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The interview is a sensitive point in the hiring process. It can be the outright determining factor for successful recruitment. According to career plug, 58% of job seekers reported declining an offer due to a poor candidate experience. That’s why you need to start a phone interview as the interviewer and come armed with the right questions.
So, before we even begin interviewing candidates, we need to ensure that we’re prepared. In terms of virtual interviews, that means you need to understand who your ideal candidate is. What are their skills and experience? How will they fit into the role? Are they a dedicated specialist or a generalist? Answering all of these questions beforehand will give you a roadmap to choosing the right screening questions.
We cannot stress enough how integral your choice of questions will be. A phone interview is a non-visual medium, and that means you’ll need to be clear and concise in the interview for the best results.
Of course, choosing the right phone interview questions is easier said than done. You need to choose a set of questions that you can standardize; that can be applied to every candidate without bias. To this end, utilize virtual phone interviews. This asynchronous interview format helps mitigate bias and makes interview standardization as easy as recording a single interview. Every candidate will receive the same interview, which will be ideally tailored to include everyone who may apply.
The questions you ask in an interview as an employer need careful selection. Virtual interviews require your questions to be short, to the point, and ideally open-ended. Simple yes-nos will yield very little results and waste both your and the candidate’s time. As such, we’ve compiled a short list of solid questions to ask candidates in a virtual interview.
This is only a short list of solid virtual interview questions. As with a live interview, you should tailor your exact questions and phrasing according to your company and industry. Just remember that questions should be short and easily understood. Additionally, take particular care when designing your own questions to avoid bias whenever possible.
More businesses are shifting to automated phone screening every day. And this is only practical. These virtual interviews allow recruiters to screen more candidates, improve the candidate experience and mitigate bias in the hiring process. The benefits go on and on, but right now we need to discuss the virtual phone interview tips you should know to maximize the effectiveness of these interviews.
Virtual phone interviews are not as much of a departure from the traditional live interview as you might think. After you pass the initial setup, all that is left is to really design a singular interview for a role. You would go about this in much the same way you'd do a traditional interview with some nuanced differences. Let’s take a look at some simple phone interview tips.
For example, focus on the most important questions and only include the ones you feel are most pertinent to your ideal candidate. These questions should focus on identifying candidates’ soft and hard skills alike. These are the skills that will separate the most qualified candidates from the rest.
Additionally, you will want to coordinate across your entire hiring team. Virtual phone interviews are quick and easy to screen. As such, it’s easier for the entire team to collaborate and discuss individual candidates. This not only helps find superior candidates but unifies your hiring team behind what an ideal candidate looks like.
To experience how virtual phone interviews can change how you screen candidates, check out Qualifi today for a platform that makes virtual interviews and team collaboration as easy as a few clicks.
