The Importance Of Pre-Screening Your Top Candidates + FREE Checklist
Have you ever been on an interview panel and spent time interviewing candidates who were either not interested in the job, or who within the first 15 minutes you knew were a terrible fit for the job?
Despite that, you spent the next hour discussing the candidate’s qualifications, in effect wasting their time and your time. This has happened to me nearly every time I’ve been a part of a hiring process that left out the phone screening step.
With proper pre-screening interview in place via video or phone, the in-person interview panel avoids interviewing disinterested or inadequate candidates, saving a great deal of time and effort.
How Many People to Pre-Screen vs. Interview
I typically phone/video screen around 8-10 of the top applicants, in effect narrowing the pool to 3-5 of the best candidates for an in-person interview.
Say you have a panel of three interviewers: Five, one-hour in-person interviews as opposed to 10, one-hour in-person interviews, saves the company 15 hours of unnecessary work (3 interviewers ‘X’ 5 hours vs. 3 interviewers ‘X’ 10 hours). Not to mention the applicant’s time.
What Information to Cover in the Pre-Screening
The pre-screening is a perfect opportunity to ensure the candidate knows the pertinent information they need to make a decision about the job. When I phone/video screen applicants, I address the “deal breakers” up front. I define deal breakers as anything non-negotiable to the candidate or the employer. For example, if I’m recruiting for a nonprofit organization and I know the salary is set/non-negotiable, I let the applicant know that.
In all fairness to the applicant, even though the salary was posted in the job ad, companies are typically willing to negotiate salaries so they might apply thinking they can negotiate later.
However, with some companies I recruit for, it’s not possible. Rather than waste the applicant’s time, I let them know up front. In addition to salary, other deal breakers I cover include: Location, schedule, team/reporting structure, work environment, and benefits. Covering this information also saves the interview panel from doing it, so that they have more time to focus on truly assessing the candidate.
Alternatively, the pre-screening is an opportunity for me to find out if the applicant has any “deal breakers” for the company, such as poor communication skills, not truly meeting the job qualifications, or misrepresenting themselves in the application process. I ask questions about the candidate’s background and get to know their skills and experience within the context of the job so that I only forward the most qualified candidates on for an in-person interview.
The checklist below is a sample of what I use to track the information I cover and the questions I ask in a typical pre-screening.
FREE Pre- Screening Checklist: This checklist includes all of the information to cover and questions to ask job applicants when conducing a pre-screening interview.
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