Many recruiters and employers choose to use phone interviews as a way of screening candidates. Phone interview questions can be a great way of weeding out unsuitable candidates before you choose who to interview in person. Find out 15 of the best phone interview questions you can use in your recruitment process.

Why Use Phone Interview Screening?

Interviewing over the phone can be a short conversation which helps you discover which candidates may be suitable for the position.

With just a few quick phone interview questions, you can find out who meets your basic criteria for the role. This can reduce your time spent on interviewing in person as you can cut out candidates who don’t meet your needs. As a preliminary screening method, they are highly effective – if you use the right questions.

Types of Phone Interview Questions

As you know, most in-person interviews will use a mix of behavioral questions and situational questions. Phone interview questions, on the other hand, tend to be more direct. You need to get to the point and find out basic information as opposed to how someone would behave in the role.

Phone interview questions tend to focus more on these factors:

1. Desire for the job (why they want to work in this role)

2. Basic information (experience and why they are looking for a new job)

3. Company knowledge (what do they know about your organization)

4. Checking resume details (clarifying anything on their resume that was unclear)

5. Salary expectations (how much they expect to be paid for the role)

Use a mix of these and you should be conducting effective phone interviews in no time.

15 Phone Interview Questions for Bias Free Evaluations

With just a few quick phone interview questions, you can find out who meets your basic criteria for the role. This can reduce your time spent on interviewing in person as you can cut out candidates who don’t meet your needs. As a preliminary screening method, they are highly effective – if you use the right questions.Tell me about yourself.This phone interview question should be answered in a short timeframe. The applicant should ideally answer in under 2 minutes. If they cannot be concise, this is a potential red flag. What they say matters less than their ability to communicate who they are to you.Why are you seeking a new role?It’s important to understand why the candidate wants to leave their current job. Did they get fired or are they looking for new challenges?What interests you about this role?

In a perfect world, a candidate wants to work for you because they love your company and are passionate about the role on offer.

What do you know about our company?

Hopefully, the candidate did their research before applying for a role with your company. Candidates who are applying for anything and everything are likely not passionate about working for you. This phone interview question can help you find that out.

Describe your responsibilities in your current role.

This can help you find out if their current role has similar responsibilities to the role you are hiring for.

We require (specific skill) for this position, do you have experience with this?

Many positions require specific skills to succeed in them. For example, a programmer role may require knowledge of coding. Use this question if relevant.

Resume clarification – for example, ‘How long did you work in your last role?’

Many times, when you’re reading a resume, you will have questions. For example, if they haven’t put how long they were in each role for or why they left a particular role.

What is your preferred style of management?

Hopefully, they will tell you how they like to be managed at work. This allows you to ensure team fit with the style of their potential manager.

Do you prefer to work alone or in a team?The answer you’re looking for to this phone interview question will depend on the setup of the role.What are you motivated by?

You need to know what motivates them. If you are not their future manager, they will want to know this information. It’s a question that can determine organizational culture fit. If they mention something you cannot provide, this may be an issue.

What skills are you currently working on improving?You must hire self-aware people who know what their weaknesses are and work to improve them. However, if the answer is a skill required for the position you may want to think twice about hiring them.What skills do you have that will help you to succeed in this role?

Hopefully, they will mention some of the skills you are looking for!

What is your expected salary if you were the successful candidate?

If they pitch the salary much too high, this can be a problem. While they may accept a lower salary, they may be coming into the role dissatisfied.

If you were the successful candidate, how soon could you start?You may have a time crunch where you need the person to start by a certain time. If not, it’s still good to find out the answer to this question as it will help your planning.What questions would you like to ask me?

If they don’t have any questions for you, this can be a red flag. It can be a sign that they are not engaged in pursuing this role or working for your company. It shows that they are being selective in their job search and will not work in just any role.

By asking some of these phone interview questions, you can hopefully discover who your most suitable candidates are. This should help you save time and money on bringing in the wrong people for a face to face interview.