Screening the right job applicants can be a time-consuming task for many hiring managers. Not only might your team be understaffed, you also have the added weight of sourcing the right candidates to join your organization. If you are looking to save time when hiring, you might want to consider adding a pre-screening interview to your process. These interviews will help you weed out the candidates that you are interested in on paper,  but may not ultimately be the right fit for the position as well as the company.

There are a variety of ways to conduct a pre-screening interview. However, these are the top tips to keep in mind:

Keep the pre-screening interview short

When you conduct a pre-screening interview, you’ll want to get the information you need to ensure the candidate is qualified for the role. However, you don’t want the pre-screening to take as long as an actual interview. You’ll want to keep this extra step simple and short for the candidate to complete. If the pre-screening interview questions take too long to answer or take up too much of the candidate’s time, they will not finish this portion of the interview and you may lose out on top talent.

Choose the right form of communication for the pre-screening interview

There are a variety of ways you can conduct a pre-screening interview, whether that be over the phone, through a video chat, or through an online survey. There is not one platform that works better over another. However, you’ll need to think about the type of candidate you are trying to hire and see what style would showcase their skills. If you have a sales position, for example, you may want to do a phone or video screening to see how their communication skills measure up. If you are looking to test a candidate’s proficiency with a certain program, a questionnaire with short technical questions may be the best way to go.

Include questions that are relevant to a hire’s skillset

The pre-screening process should help you reduce a large applicant pool. So simple, yet detailed questions that pertain to the job will be important to ask during this part of the interview process. Below are a few broad pre-screening questions that can guide you towards which questions you should ask:

• What about your work experience makes you a great fit for the role?
• What type of environment do you work best in?
• What are your professional development goals?
• What salary range do you expect from your next role?
• What work sample can you provide that most clearly demonstrates your qualifications for this job?

If adding a pre-screening interview to your current hiring process seems too extensive, working with a recruiter may be your best bet at making the interview process less time-consuming. Not only does a recruiter filter out unqualified candidates, they also take the time to speak with candidates to see if they are the right fit for your organization. Want to speak to a recruiter today? Contact us today and we can help you screen the right candidates for your organization.