The Metiss Group's Blog

One of the first steps in any effective selection process is the candidate phone screen.  To get the most out of this crucial activity, keep the following tips in mind:

• Schedule phone screen – don’t just call out of the blue; setting a time to talk to the candidate helps them prepare and allows them to give you their full attention; schedule 20 to 30 minutes.
• Set expectations – let the candidate know early in the conversation this is just the first step and you are just gathering information and plan on talking to other candidates; this gives you the opportunity to end the call quickly if you realize it is not a good match and prepares the candidate for your selection process.
• Review salary requirements – get the money piece on the table early; if the candidate’s salary requirements fall outside the hiring range, move on, no sense wasting your time.
• Confirm resume accuracy – cover the highlights of the resume that attracted you to the candidate; confirm the accuracy and probe for consistencies.
• Ask the same questions for all candidates – consistently asking the same questions helps you to compare candidates.
• Ask two to three job-related behavior based questions – most of the job related questioning comes in the first interview, but asking some basic “deal breaker” questions upfront can save you from wasting your time with a first interview; drive for specifics and make sure you are comfortable moving forward.

Phone screening doesn’t need to be time consuming and complicated and should be a productive step in your selection process; empower yourself to prepare before the screening, and you have a more successful candidate interviews.

This entry was posted on August 20, 2011 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Leadership, Selection. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.