Again and again the need for more effective and efficient hiring strategies has been discussed, particularly in light of the current talent shortage and a number of other factors affecting the candidate pool, and time after time any number of outside-the-box tactics are brought up and invented to help expedite these processes. However, what more employers need to realize is that these matters can still be handled just as straightforward as they always have with only a slight amount of tweaking and improvement necessary to help speed up results and success. For instance, one of the most highly effective yet commonly overlooked steps that should be included in any executive search and hiring process is the initial phone interview. This stage in the process can easily allow the interviewer to get those more fundamental questions out of the way and begin effectively narrowing the candidate pool to the extent that, once the full interviews begin, the employer will be able to focus more on the more important subjects.
To help guide in this process, here are a few tips from executive search firms on how best to conduct the initial phone interview.
As was said before, the greatest benefits of using this technique is to allow the interviewer both to assess the qualifications of the candidate in relation to the role in question, and how well their expectation for the job meet those of the company. While these are pretty standard questions for any interview, typically the interviewer would have to take the time to set up and conduct a full interview just to learn whether or not an individual would make an acceptable candidate, much less be worthy of spending further time on in the interview process.
To start then, the interviewer will need to ask after the candidate’s work experience in the role being screened for, as well as whether or not this individual possesses any specific experience related requirements necessary to the position. This is also the time to inquire after the candidate’s educational background. Also, the interviewer should make sure to ask the candidate about their expectations as far as salary is concerned. The candidate should also be asked specifics about the previous companies they’ve worked for, such as size, industry, their level of authority, why they left, their role in helping the company to meet its goals, and so on and so forth. Any line of questioning that the answer to which could directly determine an individual’s acceptability should be asked after at this point, saving those more difficult and detailed questions for once a candidate has moved on to the next stage of the process.
If any of the answers to the previously mentioned subjects do not meet up with the interviewer’s expectations then the individual can be struck off the candidate list and no further time will need to be wasted conducting more extensive interviews with this person. As the need for efficiency in the executive search and hiring process grows ever more important, such a simple strategy as this can be an invaluable tool in any employer’s assessment strategy.
Published by Conselium Executive Search, the global leader in compliance search.
