Phone screening
Phone screening is a short call with a job applicant to check the basic requirements of a role before an interview. It covers questions such as start date, shifts, a driver's licence or the right to work. A recruiter can make the call or an AI assistant can make it automatically.
A phone screen sits between the application and the interview. It answers one question for the recruiter: is this candidate worth an interview? In frontline hiring the phone screen is often the only check before a candidate starts, so it carries more weight than in office hiring.
What are the ways to run a phone screen?
Teams run a phone screen in one of three ways:
- A recruiter calls. The recruiter asks the questions during office hours. This fits senior or hard-to-fill roles.
- An AI assistant calls. Automated phone screening starts minutes after the application and retries on a schedule when nobody answers. This fits high volumes of applicants.
- An AI assistant chats. WhatsApp screening asks the same questions in a chat, so the candidate answers when it suits them. This fits candidates who do not pick up unknown numbers.
Which questions belong in a phone screen?
Ask what decides whether the candidate can do the job. For a frontline role that is usually:
- When can you start?
- Which shifts can you work: early, late, night or weekend?
- How many hours a week do you want to work?
- Do you have the required certificate or licence, for example a forklift certificate or a driver's licence?
- Do you have the right to work in this country?
- Where do you live? (The postal code is enough.)
- Which languages do you speak and how well?
Leave out questions the CV or the application form already answers. Keep the call under ten minutes.
Why do phone screens stall in frontline hiring?
The questions are simple, but reaching the candidate is hard.
Recruiters hit voicemail on about 70% of calls. Frontline candidates are at work during office hours. Many do not pick up an unknown number. A recruiter who makes 120 calls in a day talks to about 24 candidates. The other 96 get a voicemail and a note to call again.
Every hour of delay costs candidates. Time to first contact measures that delay.
When does WhatsApp work better than a call?
WhatsApp works well when candidates are hard to reach by phone. The candidate reads the message when they have a break and answers when it suits them. They can type or send a voice message.
A call works better when you need a quick answer or the candidate has no WhatsApp. Many teams combine the two: call first, then continue on WhatsApp after a missed call.
How does Ringtime automate phone screening?
Ringtime's AI assistant calls each candidate from a dedicated number. It introduces itself by the name you choose and says it is a digital assistant of your company.
- The assistant calls within 5 minutes of the application, inside the calling hours you set.
- When it reaches a voicemail, it hangs up and tries again later.
- After a missed call, the candidate can get a short SMS and can call the number back to talk to the assistant.
- If the candidate asks to be called at another time, the assistant calls back then.
- After the agreed number of missed calls, the assistant can continue the screening on WhatsApp.
- The answers, the score and any booked interview land in your applicant tracking system (ATS).
At Synergie Jobs, voicemail fell from about 70% of call attempts to 20%, across 5,327 calls.
Ringtime screens by phone in Dutch, French and English. It works on top of the ATS you already use.
To stop dialling voicemail, see how Ringtime automates phone screening.
