20 Years, 20 Lessons: How to Pre-Screen Candidates

In recruitment, time is of the essence. So, with no time to lose, recruitment consultants and talent managers constantly seek ways to speed up the hiring process. Since phone interviews and in-person interviews take time and preparation, one of our jobs as recruitment consultants is to ensure we present our clients only with the best candidates for them. How do we do it? Well, we ask a set of candidate pre-screening questions to qualify candidates.

Pre-screening questions save everyone time: hiring managers, in-house talent managers, recruitment consultants, and, of course, candidates. While our list of essential candidate pre-screening questions below can help your organisation identify the most suitable candidates early in the process and optimise your talent search, it’s not a closed set of questions.

Think of this article as a guideline for identifying the top candidates for your vacancy at the pre-screening stage. It includes “dos” and “don’ts” based on our professional experience of 20+ years in recruitment. Therefore, you should adapt each question to your individual situation and requirements.

Why Pre-Screening Candidates?

Pre-screening candidates allow recruiters to quickly assess whether a candidate meets the basic requirements for a position before investing significant time in a full interview. It helps filter out candidates who might not be a good fit, ensuring that only the most promising candidates move forward.

If you are wondering how long candidate pre-screening interactions should last, David Berwick, Senior IT Recruitment Specialist and Adria Solutions’ Director, suggests you allocate between 20 and 30 minutes. “Sometimes all it takes is 10 minutes, and you know you’ve got the right candidate,” David says.”It’s not just about the qualification; it’s also about building rapport with the candidate,” David adds.

Five Essential Candidate Pre-Screening Questions to Ask

Question 1.- What’s your current situation?

We’re not nosy about your employment status, but we often ask this question to determine the candidate’s availability to start, which can help us plan the recruitment timeline more effectively. If the candidate doesn’t mention it in their answer, we can also ask them how far they are willing to commute for work, if it’s an office or hybrid role.

Question 2.- Can you describe your experience related to this role?

This question helps us understand the candidate’s relevant skills and previous work experience and analyse whether they align with the role we’re recruiting for. Furthermore, we use it to review all the dates and relevant information in the candidate’s CV to ensure everything is correct.

Question 3.- Tell me about your skills in [technical skill area] / your role on [specific project mentioned on the CV].

This question allows us to assess the candidate’s specific technical skills (something especially relevant in IT recruitment, as you can imagine) as well as individual contributions to past projects to get a clearer picture of their capabilities.

Question 4.- What type of work environment do you prefer?

This question is especially important for us, as understanding the candidate’s preferred work style and work environment can help us determine whether they’ll thrive in our client’s company’s culture. Since we often approach passive candidates who aren’t actively applying for roles, this question allows us to gauge whether our client and the candidate’s motivation, aspirations and career goals align and whether they might be a great match.

Question 5.- What are your salary expectations?

We get it; nobody likes to talk about money, but hear us out: Addressing this topic early on ensures that compensation expectations are met later in the process. Let’s remember to discuss company benefits here, as many candidates embrace benefits such as flexibility, extended holiday allowance, enhanced pension contributions or wellbeing benefits.

When you first speak to a candidate, other relevant questions would be about their Right to Work status, previous criminal convictions, and whether any adjustments might be needed in the workplace.

Five Candidate Pre-Screening Interview Questions To Skip

Question 1.- Where do you see yourself in five years?

While long-term goals are important, questions like these may be irrelevant for the initial screening phase.

Question 2.- If you were an animal/Disney character, which one would you be?

Quirky questions can be fun to break the ice but don’t add much value to the pre-screening process.

Question 3.- Do you have any children or plan to have any soon?

This question is irrelevant, too personal and illegal to ask, as it can lead to discrimination.

Question 4.- Do you have any disabilities?

Instead, focus on whether the candidate can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.

Question 5.- What is your race/ethnicity /religious affiliation?

This question is discriminatory, irrelevant to the job, and does not affect a candidate’s ability to perform job duties.

Can candidates also ask back questions at pre-screening interviews?

Yes, candidates can and should ask questions during pre-screening interviews! Adria’s recruitment consultants never end a pre-screening interview without asking, “Do you have any questions for me?” although they also welcome questions during the conversation. After all, the best interviews are conversations, not interrogations!

Encouraging candidates to ask questions also helps to create a more engaging and balanced conversation, making the phone screening more informative for both parties.

Candidate Pre-Screening is more than qualifying candidates

By asking the right questions and avoiding those that don’t add value, our recruitment consultants save our clients and candidates valuable time and resources and ensure the candidate is a good cultural fit, too.

But what happens when your candidate isn’t a good fit for the role you’re recruiting for but an excellent candidate? In that case, the experienced recruitment consultants will use the information and insights obtained from the candidate’s pre-screening interview questions to find another company (or role) that might be an ideal fit for the candidate. In the meantime, that candidate will join our extensive talent pool. At the same time, we’ll keep building trust and rapport with the candidates in our talent pool to keep them engaged.

Ready to speed up your recruitment process with effective candidate sourcing and candidate screening techniques? Speak today with our team to learn more about our candidate pre-screening services and find your perfect match quickly and effectively.