Conducting interviews over the phone is the best way to narrow the large pool of candidates whose résumé s have been short listed. Before inviting candidates for a job interview, a telephone interview is desirable so that you save both the your own and the candidate’s time.
While conducting the phone interviews, remember to follow normal telephone etiquettes. The candidate doesn’t see your face so they get the impression about your company on hearing your voice, tone and the telephone manners. Whether you are successful in hiring the candidate depends heavily on the impression that you make.
Before the phone interview:
- Collect all relevant information and have the candidate’s résumé ready with you.
- Prepare your questions, have them written down and ready.
- Place yourself in the candidates shoes, think of questions they might ask you.
During the Call:
- Be prompt
- Clear all distractions
- Ensure you wont be interrupted by visitors or phone calls
Taking precautions to avoid these distractions and disturbances are necessary for these two reasons:
- If distracted, you may need to make the candidate wait on the line or reschedule the interview another time. You don’t have full control over the situation while on the phone and there is no guarantee that you will be able to reach the candidate quickly again.
- Distractions for sure affect the flow of thought for you and for the candidate. You may forget to ask an important question and may miss important information that the candidate would want to let you know.
More Tips:
- Don’t simply listen, pay attention. Don’t let any breaks in the conversation. Be loud and clear.
- Keep yourself smiling during the entire phone call. You may think that this is not necessary since the person at the other end cannot see you. But it is not true. Your smile very clearly affects the tone of your voice. You can try this experiment with one your friends; make one call without smiling and another one with a smile. Ask your friend about the difference between the true and you will be surprised with the reply.
- While you take the time to evaluate, give the candidate opportunity to evaluate the job and company so that he can decide if the job requirement is really right for him. There is no use in trying to hire a candidate who would drop out at the last minute of the process.
