Phone Job Interviews

Conducting phone job interviews is an extremely important part of the entire recruitment process. The phone interview can be used in the initial phase of screening applicants, or it could be used as the primary hiring strategy for a company. Whichever suits your purpose best, interviewing applicants on the phone provides great convenience both for the employer and the employee. 
If you are a person who is in charge of facilitating phone job interviews, you should first be aware of the advantages of using this particular interview method. First, the advantage of interviewing applicants over the phone is that you get the chance to screen them first before you go see them for a formal face to face interview. This is certainly a good idea in cases when there are hundreds of applicant resumes to be considered. Instead of setting a face to face interview with all those applicants, the interviewer can eliminate the ones who do not fit the job requirements, then set up individual interviews with the promising ones. This saves a lot of time for both the company and the applicants. 

To facilitate a successful phone job interview, the interviewer should go straight to the point and stick with the facts. Usually, the most common questions should be asked during the interview, such as educational background of applicant, job experience, and specific skill sets. Most of these facts are usually already reflected in the resume’, but the interviewer needs to confirm them with the applicant so there is assurance that there is no mix up with the credentials. This process also encourages the applicant to talk about himself, his credentials, and why he is the best person for the job.  

The telephone interviewer must carefully gauge the communication skills of the applicant, especially in jobs where verbal ability is indispensible (such as sales representative, customer service agent, public relations, etc.). It is easy to measure how adept the applicant is when it comes to communication. Usually, a good applicant can be known in the way he expresses himself over the phone. Good communicators maintain clarity of meaning even in phone conversations, where visual code and gestures are not possible. The interviewer should look for signs of good conversational skills.

Think of phone job interviews as a preliminary stage to the hiring process. It helps you avoid wasting time with applicants who do not qualify, and spend more time with promising applicants. The important thing to remember is to be straight to the point. Then, confirm the credentials of the individual by asking some of the key information in the resume. Lastly, you can ask simple questions that give the applicant a chance to talk a little bit more about himself so you can gauge his level of communication skill. 

When you decide to set a face to face interview with someone you just talked with on the phone, it doesn’t mean that the applicant already got the job. It means, he or she is promising enough to deserve the face to face interview. As an interviewer, you can be assured that every person who enters your office for “real” interviews are efficient, qualified, and have appropriate skills sets. The only thing to be decided in the face to face interview is, “Who is the best applicant among these highly qualified people?”  If you learn to conduct successful phone job interviews, you will be able to select highly qualified and efficient employees for your organization. Your company will no longer have to worry about tire-kickers in the payroll, because you have done your homework and brought the very best people to the firm.

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