful. If you can, do it straightaway. It’s better for them and saves you having to follow up later.
• If they ask for further explanation, you might say that you have other applicants with more relevant experience. 

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If You’re Unsure

• If you’re unsure, you could try to Telephone Interview again and probe areas that you have doubts about. 
• You could also ask someone else in the Recruitment Team for their view.

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Suitable Candidates

• Tell them immediately that you want to interview them. Remind them of the PORC.
• It’s amazing how many candidates fail to show up for interviews. To minimise the risk of this, do the following:
  • Arrange the interview over the phone rather than by email.
  • Tell them how long the interview will be.
  • Avoid scheduling interviews in lunch hours.
  • Confirm arrangements by email and importantly send a calendar invite.
  • Follow up with a text the day before.

What if you don’t find suitable candidates? Keep looking, while considering whether your Great Performance Profile is too stringent. Another option might be to train up an existing employee for the role.

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Additional Resources

• Talent Acquisition Book; The Secrets of Great Recruitment: How to Recruit Great Employees.
• Downloadable PDF guide; Effective Telephone Interviews: Save Time & Find Top Talent.
• Downloadable script; Script for Telephone Interviews.
• Article; Telephone Interviews: How to Identify Unsuitable Candidates Early On.