The future of recruitment is with the internet. Video links will enable organisations to assess candidates in a quick and cost-effective way. This shift to remote interviewing is reflected in the recruitment practices of more and more organisations who are designing their recruitment strategy with remote interviewing or telephone screening as an integral part.

A survey conducted by the CIPD* found that 26% of organisations use telephone interviews. This reflects the rise of call centres and other telephone-based businesses. The research also showed that telephone interviews were most common in the service sector (38%).

An effective telephone interview depends on the nature of the vacancy and the recruiting organisation. At Resourcing Matters, we have used telephone screening to interview candidates both in the UK and internationally.

For one of our clients, a major Canadian retail pharmacy chain, we used telephone screening to assess candidates across the UK, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Canada. We plan to use video conferencing for short-listed candidates to attend a company presentation to sell the opportunities with that organisation.

The advantages of this method are that interviews could be arranged quickly and the entire process took less time than traditional methods. It proved extremely cost effective in terms of saving travel costs and time. It was also an excellent way to check on telephone manner particularly as customer contact was a key part of the role.

In theory, discrimination is less likely as the interviewer is more likely to be focused on interviewing than being distracted by interpersonal aspects. The process depends on the effectiveness of the telephone script and the skill of the assessor in interpreting the data.

The Future of Telephone Interviewing

The growth in organisations which rely upon recruiting staff with good communication skills will increase the use of telephone interviewing but there will be a natural limit as many will still want to meet short-listed candidates face to face. Whatever medium is used to recruit new staff, the quality and validity of the questions will always be the most important part of the process.

*CIPD – Chartered Institute of Personnel Development Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Survey 2004