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Phone Screening: What it is and How to Run a Phone Screen Interview

Phone screenings are still a vital part of recruitment, especially with the rise of remote jobs. Although traditionally used to evaluate a candidate’s fit for a role, recruiters have modernized these screenings to make them more effective and aligned with current hiring practices. 

From creating a conducive environment for phone interviews to asking the right questions, conducting them effectively can help you identify top talent with confidence. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process, offering tips for avoiding any potential risks and maximizing results in your recruitment process.

But before we get into it…

What is phone screening?

Phone screening is a candidate evaluation method involving a short phone call between the candidate and the interviewer. During the call, the interviewer gauges the candidate’s skills, experience, and expertise in a particular role. By evaluating their communication skills as well as other job-specific capabilities, you can quickly determine the candidate’s interest and potential for impact on the job.

Generally, phone screen interviews last between 15-45 minutes, depending on the role you’re trying to fill and the depth of the questions asked. This screening method is popularly applied at the beginning of the evaluation process, shortly after applications. However, you can implement it at any point in the screening process.

Phone screen interviews vs. virtual interviews

Phone screening: what it is and how to run a phone screen interview 1

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Alt Text: A man on a phone screen interview

As a recruiter, it’s easy to mistake phone screen interviews for virtual ones, especially because they both don’t require physical contact with the candidate. However, while they have some similarities, virtual interviews are widely different from phone screenings.

For starters, virtual screening or interviewing is a broader term that describes all candidate evaluation techniques that are conducted without physical contact. As such, phone screenings are a form of virtual interviewing. Other types of virtual screenings include online tests, video interviews, and virtual resume reviews.

Virtual screening offers diverse evaluation methods and can help streamline the hiring process through automated scheduling and data entry. However, the depth of candidate evaluation depends more on the methods used rather than how they’re conducted, whether in-person or virtual.

On the other hand, phone screening is a candidate evaluation technique solely hosted over a phone call. So, the assessment of candidate skills, experience, and personality is primarily based on audio output. As a result, it’s super important to have the right questions and script to ensure proper candidate evaluation.

Unlike virtual candidate evaluation, phone screenings are best for initial screenings of large candidate pools, which don’t necessarily require a comprehensive assessment. They are also flexible and can be used at any point in the recruitment process.

Why do companies use phone screening?

With recruiters spending over 100 hours to make a single hire, there’s a rising need for quick yet effective screening techniques, especially for remote work. Out of this, screening alone can take up 63% of the hiring time, depending on the type of screening you use. 

Phone screenings provide a great solution to this, cutting down candidate screening time while still maintaining effectiveness. However, this isn’t all it’s good for. Here are some more reasons why companies use phone screening while hiring:

1. For cost savings

Hiring can be pricey, from getting resources for recruitment to conducting in-person interviews. Most companies can spend between $4000 and $20,000, depending on the role and hiring process. Fortunately, with phone screenings, you can cut this amount down since they don’t require logistical arrangements or venue bookings like in-person interviews do.

Phone screenings serve as a cost-effective initial filter, particularly useful in high-volume hiring, where basic qualifications need to be verified quickly. For example, rather than apply a detailed assessment right from the start of the process, you can use a 15-minute long phone call to determine whether the candidate meets the primary requirements for the job before you proceed. Thus saving you time and money that would otherwise be spent on accessing screening equipment and tools.

2. For initial candidate assessment

Phone screenings can also serve as a pre-interview evaluation process for roles that aren’t solely remote. Companies use it to check if candidates have the basic experience, skills, and knowledge required to succeed in the role. Some companies also use it to assess the candidate’s expectations from the role, such as their expected salary and benefits range.

Aside from skills assessment, phone screenings help companies confirm if a candidate has the required soft skills and organizational fit. For example, a candidate for a customer service agent role might have a stellar resume, but if they sound impatient or lack the warmth needed for client-facing interactions, the phone screening will help spot that early on.

3. For flexibility and convenience

Phone screenings can be applied at any point in your recruitment, depending on the goal you want to achieve. For instance, if you want to evaluate your candidates for the basic requirements of the role, then you can apply them at the beginning of your hiring process.

On the flip side, if you want to deepen your understanding of the candidate’s experience after a resume screening process, you can use it either at the middle or end of hiring. Plus, you can conduct a phone screening from practically anywhere, provided you’re well-prepared for it.

How to run a phone screen interview

A man on the phone in an office

Phone screen interviews can be your first opportunity to identify top candidates and filter out those who might not be the right fit—all without the need for formal meetings or lengthy processes. 

When done correctly, they set the stage for a smooth hiring journey, allowing you to assess key qualifications, communication skills, and enthusiasm in just a short conversation. Here’s how to conduct your phone screen interview for the best results.

Step 1: Prepare a screening script

A screening script is a detailed guide that directs recruiters on how the phone screening process will go. This helps you ensure consistency across your phone screen interviews with candidates and prevents you from missing critical questions during the process. Your screening script should include:

  • A brief introduction about yourself, the company, and the role.
  • A list of key questions to assess the candidate’s qualifications and skills (for example, “Can you walk me through your experience with [role-specific skill]?”).
  • Questions to gauge cultural fit and career goals, like “What kind of work environment do you thrive in?”
  • An outline of your closing remarks.

Additionally, your screening script can include icebreakers to help the candidates feel more comfortable and express themselves better.

Step 2: Review the candidates’ resume

Before the call, carefully review the candidate’s resume to familiarize yourself with their background. You can also perform a resume analysis to check for fake references and gain insights into their performance in past roles, which, in turn, can help you craft your questions accordingly.

While reviewing their resumes, look for gaps in employment, career transitions, or accomplishments you want them to elaborate on. You can also look for indicators of their organizational skills, such as typos or grammatical errors.

Step 3: Set up the call

To set up your call, first, select the platform on which you want to host the call and the time for the call. Once that’s done, be sure to:

  • Confirm the candidate’s time zone if applicable (this is especially important for remote or international roles).
  • Let them know who will call and from what number.
  • Provide an estimated duration, usually 15–30 minutes.

To communicate this with your candidates, you can send them a personalized email outlining these important details about the call.

Step 4: Start with an introduction

When you start the call, set a welcoming tone by introducing yourself and your role, followed by a brief overview of the company and position. Then, outline what you’ll cover during the call. This helps the candidate feel at ease and know what to expect.

During your introduction, you can also ask the candidate to tell you a bit about themselves. In addition, be sure to pay attention to how they speak, listening for cues like stammers, long pauses, or filler words/expressions such as “umm.”

Step 5: Ask assessment questions

This is the heart of the phone screen interview, which basically tells you if the candidate is fit for the job or not. So, ensure to use open-ended, role-specific questions in your interview formula to encourage detailed answers. Your questions can consist of behavioral assessment questions, situational judgment inquiries, and general questions about the candidate’s skills and experience. Essentially, your questions should:

  • Ensure their qualifications align with the job requirements.
  • Gauge if their values align with your company.
  • Help you understand why they’re interested in the role.

You can also use follow-up questions, such as “Can you give me an example?” or “What was the outcome of that project?” to delve deeper into the candidates’ responses.

Step 6: Conclude the phone screening and follow up

End the interview by appreciating the candidate for participation and time, and inform them of the next steps in the hiring process. This is also the perfect moment to ask if they have any questions, suggestions, or comments.

After the phone screen interview, you can reach out to the candidates to let them know whether or not they passed as soon as possible. This ensures that the evaluation process is fast and smooth enough to carry the candidates along.

30 phone screening questions

Woman in an office holding a smartphone

Since phone screen interviews rely mostly on the candidate’s audio output, the amount of information you get depends on the kinds of questions you ask. As such, it’s always best to combine different types of questions that evaluate skills in different ways, such as situational, behavioral, and even technical questions. Below are some examples of effective phone screen interview questions:

Behavior assessment questions

These questions focus on how candidates have behaved in the past, which provides insight into their work habits and values. Here are some examples:

  1. How do you handle tight deadlines at work?
  2. Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a colleague. How did you resolve it?
  3. Describe a project you were particularly proud of. What made it successful?
  4. What do you do to stay motivated when working on repetitive tasks?
  5. How do you typically respond to constructive criticism?

STAR based questions

The STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) framework helps candidates give structured responses that are easy to evaluate. Below are examples of these STAR interview questions that are great for phone screenings:

  1. Can you describe a time when you had to solve a difficult problem and what steps you took?
  2. Share an experience when you had to lead a team under challenging circumstances.
  3. Tell me about a time you failed to meet a goal. What did you learn from it?
  4. Can you give an example of how you improved a process or system in your previous role?

Situational questions

These questions use hypothetical scenarios to assess how candidates would handle specific situations. The following are some examples of situational interview questions:

  1. If you were assigned a project with unclear instructions, how would you proceed?
  2. What would you do if your manager asked you to complete a task outside your area of expertise?
  3. Imagine a key team member suddenly left mid-project. How would you handle it?
  4. If you had multiple deadlines to meet in one week, how would you prioritize tasks?
  5. How would you respond if a customer or client was unhappy with your work?

Technical questions

Technical questions evaluate whether the candidate possesses the technical skills, such as knowledge of role-specific software, required for the role. For example, if you’re hiring a Project Manager, here are a few technical questions you can apply:

  1. How do you use Gantt charts in project management?
  2. Explain how to perform a risk assessment.
  3. How does Asana work?
  4. What is a PERT?

Knowledge-based questions

Knowledge-based questions are structures to assess a candidate’s subject-matter expertise or industry knowledge and how they can apply it to the role. Essentially, they test the candidate’s understanding of established practices within the role. For example, if you’re hiring a management accountant, you can use the following knowledge-based questions:

  1. What are the key components of a management accounting report?
  2. Explain the difference between marginal costing and absorption costing.
  3. What are the main objectives of variance analysis in budgeting?
  4. What financial metrics are most commonly used to evaluate a company’s performance?

Company-focused questions

These questions focus on gauging whether the candidate has researched your company and evaluated how well they align with its mission. The following are some examples of company-focused questions:

  1. What interests you about our company and this role?
  2. How do you think your skills can contribute to our team’s goals?
  3. What do you know about our products/services, and what excites you most about them?
  4. Why do you think you’re a good fit for our company culture?

Soft skill assessment questions

These assessment questions evaluate soft skills like communication, adaptability, and teamwork, which are vital for workplace success. Here are some soft skill assessment questions for your phone screenings:

  1. How do you approach giving and receiving feedback?
  2. How do you manage your time and prioritize tasks effectively?
  3. What steps do you take to stay organized in a fast-paced environment?
  4. How do you build rapport with new team members?

Pro tip: While phone screening interviews are great for evaluating candidates’ communication and critical thinking skills, they have limitations in assessing technical proficiency, real-world application of knowledge, and high-volume recruitment. That’s why many recruiters are turning to skill-based assessment platforms like Vervoe. These platforms allow you to simulate real-life scenarios and measure candidates’ abilities across behavioral, situational, and technical competencies, providing a more holistic view of their potential in less time. 

What are the risks of phone screening?

While phone screening is a cost-effective and convenient tool for initial candidate evaluation, it’s not without its challenges. Being aware of these risks can help you mitigate them and improve the effectiveness of your screening process. Here are some of these potential pitfalls:

1. Technical issues

Technical difficulties such as poor connectivity, dropped calls, or audio problems can significantly impact phone screenings. These issues not only frustrate candidates and potentially harm their interview experience, but they can also make it difficult for interviewers to properly assess qualifications and communication skills.

2. Risk of miscommunication

Without facial expressions or visual context, the tone of voice becomes the primary way to interpret emotion and intent. However, tones can be misjudged over the phone. For example, a candidate who pauses to think might come off as hesitant, or an interviewer’s flat tone could be misinterpreted as them being disinterested. These misinterpretations can affect both the assessment accuracy and the candidate’s interest in the role.

3. Limited verification capability

Phone screenings make it harder to verify certain claims in real-time. This is because, without visual cues, it can be challenging to assess the accuracy of a candidate’s stated qualifications. This limitation means that you need additional verification steps, such as reference checks or skills assessments on Vervoe, following the initial phone screen.

Vervoe’s skill tests allow you to measure a candidate’s qualifications and competencies objectively. By incorporating these assessments after the phone screen, you can bridge the gap between stated qualifications and actual abilities, ensuring more accurate and informed hiring decisions.

Tips for a seamless phone screening experience

Woman on the phone

Avoiding the potential risks associated with phone screenings requires you to apply various techniques, such as integrating a supporting calling line in case of interruptions. Here are some more practical tips to ensure your phone screenings are both efficient and professional:

Set up a stable calling service network

To ensure professional and effective phone screenings, start with a reliable technical foundation. Based on your needs, choose a primary calling platform, such as a traditional phone service, VoIP solutions like Skype, or video conferencing platforms that offer audio-only options.

Prepare a backup communication method

Even with careful planning, technical issues can still arise during a phone screening. To avoid disruptions or the need to reschedule, it’s crucial to have a backup communication plan in place.

For example, if the call drops unexpectedly or there are connectivity issues, you can switch to an alternate call line or use an audio conferencing platform like Zoom or Microsoft Teams (audio-only mode). This ensures that the conversation continues seamlessly without the need for rescheduling.

Pair phone screenings with skills testing

While phone screenings provide a good sense of a candidate’s communication skills and experience, pairing them with skills testing offers a more comprehensive evaluation. However, when using a skills test, it’s important to use a reliable, comprehensive testing platform, such as Vervoe, to ensure the process yields the best results. Vervoe is an AI-powered preemployment testing platform with a structured assessment library equipped with various tests suited for different roles.

These tests don’t just tell you that a candidate is skilled; they tell you how skilled the candidate is compared to other applicants. Using Vervoe’s performance ranking system, you can easily spot those with the best fit for the role without bias or hiring errors. Plus, it offers job simulations that allow you to predict candidate performance even before they get the role so that you can make more informed hiring decisions.

Conclusion

Phone screenings are a powerful way to get to know candidates and quickly check their job fit, but why stop there? Pairing your phone interviews with Vervoe’s skills tests gives you a complete picture of each candidate’s potential. With tailored, role-specific assessments, Vervoe helps you evaluate real-world skills alongside communication and cultural fit so you can make confident hiring decisions faster.

Vervoe also helps you identify the perfect fit for your open role with data-driven insights that complement your phone screenings so you don’t have to leave your hiring up to guesswork.  Ready to level up your hiring game? Register for a free demo today and discover how seamless and effective your recruitment process can be!

Picture of Raji Oluwaniyi

Raji Oluwaniyi

Raji Oluwaniyi is a seasoned Technical Content Writer at Vervoe with a rich background of over five years in the intersection of HR technology, consumer data protection, and SaaS. He has garnered significant recognition and has worked with industry stalwarts like TestGorilla, Brightlio, MakeUseOf, and Careerkarma. Oluwaniyi has a continuous drive to evolve and keep himself up to trend with the latest technology trends and best practices in writing. Beyond his professional pursuits, he is a genuine soccer fan and profoundly values his quality time with his close friends.

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