By the numbers:
- 12-14 interns every year
- Full-time staff of 50
- 5-6 recruiters
- 120 to 150 weekly applicant screenings
- Before Qualifi, phone interviews took 30 minutes per applicant
The Indianapolis Indians baseball team requires far more than the nine players on the field to make the season successful. The minor league baseball franchise has roughly 50 full-time employees, a dozen interns, and seasonal workers. The different types of positions and fluctuation in busy hiring times brought Bryan Spisak, Director of Business Systems and Talent with the Indianapolis Indians, to a crossroads. Spisak needed to automate at least part of the hiring process.
Previously
The team of six recruiters interviewed 120-150 applicants weekly, spending around 30 minutes on each interview.
Now
The recruitment team saw three main benefits emerge after introducing automated phone screenings: more transparency with hiring managers, consistency in their interview questions, and time added back to their calendars every week.
The Challenge
Like many other recruiters, Spisak has an arm’s length to-do list and phone interviews is just one item on it. “Anything that I can accomplish in the background is fantastic,” says Spisak.
Being able to set up self-guided phone screenings that start with just the push of a button allows Spisak to work on other tasks while completing every phone interview at the same time. “[Qualifi] allows me to repurpose my time a little bit more strategically,” he notes.
Once the recruiters send out their interview questions, allowing candidates to respond on their own time, Spisak and hiring managers just listen to the responses or read the transcription of the recording.
“The transcript's there, I can share it with the hiring manager,” says Spisak. “They can review and give their opinions on the interview, and it's not solely based on my recommendations.” Being able to share the workload across recruiters and hiring managers helped both teams streamline the interview process.
The Process
One of the limitations of traditional interviews is the time constraint it places on recruiters. Say a recruiter has 20 interviews on the docket, conducting those interviews can eat up a quarter of their week — not to mention the time it takes to prepare for each one or to convey the findings to hiring managers.
Spisak saw the hours piling up and decided to find a solution. They needed something that would make the initial screening process go faster and not eat up valuable recruiter time.
Spisak ended up with something that would help the entire hiring team — automated phone interviews. By automating the initial phone screening, they could take back valuable time that they were hemorrhaging every week.
“[Recruiters] loved it because there was no commitment on their end other than to review,” says Spisak. “They didn't have to be on. They didn't have to look good. They could have resumes up [while they reviewed candidates]. They could be really diving into the responses in a little bit more critically with the transcripts, and they could replay something based on what they heard.”
The Result
Automating the phone screening process made the recruiters' lives easier, and it allowed them to bring in more candidates than ever before.
“The biggest [tangible result of Qualifi] is being able to reach a wider funnel of candidates and get them in quicker, get them through the door quicker,” says Spisak. “That's allowed me to be a little bit more diverse with my selection of who I want to bring in. Before, I would not schedule something with somebody who maybe didn't have sports experience, but because I know Qualifi is a tool that I can utilize, I'll open the door to many more candidates… or somebody who I wouldn't consider first.”
Introducing Qualifi allowed the recruitment team to bring in more applicants. Qualifi also helped pave the way for a new level of communication and streamlined workflow with hiring managers.
“[Qualifi] has allowed 100% more transparency with the candidate pool,” says Spisak. “So this isn't just me telling you, ‘Hey, this person's good.’ … You can now decide on your own, for better or worse. There's 100% more transparency in the hiring process because of that. And we're able to make better decisions as a team than we are individually.”
Spisak also found that being able to control exactly what questions were asked ensured a consistent message and brand voice in each interview. “I know if they're sending interviews through Qualifi, it's the same questions every time… So it's allowed me to really have faith in the consistency of all those interviews.”
When the recruiting team for the Indianapolis Indians found Qualifi, they were able to introduce:
- Consistent interview questions
- More time to do other parts of their jobs
- Transparency with the hiring managers
Still On The Fence?
If you are still unsure whether automated phone screenings are the right move for your organization, there is a simple test that Spisak used to make the final call.
“Take an inventory of your hours and think critically about how you can repurpose those minutes in your day for something else,” says Spisak. “Then that will give you your answer as to whether it's a good fit. If you like spending 10 hours a week, or 12 hours a week, phone screening, then okay, keep doing it. But if you think you can use those 12 hours for something else, then it's a no-brainer.”
