This article is written by guest contributor Darrian Mikell, CEO of Qualifi, an interview management tool for one-way voice screenings. For more tools like Qualifi to help expedite your recruitment marketing efforts, visit our marketplace now. Happy hiring!

Ask any HR leader and they’ll tell you their team’s biggest pain point is hiring. 

It’s easy to succumb to the drawn-out process of posting jobs, screening candidates, conducting interviews, assessing skills and preparing offers. By the time quality talent fills a few positions, even more positions have already opened up. 

It’s an endless cycle that often sees candidates bowing out of the process because they’ve found something else in the meantime.

The job interview process can take up to eight weeks from start to finish. Candidates are being subjected to more rounds of interviews than ever before and the process is burning out HR practitioners who simply can’t keep up. Making matters worse is that HR teams are often pushing other HR priorities to the back burner to prioritize their recruiting tasks, including: 

• Employee training
• Benefits
• Compensation
• Performance management
• Onboarding
• Retention efforts
• Conflict resolution
• And more

Many wave the white flag of surrender and then search for a way to break the continuous cycle. Yet they’re only met with tools overly stuffed with technology that will quickly become obsolete.

As is often the case, the solution lies in simplicity. Many are turning to an age-old method with a 21st-century spin—voice screening.

What is a One-way Voice Screening?

Across sectors like healthcare, retail and insurance, time-consuming phone and video screenings are being replaced by simple, automated voice screenings. One-way voice interviews involve recording interview questions and inviting candidates to respond via voice on their own schedules. 

The entire process can personalized to customize it to the unique employer brand and add the much-needed human element. This provides a positive candidate experience from the very first touchpoint.  The responses can be quickly shared across teams reviewing and sharing voice files with their teams to keep the hiring process moving swiftly.

Companies are now screening candidates in a single day versus weeks, and their HR teams now have time to address other pressing HR needs. 

Benefits of Voice Interview Screening

One-way voice screening can provide more benefits than just reducing time-to-hire. They may also eliminate hidden bias that can come with in-person and video screening. 

Approximately 48% of hiring managers admit bias affects their candidate choice, and more than one-third of candidates have experienced discriminatory interview questions focused on their age, race or gender.

Voice screenings can eliminate biases and open the door for quality candidates who might not have been considered otherwise.

Automated voice screenings have also created an unmatched level of comfort for candidates, providing hiring companies with a true sense of who the candidate is—minus the interview jitters. 

Candidates typically undergo an intimidating process. This requires the right outfit, look, and articulate one-shot responses to questions. Automated voice screening offers candidates the ease of responding from anywhere, on their own schedule and hitting the send button with their most confident response.

Voice Screening Success Story

Mutual of Omaha provides one of the best examples of how voice screening can be a catalyst for change within an HR department. The leading insurance and financial services provider struggled with time-consuming manual phone interviews that dragged out over five days for a single front-line position candidate.

This impacted their ability to quickly onboard much-needed talent. They would focus solely on phone screens from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

Enter automated interview screening.

Mutual of Omaha eliminated that daily grind and filled 523 front-line associates in just one year. Their interview response rate dropped from five days to just over five hours—with a nearly 68% response rate. 

“This process saved us time in a few ways, with the ability to speed up voice recordings and access transcriptions for quicker assessment of candidates, ensuring that no time was wasted on unsuitable applicants,” said Mutual of Omaha Senior HR Specialist, Tammi Kruse. “These efficiencies meant the team could dedicate more time to consult with managers and work closely with the most promising candidates, enhancing the quality of hires.”

Companies like Mutual of Omaha are at the forefront of this growing trend and experiencing the benefits of automated voice screening. Their HR team is back to the full 360 degrees of their jobs. They now have the time to take care of recruitment along with internal HR needs for existing employees. 

For HR leaders grappling with the demands of recruiting, automated voice interview screening should be at the top of their list. HR tech is all about creating efficiencies, and perhaps the biggest time-saver available today is one that leverages the most basic candidate asset—their voice.

Darrian Mikell

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Darrian Mikell, a dynamic entrepreneur and business leader hailing from Indianapolis, IN, is the Co-founder and CEO of Qualifi. Passionate about uniting people to develop products and services that make a positive impact, Darrian drives Qualifi's mission to revolutionize the recruitment process. With a background as VP at Viral Launch, where he honed his skills in data-driven market intelligence and optimization for e-commerce, Darrian brings invaluable expertise to his role. A graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University, Darrian holds a Bachelor's Degree in Entrepreneurship and Finance and boasts a history as a two-sport athlete, clinching a national championship title in long jump.