How Do Executive Search Firms Make The Most Of Phone Interview?

These days, more than 100 job applicants come in the job listings for a particular job position. Some of the applicants seem to be qualified, but, some may not have the skills required, but have used the right keywords to make their resume reach the executive search firms.

Indeed, a face-to-face interview is what that is always preferred, but a phone interview can also lay a base for some valuable selection for the final hiring. Thus, it is often seen that recruiters make use of the phone interview for screening the potential candidates. The phone interviews help in focusing attention on only those candidates who are worthy of the time and the efforts involved in the hiring process.

We bring to you some of the strategies incorporated by the top executive search firms for making the most of the phone interview:

Duration Of The Interview

At the time of conducting the phone interview, the recruiters need to determine about the qualification of the candidates, their personalities, their driving factors and at the same time also find out whether the things mentioned in the resume are correct or not. The duration of the interview to a greater extent depends upon the expertise and experience, the candidate possesses. It can last for even 30 minutes, however, as per standard, a phone interview should at least stretch for 15 minutes.

Script

The phone interviews generally cannot be on the fly. The recruitment firms prepare key questions before starting the phone interview and the questions are kept consistent for all the applicants. However, the type of questions varies in accordance with the job position because the questions asked during the leadership hiring process cannot be the same as are asked during mass recruitment. However, the interviewer prefers not asking the stock questions, the answers for which can be easily researched and a prepared answer can be given by the candidate.

Comfort Level

The firms in the recruitment industry believe that if you can comfort out the candidate, you can dig in to get better and honest answers. Therefore, the conversation starters in the form of asking information about college, school or even general life are used instead of starting grilling the applicant from the beginning.

Succinct About Job Needs

The phone interview needs to be done for nearly 100 of candidates, thus wasting more time on one candidate can cost heavily to the recruiter. Hence, to save on the time, the applicant is made aware about the job requirements at the beginning in a direct and succinct manner and if found suitable, the interview continues, otherwise it stops there and then.

Document The Interview

The interview of the selected candidates is clearly documented by the executive recruiters in order to see if the answer still lines up, when such candidates are called in for a face-to-face interview.

Since, there is no face to face contact during the phone interview, the candidates cannot be judged on the basis of the visual clues and the entire pressure lies on asking the right questions and listen to the candidate’s answer with all the concentration in order to decide whether to further pursue the candidate or not. With the above tips the result of the phone interview can surely be maximized.