A pre-screening interview is one way to get you started in finding quality talent. It is a pre-screening test for potential employees, which allows you to get familiar with them before you make informed hiring decisions. Before you conduct the interview, it is essential to have a list of pre-screening questions that will gauge the applicants and decide if they qualify to advance to the next level of the interviewing process.  

A Complete Guide to Pre-Screening Interview

Recruiting agencies help organizations cut to the chase when it comes to choosing potential staff. This is because they cut through a wide range of processes to narrow down the pool. One of these processes is the pre-screening interview. Conducting Interviews is done over stages. At each stage, the total applicants narrow down until the final candidate gets the job. The first of all these stages is the pre-screening interview.

What is a pre-screening interview?

A pre-screening interview is an opportunity to learn more about the candidate before going deeper into the recruitment process. These interviews can be conducted in various ways, including through phone conversations, face to face, or a video chat. A recruiter will typically have a set of pre-screening interview questions to establish whether the candidate is right for the position available. The pre-screening interview allows for a preliminary background check for pre-employment screening. Some of the questions asked may include the following: -

1. Qualifications – Verification of all listed qualifications on the resume, as well as questions on any other relevant qualifications that may not appear.
2. Work Availability – Discovering whether the individual can start work immediately or requires time to leave a current job.
3. Salary – Finding out what the expected remuneration from the candidate is to evaluate if aligns to the offering from the organization.
4. Job Interest – This question seeks to understand why an individual is passionate about taking up a particular position.
5. Future Plans – This looks to establish whether the applicant has a plan in their potential goal over a few years.

Applicant pre-screening questions also help a recruiter understand the preparation that the applicant has done to take up the job. From there, it becomes possible to ascertain whether the understanding of the job description is clear. The interviews tend to be short and to the point. Therefore, the applicants need to answer concisely and get their point across. As the first stage of the recruitment process, job applicant pre-employment screening can be time-consuming. At this stage, there are lots of resumes and applications to go through. This stage is often made much easier through the use of pre-screening tools. They serve various purposes, such as: -

1. Eliminating applicants without the right qualifications. This is done quickly with a pre-screening application, where applicants are required to answer basic questions.
2. Asking customized questions to ascertain skills and roles applicants took up in the past.
3. Providing analytics that reveals key factors around the application and taking into consideration what is happening in a particular industry.

Pre-screening is essential because resumes may not fully capture everything that one needs to know about the candidate. They can state the facts regarding qualifications and experience, but they cannot read deeply into personality and fit in an organization. Through the pre-screening process, job applicants also have the opportunity to understand what the position will require. At this stage, if the applicant is not willing to take up the position, they can step aside and open up room for others.