How Do You Handle Candidates Backing Out After Phone Interviews in Quality Control?

Dear Seniors, our recruitment team is facing a problem with candidates backing out after qualifying for the telephonic interview. Almost 38% of the candidates who committed to appearing for the interview did not show up, providing various reasons. The reasons also seem to be suspicious. Could you please help us by suggesting how we can overcome this issue and what the general industry practices are to avoid this situation?

This problem is more frequent when we are calling candidates with 2-5 years of experience for the Quality Control department. Please help.

Dear Friend,

1. Before going for the telephonic round, please review his resume twice.
2. During the interview, please ensure you understand the candidate's viewpoint.
3. Before sending him to the client's place, arrange a face-to-face round with your team.
4. If the candidate is genuine, then definitely proceed promptly.
5. Your recruiters need to spend more time with candidates during the telephonic round to understand the candidate's state of mind.

Addressing 'No Shows' in Hiring

'No shows' is a problem common to hiring teams. You mention that 38% of prospective candidates do not show up for interviews despite committing to do so. This means the remaining 62% are honoring their commitment. You should be able to select the right candidates from this 62%.

To some extent, you can mitigate this problem by scanning resumes to identify required competencies. Engage candidates telephonically to understand what motivates them to seek a change and how strong their motivation is. Assess whether your offer terms are sufficient to motivate them as well. You need to find ways to gauge their interest effectively. Otherwise, to my knowledge, there is no specific method or formula to ensure 100% attendance.

Regards, B. Saikumar HR & Labour Relations Adviser.

Dear Friends,

This is a common problem in society because of our social value system; therefore, professionals are now changing the interview processes. The Behavior-Based Interview process is helping us understand the mindset of the candidate and match his/her competence with the required job profile. In my opinion, you have to develop this skill set among your team members to cope with this problem.

Thanks,

Dear Madam, your problem is that 38% of the candidates who qualified during the telephonic interview do not show up for further interviews under some pretext. Maybe you need to look within the quality of the telephonic interview process. The impressions that get formed about the company, the job profile, and the candidate's overall expectations perhaps create repulsion in their minds.

The interviewers need to succeed in creating a very positive impression about the company, which helps attract candidates towards it. It's better to look for flaws in the process and fix them as there are no cut and dried solutions to this problem.

Regards, Vinayak Nagarkar HR Consultant

This is a common phenomenon in the employment industry. Based on my experience and information, many people check whether their requirements in the industry exist or not. Those who do not proceed after the first round belong to this category. Another category seeks a hike in pay and perks; they walk out if they feel there would be hardly any change in the pay structure.

Instead of conducting telephonic interviews, opt for video calling, where you can see the candidate physically. Changes in their face while facing the questions would give you an understanding of the candidate's behavior.

Regards,

Dear,

This is a genuine problem faced by every HR.

1. It may be due to a candidate not actively looking for a job change. You can get to know about it by asking them to provide a valid reason why they want to leave their current company.

2. They are not serious about a job change. They are just checking their worth in the market. You can check this when a candidate asks for unexpected salary hikes or a hike that is more than the industry standards based on their experience or skills.

Dear HR professional,

We presume you are from a company (not a Recruitment Consultant) and your domain is Non-IT. Even among Non-IT engineers, there is a tendency for no-shows after attending three rounds of interviews, and at the final stage, they become incognito. The telephonic interview is the first level of filtering (very important too) process after the scrutiny of the resume you have about that candidate. As rightly said by another member here, in the first level of interaction over the phone, you need to cross-check the candidate's relevant experience matching the job specifications you have in terms of process, domain, etc. You need to spend quite a good amount of time in this process by asking probing questions and sometimes recapping a question during the process in a different way. This will provide a lot of informative resources about the person and their fitment.

Most of the 2-5 years of experienced candidates may look for a change (which may be their second change mostly) for branded, professional companies with systems and procedures, good policies, and a good hike in pay from the present one to have a reasonably settled career for the next few years to stabilize. All these factors have to be kept in mind when you do the initial selection process through a telephonic interview. If a candidate gets a good score in your first level of the telephonic interview, only those candidates should be called for a personal interview.

As long as we have a dearth of quality people resources, you will need to swim along in the ocean of Recruitment with incognito fishes. Be happy and work your process.

Apart from the valuable suggestions given above, I would suggest the following:

1. Joint telephonic interview - Join the HOD for a telephonic round so you can assess where and what is going wrong.

2. Give advance intimations to the candidate about the telephonic round and give time for their preparation and studying the company website.

3. Prepare a checklist of questions to be asked during the telephonic round.

4. Make sure you talk about the expected qualities in a candidate, e.g., honesty, integrity, and commitment that form the company culture.

5. At the end of the telephonic round, share your initial impression about the candidate and ask for availability for a personal round.

6. Arrange personal interviews on the nearest available dates.

7. Be considerate to offer a date and time that suits the candidate.

In my opinion, the telephonic round should be brief and time-bound. The age criterion that you mentioned is likely to provide choices and alternatives in the job offers. So you need to freeze the right candidates as quickly as possible. Hope this helps you.