TELEPHONE CALLS IN RECRUITMENT PROCESS

To the recruiter, the telephone interview is very important in the recruitment process.  It cannot be avoided.  Supposing that there is a candidate who is 1,000 miles away, then it is very important to conduct a telephone interview before arranging the face-to-face interview.  Sometimes, recruiters could make the decision by making a telephone interview. For instance, X company is recruiting a foreign Marketing Manager, and one of the most important requirements is the Chinese language ability.  When it is found that a candidate, say, Tom, can only speak several Chinese words.  Obviously, it won’t be necessary to arrange a face-to-face interview for this candidate. Therefore, this is a very effective exclusion technique. In this sense, a telephone interview is good to both the candidate and interviewer.

Everything has a “key”; so does the telephone interview.

Firstly, a recruiter needs to do some good preparations before making a telephone call; thus, some problems can be avoided.  What are the good preparations?  It would be very helpful to write down the wanted information on a piece of paper.  Writing the information down could help clarify the recruiter’s thoughts.  The written contents are dependent on the situation.  If candidate’s resume has been received, then the telephone interview should focus on some unclear issues such as the candidate’s core competencies, and what is he/she good at; and further probing and more insightful questioning may be required.

Secondly, controlling the voice and speaking tone during the telephone interview is very important. In a way, telephone interviews are somewhat “harder” than the face-to-face interview. Because there is only the “voice” communication between recruiters and candidates. Comparing with a face-to-face interview, the telephone interview is very “thin”, as there are no body languages, no eye contacts, etc.  It’s easier to cause misunderstandings, the results of which may affect the outcome of the recruitment.  Sometimes, some personal questions may be involved in telephone interviews.  Dealing with such issues, the recruitment may become a failure if the way of speaking is not conducted properly.  Therefore, the sense of confidence to be conveyed to the candidate is a very important tool during the telephone interview.

The next question is:  How to measure the candidate from the HR view point in telephone interviews?  In another words, how to evaluate the candidates if they are suitable for the position or not?

The first answer to this question is the telephone manner.  If the candidate is too proud to have a talk on an equal term basis, then it will be very hard to work with such candidates.  The talk should still be carried on and a partnership could be set up.  The second answer is the candidate’s presentation ability.  In a telephone call, if the candidate can talk freely and express himself/herself clearly, then the candidate should be a clear thinker and very familiar with the job. Additionally, It is very easy to find out if the candidate has a quick mind.  For instance, if someone takes 5 or 10 minutes to answer a common question, the he/she cannot have a quick mind.  Lastly, a telephone interview can test if the candidate is a confident person or not.  A candidate may not be willing to share this information with the recruiter; one of the reasons is that the candidate is not confident enough. Who will hire a person who is not confident?

A person could perform very well in telephone calls; however, such a person may not    be good at a face-to-face meeting.

A friend, Jenny, who works as a HR Manager in a multinational company, came across such problem before.  Jenny made an appointment with a candidate, as the result of a telephone call.  After that, she was happy and told us the candidate was really good.  However, she changed her mind after the face-to-face interview.  When the candidate came to the meeting with Jenny, he was nervous and could not express himself fluently.  He was not hired.

Here is the point, in the process of recruitment, a telephone call is important, but its results are somewhat limited; one needs to evaluate the effectiveness, and the costs in terms of money and time of a telephone interview versus a personal interview.