00:00

every effective hiring strategy includes

00:02

hosting phone interviews with job

00:04

candidates

00:05

while this practice is common many small

00:07

and mid-sized employers make one huge

00:09

mistake

00:10

they don't teach hiring managers how to

00:12

actually conduct these interviews

00:14

not only will i walk through how to

00:16

conduct phone interviews but i'm going

00:17

to teach you how you can properly

00:19

instruct hiring managers on your own

00:21

team to make this happen

00:23

in this episode of hr party of one we'll

00:25

cover everything you need to know to

00:27

conduct the best phone interviews

00:29

by the end you'll have a better process

00:31

in place that helps your hiring managers

00:33

land the best applicants no matter the

00:35

role

00:36

we'll discuss when employers should

00:38

conduct phone screenings

00:40

how hiring managers should conduct phone

00:42

interviews and

00:44

how and where hr can codify interview

00:46

best practices

00:48

let's get started at bernie portal we

00:51

treat the phone interview as an

00:52

important screener

00:53

they're inexpensive take little time out

00:56

of your day and give you

00:57

and candidates an opportunity to learn

00:59

more about each other with relatively

01:01

low stakes

01:02

really though the great thing about

01:03

phone interviews is that they're fair

01:06

as software developer joel spolsky puts

01:08

it in his jolon software blog

01:10

with a phone interview because you can't

01:12

see the person

01:13

it's easier to focus on the quality of

01:15

what they're saying rather than other

01:17

external factors that aren't relevant to

01:19

their job

01:20

like their appearance or their

01:21

nervousness maybe a candidate looks

01:24

nerdy or maybe they're taller than you

01:26

expected

01:27

maybe they have a tick that could make

01:29

them seem a little more not so confident

01:32

spolsky points out that the great thing

01:34

about a phone interview is that it's

01:36

much harder to form these kinds of snap

01:38

judgments

01:39

you actually have to listen to what the

01:40

person is saying and decide if that

01:42

corresponds to what a smart person might

01:45

say

01:46

from a process standpoint phone

01:47

interviews should come before the

01:49

face-to-face interview

01:50

we appreciate the role it plays because

01:52

it further immunizes

01:54

hiring managers for making those snap

01:56

judgments sometimes referred to as the

01:58

infamous three-minute rule

01:59

where the interviewer forms the opinion

02:01

within the first three minutes after

02:03

seeing the person

02:04

it's like spolsky says once that opinion

02:07

is formed the interviewer then uses the

02:09

rest of the time to support it

02:12

phone interviews avoid this pitfall for

02:14

the most part

02:15

but of course there's more to phone

02:17

interviews than simply deciding to do

02:19

them

02:19

you actually have to do them let's cover

02:22

that right now

02:24

the best way to kick-start this process

02:26

is for your interviewer to send an

02:28

invitation

02:29

using an applicant tracking system also

02:31

known as an ats

02:32

bernie porter has a built-in ats that

02:35

automates these communications to

02:37

streamline the process

02:39

hr should work with managers to develop

02:41

a template that standardizes this

02:42

communication for all hiring managers

02:45

here's how that message should look hi i

02:48

reviewed your resume

02:50

and application and i'm excited to

02:52

connect with you for a phone interview

02:54

would monday february 29th at 9 30 a.m

02:57

central standard time work for you

02:59

thanks

03:00

once the candidate has accepted the

03:02

invitation your manager should

03:04

begin preparing for the meeting great

03:07

phone interviews consist of three parts

03:10

number one the candidate's introduction

03:12

two the employer's introduction

03:14

and three the q a each section should

03:17

last about 10 minutes

03:19

the framework gives equal opportunity to

03:21

the applicant to share their experience

03:23

and strengths

03:24

to the interviewer to share the

03:26

organization's mission and direction

03:28

and to both parties to answer lingering

03:30

questions from the first 20

03:32

minutes of the conversation another tip

03:34

hiring managers

03:36

need to have the applicant's resume on

03:38

hand during the call

03:39

now let's cover how that phone interview

03:41

should go

03:43

manager hi i'm the hiring manager for

03:46

the

03:46

open position here we've emailed back

03:49

and forth a little bit but it's nice to

03:51

connect with you over the phone

03:52

i have 30 minutes scheduled for this

03:54

call and i'd like to break it up into

03:56

three sets of 10 minutes

03:58

is that okay with you candidate sure

04:02

manager great for the first 10 minutes

04:04

i'd like you just to tell me about

04:06

yourself

04:06

if you want to hit the highlights on

04:08

your resume or if there's something you

04:10

didn't put on it that you'd like me to

04:11

know

04:12

take this 10 minutes to tell me i'd like

04:14

to spend the next 10 minutes telling you

04:16

about bernie portal and then more

04:17

specifically about the role

04:19

then depending on where the conversation

04:20

takes us i'll spend the last 10 minutes

04:22

answering

04:23

any questions you might have for me so

04:25

let's get started

04:27

tell me a little bit about yourself if

04:29

the conversation

04:30

doesn't flow managers should be prepared

04:32

to facilitate it by asking questions

04:34

about pivotal points in the candidate's

04:36

life

04:37

examples include why did you choose that

04:39

school

04:40

why did you decide to move or why did

04:43

you decide to leave that job

04:45

once the interview ends spolsky says

04:47

that you need to be prepared to make a

04:49

sharp decision

04:51

we agree to paraphrase joel there are

04:54

only two possible outcomes

04:56

hire or don't hire the reason behind

04:59

this

04:59

heartacheness is simple it is much much

05:02

better to reject a good candidate than

05:04

to accept a bad candidate

05:06

it's no secret that bad candidates will

05:08

cost you more time and money in the long

05:10

run

05:11

you might not hire them but maybe you

05:13

got to the end of that interview process

05:15

and realize that they're not for the

05:16

role

05:17

maybe you do hire them but they end up

05:18

being terrible

05:20

they make things worse for your other

05:21

employees and for your bottom line

05:23

this is why it's so important to take a

05:25

firm stance from the beginning

05:27

after the phone interview it might be

05:29

difficult or even uncomfortable

05:31

but you'll thank yourself down the road

05:33

once you do land the right candidate

05:35

everything i've just covered is

05:36

essential interview info

05:38

but if you don't have these standards

05:40

and best practices documented

05:42

you can't be certain that your managers

05:44

are conducting phone interviews as they

05:46

should

05:47

the good news hr can fix that by putting

05:49

together or updating the organization's

05:51

manager manual

05:53

we actually just covered this topic in

05:55

episode number 78

05:56

which is found in the episode's

05:57

description for your convenience

05:59

but just as a reminder a manager manual

06:02

is a comprehensive handbook that

06:03

codifies standards

06:05

best practices and other logistics

06:07

managers need to know at a given

06:09

organization

06:09

bernie portal uses this approach to

06:11

train our managers and we think it will

06:13

make your life easier too

06:15

but we're talking about hiring and

06:17

interviews in this episode so let's

06:19

focus on that

06:20

great manager manuals include

06:22

instructions for interviewing job

06:23

candidates

06:24

communication templates and other need

06:26

to know info that help managers control

06:29

the direction of phone interviews

06:30

the best part about the manager manuals

06:33

is that they allow

06:34

your management team to access this

06:36

information at any time

06:37

which means hr will be fielding fewer

06:40

questions throughout the day

06:41

to get started your first step is to

06:43

implement or update your manager manual

06:45

to include the phone interview process

06:47

we just discussed

06:49

hr's next mission is to serve as a

06:51

quality assurance

06:52

at bernie portal we conduct regular

06:54

training and role-play sessions with our

06:56

management team

06:57

these meetings help managers stay sharp

06:59

and give them an opportunity to bounce

07:01

ideas off one another

07:03

not only that but as hr you can identify

07:05

changes that might need to be made to

07:07

your hiring and interview process

07:09

think of yourself as a moderator during

07:11

these role play sessions

07:13

it's your job to empower hiring managers

07:15

to be better in their roles

07:17

key to the goal is conducting great

07:19

phone interviews

07:20

once your team has that skill dialed in

07:23

you stand a better chance of hiring the

07:25

best possible candidates for any given

07:26

role as they work their way through the

07:28

recruitment stages

07:30

i can't stress enough how important it

07:32

is for you to implement a manager manual

07:35

first before you dive into revamping

07:36

your phone interview process

07:39

but once we've got a handy guide for

07:41

your management team your next step is

07:43

to add a phone interview template to the

07:44

document

07:45

feel free to steal the format we used

07:47

earlier in this episode

07:49

also keep an eye out for another episode

07:51

we'll be releasing in the near future

07:52

about how to conduct

07:53

face-to-face interviews it should debut

07:56

07:58

so if you're watching the video after

07:59

that date check it out by visiting our

08:01

channel page

08:03

that's all we got this time once again

08:05

please remember to subscribe to our

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channel and ring the bell to get

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08:10

of one updates and new episodes

08:12

because no matter what topic we're

08:14

covering each and every single video

08:16

helps you

08:16

elevate your role to be as strategic as

08:18

you make it

08:38

[Applause]

08:41

you