Conducting A Powerful Phone Interview with Christopher Wood of Rise Recruitment USA

One of the most powerful tools in your hiring process in the phone interview. The challenge that we have is that it is treated as a screen just to find out if someone has the skills needed. And this process takes on average 5-10 minutes. 

 It is such an opportunity loss because your first point of contact should be about establishing the connection with the person regardless of the outcome. Your phone interview sets the stage for how you are perceived and severely affects your ability to hire.

Today’s Quote: 

"When it comes to success, there are no shortcuts."  - Bo Bennett

Our guest today: Chris Wood, Director of Recruiting for RISE Recruitment USA & Managing Director of theRecruitmentCollective

Chris has spent the past 15 years in the Staffing industry utilizing his background in Recruitment and Account Management to help Fortune 500 companies solve their hiring problems by recruiting top talent within the Aerospace, Automotive, Medical Device, Healthcare, Finance & Consumer Goods industries. 

In 2017, he took on the role of Managing Director at theRecruitingCollective, an organization of independent, specialized recruiters and boutique firms centered around providing new, custom talent programs. His primary focus today is attracting over and retaining top talent to the Cannabis, CBD & Natural Products industries. 

He previously sat on the board for National Human Resources Association – Los Angeles and is currently on the program committees for DisruptHR Orange County and San Diego.  In addition, he is an advisor to numerous Recruiting Technology platforms and emerging Cannabis and CBD companies and a member of the National Association of Cannabis Businesses.

 Today we are going to discuss

• Why phone interviews are a critical part of the hiring process 
• How to conduct an effective phone interview

 Why are Phone interviews more important now than ever?

• Understand the person
• Goals, skills & interests - Career path/motivations
• Passive recruiting - building a constant stream of qualified candidates
• Due to the lack of face to face; with Covid-19 restrictions on in person meetings, this is the only way to hire talent during these times
• Sets the tone for process

Positioning of your phone interview

• Setting a clear objective of what you want to get from the call; feel for personality fit with team, explanation/knowledge of necessary experience, understanding of career path and long term intentions
• Asking specific questions that address strengths of candidate that fills a need with your team
• Identifying interest of candidate in role & joining your team

How to conduct a phone interview

• Self reflection- identifying the hole on the team
  • Understand what is really needed
  • Identify characteristics of the person so you can create questioning to reveal if candidates fulfills your teams need
• How are you going to find what you need
  • Creating the profile of the ideal hire
  • Establishing must haves vs nice to haves
• Contact
  • Asking the questions that are centered around the key things you need to know
  • Strategic questioning 

Rick’s Nuggets

• Purpose of the phone interview is to understand the person first
• Identify their reason for hearing (pain), what they want to be doing (desire) and what they have accomplished

Key Takeaways:

• Don't just look at the resume, definitely talk to someone. Take the phone screen very seriously
• Really get to know what the person wants. Get to know them!