Replace the phone screen. Keep what it was for.

The phone screen is the most common first round in hiring and one of the least examined. A recruiter calls, asks some questions, takes notes, and decides whether the candidate goes on. It feels cheap because each call is short. Add up the calls, the scheduling and the candidates you never had time to call, and it usually isn’t. This guide covers what a phone screen is actually for, what to keep, what it costs, and how to switch without losing anything that matters.

What a phone screen is for

Ask five recruiters what their phone screen checks and you’ll get a similar list:

1. Logistics. Location, availability, start date, pay expectations.
2. Must-have skills. Can this person do the core of the job, at the level the role needs?
3. Communication. Can they explain themselves clearly?
4. Interest. Do they understand the role and want it?
5. Selling. Answering their questions and making the role attractive.

The first four are about gathering information. Only the fifth truly needs a live conversation, and it matters most for candidates you already want.

What to keep

Before you replace anything, decide where each job goes.

The call doesn’t disappear. It moves later, to people you already know are worth it, and it gets shorter because the fact-finding is done.

One thing worth keeping from a good phone screen is the recruiter’s instinct for what to ask next. Write it down. If your best recruiter always asks “What would your last manager say you should work on?” because the answers are revealing, that question belongs in the new interview. The goal is to capture what your team already knows works, then give it to every candidate instead of the ones who happened to get a call.

What it costs: a worked example

These numbers are assumptions, not benchmarks. Swap in your own.

Assumptions: one role, 150 applicants. A résumé check leaves 60 worth a conversation, but the recruiter only has time to call 30. Each call takes 20 minutes, plus 10 minutes of scheduling, rescheduling and notes. Recruiter time costs $45 an hour, fully loaded. For the async route, all 60 are invited and 40 complete. The recruiter spends 3 minutes skimming each write-up and 10 more on the top 15.

The tool cost uses LessRounds’s pricing, where the first 10 completed interviews each month are free and each one after that is $5. It assumes this is your only role that month. Check the pricing of whatever tool you’re comparing.

The larger difference isn’t in the table. The 15 hours of calls had to fit into calendars over a week or more. The 4.5 hours of review can happen in one sitting, the morning after candidates finish. For your own numbers, try the phone screen cost calculator.

What an async first round changes

• Everyone gets the same questions. The eighth candidate of the afternoon gets the same interview as the first.
• Candidates choose the time. People with jobs, classes or other time zones stop dropping out over scheduling.
• You review evidence, not notes. Instead of a recruiter’s summary of a call, you read the candidate’s actual words and a score per skill.
• No-shows stop costing you. An interview nobody starts takes none of your time.

What you lose is the moment in a live call when a recruiter spots something interesting and follows it. An AI interview with follow-up questions gets some of that back. The rest belongs in round two.

You also lose the chance to sell early. For roles where good candidates have several offers, that matters. The fix is speed: if strong candidates hear from a person within a day of finishing, the async round costs you nothing on the sell and saves you the week you’d have spent scheduling.

How to switch, step by step

1. Write down what your phone screen checks today. Use your actual notes, not the ideal version.
2. Split the list into facts and skills. Facts become screening questions. Skills become spoken questions.
3. Build a 15- to 20-minute interview. Four to six spoken questions is usually enough for round one. Our guide on writing pre-screening questions helps here.
4. Run it in parallel on one role. Send the async interview to everyone, and still phone a handful of candidates. Compare who you’d move forward from each.
5. Rewrite the invite. Say it’s an AI interview, how long it takes, and when you’ll be in touch. The invite email template is a starting point.
6. Replace the screen call with a shortlist call. Fifteen minutes, for candidates who passed, focused on their questions and on selling the role.

What to watch in the first month

• Completion rate by source. If one job board’s applicants rarely finish, the invite or the role description may need work there.
• Set-aside candidates. Read a sample. If people you’d have hired are landing below your pass mark, adjust it or the skills.
• Agreement with your team. When a hiring manager disagrees with a shortlist, find out which skill they’d have scored differently.
• Candidate feedback. Ask two or three candidates how it felt. It’s the fastest way to find a confusing question.

If you’re ready to try it on one role, Replace phone screens shows how LessRounds handles the first round.