Screening call questions for recruiters: example and template
The questions a recruiter asks on a screening call or phone screen before putting a candidate forward, with a worked example and a free Word template.
What is a screening call?
A screening call, also called a phone screen or screening interview, is a short call between a recruiter and a candidate to decide whether to put them forward for a job. In an agency it comes before the client sees a CV; in-house it comes before the hiring manager's interview. It's usually by phone or video, and rarely longer than half an hour.
A CV says what someone has done. The call finds out what the CV can't: why they'd move, what they'd move for, and whether the pay, the journey or their notice would stop them taking this job. Those are the first things a client asks about a candidate, so they are what the call is for.
It works in both directions. The candidate hears an honest account of the role, and either wants to go further or says no before anyone spends an afternoon on an interview.
What questions should a recruiter ask on a screening call?
Ask in roughly this order. It opens with the subject the candidate knows best, their current job, and leaves money until they've said what they want from the next one. If you're calling applicants rather than people you approached, check anything that would end the call on the spot, such as right to work or a commute they can't do, in the first minute.
Their current job
- What do you do day to day, and who do you report to?
- How big is the team, and what are you responsible for?
- What are you proudest of in this job?
Ask for the numbers the job has: team size, accounts, budget, targets. "I look after a big patch" tells a client nothing; "60 accounts, a £1.2 million target, 108% this year" tells them most of what they need.
Account manager · Haxby & Lowe, London
Screening call questions
Rhys Morgan · Wednesday 11 November, 14:30
1. Tell me about yourself.too wide
Walk me through your accounts: how many, what they buy, your target2. Why are you looking?
… and what would make you stay?3. Salary expectations?
What are you on now, with commission and car? What would you move for?4. Are you available?for what?
Notice? Anything booked before mid-January?last: has another agency sent your CV? where?
The client's must-haves
- For each must-have on the brief: when have you done that, and how big was it?
- Do you hold [the qualification or licence the job needs]? When did you get it?
Take these from the brief you agreed in the intake meeting. If a candidate says yes but can't show it yet, such as a certificate they'll send later, note it as still to confirm. If they're missing a must-have, tell the client before or with the CV, rather than hoping nobody notices.
The rest of their CV
- Why did you leave your last two jobs?
- What were you doing between [month] and [month]?
A client will ask about any gap or short stay on the CV, so get the answer now, in the candidate's words. If a gap was for illness or caring for someone, take what they offer and don't press for more.
Why they're looking
- What made you start looking?
- What would have to change for you to stay?
If the answer to the second question is "more money", a counter-offer from their employer will probably keep them, and it's better to know that now than after the client has made an offer.
What they want next
- What would the next job need to have for you to move?
- What would rule a job out?
- What hours, shifts or working pattern suit you?
Pay
- What are you paid now, including any bonus, commission or overtime?
- What would you need to move?
The current figure tells you what's realistic, and the second figure tells you what closes them. Note what each figure includes. In some US states and cities you can't ask about current or past pay, and the rules usually cover recruiters too; ask only about expectations there.
Notice and start date
- What notice do you have to give?
- Is anything booked that would delay a start, such as a holiday or a course?
- When could you get to an interview?
Location and travel
- Where do you live, and how would you get to work?
- How long a commute would you do? Would you relocate?
Right to work
- Do you need a visa or sponsorship to work here?
- If you're on a visa, when does it end?
Ask whether they need sponsorship, not where they're from. In the UK, the employer must check the right to work before the person starts, which on a permanent placement means your client. Asking now saves a placement falling through at the last step.
Where else they've applied
- Where else have you applied, and what stage are you at?
- Has another agency sent your CV anywhere? Where?
For an agency, the second question is the one you can't skip. If two agencies send the same CV to the same client, they end up arguing over who earns the fee, and the client may drop the candidate rather than settle it.
Their questions
- What would you like to know about the role?
What they ask tells you what they care about. Anything you can't answer goes on your list for the client.
How do you run a screening call?
Send the job details first. Leave the client's name off if you're holding it back. A candidate who has read the role spends the call on whether it suits them rather than what it is.
Say how long it will take, and that you're taking notes, or recording if you are. Then let them talk about their current job before you ask anything that sounds like a test.
Ask follow-ups instead of the next question. The useful part of most answers comes after "how do you mean?" or "what happened then?". A list of questions read out in order gets a list of short answers back. Keep the core questions the same for everyone you call about the same job, so you can compare them; the follow-ups are where the calls differ.
Write down what they said, in their words. Especially the numbers. "Expects low forties" and "£42,000 base plus commission" are different notes, and only one of them can go to a client.
Check your sheet before the end. About five minutes before you finish, look down your sheet for anything you haven't asked yet and ask it while you still can.
End with the question that decides it. Ask whether they want to be put forward, and agree what happens next and when they'll hear from you. In Great Britain, an agency must confirm a candidate is willing to work in the role before it puts them forward (regulation 19 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003), and this is where you confirm it.
Then write it up while the call is fresh. What goes to the client is a short candidate summary, not your notes.
What can't you ask on a screening call?
Keep to what the job needs. In Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 protects nine characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Asking about any of them can be used as evidence of discrimination if the candidate isn't put forward, so leave out questions about age, children or plans to have them, marriage, religion and where someone is from.
Health is stricter. Before a job offer, you can't ask about a candidate's health except in narrow cases, such as whether they can do something essential to the job (section 60 of the Act). The rule covers agencies too, and in the US the Americans with Disabilities Act sets a similar one.
Screening call example
Callum Reid, an agency recruiter, screened Rhys Morgan for an account manager job at Haxby & Lowe, an industrial supplies distributor in west London. Rhys looks after 60 accounts for a packaging supplier. What the client asked for is in our intake meeting example.
Callum Reid
Rhys Morgan
Account manager, a packaging supplier in Enfield
11 November 2026, 14:30
Account manager since October 2024, looking after 60 trade accounts across north London and Hertfordshire. Plans his own visits and handles quotes and renewals. On the road four days a week. A £1.2 million target this year. Likes his customers; doesn't like the cost-cutting since the firm was bought.
A bigger patch with technical products, on the road most days with some office days.
Selling industrial tools to trade customers: five years at a distributor in Croydon, internal sales and then account manager. Quotes and pricing within a set margin. Full UK driving licence, clean; DVLA check code to follow.
Happy to take on some new business. Wants to learn more about writing tenders.
108% of target this year, his figure. Cut lost accounts from 7 to 2 a year with quarterly reviews. Won 9 new accounts.
The firm was bought by a national group in the summer, and his patch is being cut to 35 accounts in the spring. Asked what would keep him: only keeping all 60 accounts, and that's already decided, so a counter-offer wouldn't keep him.
Sales manager within five years.
Lives in Harrow and drives; the Park Royal office is 25 minutes away. Won't relocate.
No sponsorship needed.
£42,000 base, plus commission and a car allowance.
£37,000 base, about £7,000 a year in commission and a £4,500 car allowance.
Four weeks. Plans to stay until New Year's Eve to hand over his accounts, then has a week away booked, so the earliest start is Monday 11 January 2027. Can interview on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. A six-month clause stops him approaching his current customers; he'll send the wording.
First interview with a builders' merchant next week, applied direct. Another agency sent his CV to a packaging firm in Watford last week; no reply yet. Agreed to go forward to Haxby & Lowe.
An internal sales colleague from the Croydon tools firm is looking. He'll pass on our number.
Two lines decide what happens next. His earliest start fits the client's mid-January start, and the other agency sent his CV to a different firm, so there's nothing to untangle. His 60 accounts are short of the 80 on the brief, so the summary says that first. He agreed on the call to go forward to Haxby & Lowe, and that evening the client got the candidate summary written from these notes.
Screening call template
The general screening sheet from our templates page, for a phone or video screen: the person first, then the practical details. Keep it open while you talk, write straight into it and delete the headings you don't need. Add commission, overtime or a car allowance to the pay lines if the job has them. Download the Word file, free and with no sign-up, or copy it as text into your own document.
[name]
[name]
[role, company]
[date]
- What do they do day to day?
- Which team or function?
- What do they like about the role?
- What don't they like?
- What would they move for?
- What is their ideal working environment?
- Office, hybrid or remote?
- What are they strongest at?
- Which tools or systems do they use daily?
- What share of their time is hands-on?
- Would they take on unfamiliar work?
- What do they want to learn next?
- What can they evidence? Numbers, outcomes?
- Why are they looking to leave?
- Would a counter-offer keep them?
- Where do they want to be in three to five years?
- Specialist or management?
- Where are they now?
- Would they relocate? Where, why and when?
- Do they need sponsorship? What type?
- How long is left on their current visa?
- What number closes them, and why?
- Base, bonus, equity, pension?
[notice period, and any non-compete]
- Where have they applied?
- Direct or through a recruiter?
- What stage are they at?
- Which role do they prefer?
- Do they know anyone else who is looking?
- Anyone at the clients discussed?
There are tech and finance versions, with the questions those desks ask, on the templates page. If your agency has its own screening sheet, Sorinai can fill that instead: it answers each field as the candidate talks, and the filled Word file is ready a few minutes after you hang up. See how it works for recruiters. Sorinai records the call on your computer, so tell the candidate at the start that it's being recorded.
Screening call FAQ
How long should a screening call take?
Fifteen to thirty minutes for most roles, a little longer for senior ones. If it runs well past that, you've probably started the interview the client is about to hold.
What's the difference between a screening call and an interview?
The screening call decides whether to put a candidate forward; the interview decides whether to hire them. A screening call checks the facts and the motivation, and an interview tests the skills, usually against a set of criteria with examples. Our guide to interview notes covers what to write down at that stage.
Should you tell the candidate who the client is?
Name the client before they agree to be put forward, and get their agreement to send the CV to that client in particular. Many agencies hold the name back until then, so the candidate can't apply direct or take the job to another agency first. Sending a CV without that agreement is how duplicate submissions happen.
What are the red flags on a screening call?
The ones that lose a placement later: a reason for leaving that a pay rise would fix, because a counter-offer will probably keep them; a pay figure well above the client's budget; a CV another agency has already sent to the same client; and vague answers about the numbers, such as targets, team size or notice, because the client will ask for them.
What happens after a screening call?
Write the summary for the client the same day, while you can still remember how the candidate said things, and tell the candidate when they'll hear back. If you aren't putting them forward, tell them rather than leaving them to chase you. If the client wants to meet them, an interview comes next, and after an offer, the reference check.
