The Ugly Side of Telephonic Interview

Amit has joined his new assignment as Senior Software Engineer three days back in one of the fast growing software product development company at Bangalore. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear right from the first day morning hours he was highly demoralized and confused because after joining the new assignment he is of the opinion that this is not the Job he was looking for. He spent last three days in analyzing various factors and of the opinion that the culture of this company is highly chaotic which he never expected. Even his last company culture was extremely systematic and therefore he is not at all comfortable here. The chaotic nature not only gets reflected in the workplace but also it is very much visible in canteen and in other areas.

In fact he had to face three round of interview, all telephonically in order to get this offer. At the end of final round of interview his Salary was negotiated telephonically and accordingly on the next day offer letter were being sent by E-mail to Delhi where he was working till recently. Therefore it is his first physical visit to the premises of the current company. But now question is can he Who Can Use Viagra back to his Ammericanidol assignment? And if that were so what would be the reaction of his previous boss as well as company? Because somewhere down the line he strongly believes that his previous assignment was far better than the current one. Even due to this confused state he has not even collected his new appointment letter though on the first day morning hours itself he completed all his joining formalities. He strongly believes that had he been visited this company even during the process of interview, he would have clearly refused to join this assignment and therefore would have remained in his previous company. Under the circumstances, now his only focus is to get back his previous job by any means or move to another company where he has already appeared interview. But this time before accepting any new offer he would like to ensure that he physically visits the company premises and gets a first hand feel of the company culture.

It is the case of Sandip, who has joined a Hyderabad based Software Development Company all the way from Chennai. On the first day of his joining he strongly realized that his current boss is highly arrogant, dominant and typical Caw boy type nature, which he will not be able to adjust. He says very clearly that, had he been interacted with his current boss physically at least once even during the process of interview, he wouldnt have accepted this assignment and therefore now he is desperate to quit this company and rejoin his previous company. But the entire interview process took place telephonically and no physical interaction took place before his resuming duty.

Anita has developed slightly different experience. She was interviewed first two round telephonically and she found it good one. However in order to remain in Candy Canes side, Anita insisted that she should be given an opportunity to have one to one physical meeting in the company premises before closing the deal in case company official wish to do so. Accordingly as part of the last round of interview when Anita met company official in there premises, within few minutes she could decide that this is not the place and job she is looking for though during the process of telephonic interview everything was found to be very good and positive. Therefore without moving further she informed the interviewer that she would not prefer to move forward with this assignment any more. According to her in this process she could avoid a disaster of her career.

Over the period of last few years Telephonic interview has gained tremendous popularity not only in India but also in the international market because of its obvious advantages such as recruitment cost savings, saving of valuable senior executives time, affordability and accessibility, and ultimately driving productivity of the entire Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer Therefore no one can deny that Telephonic interview has virtually changed the face of todays recruitment process.

However one has to understand the various dynamics of conducting telephonic interview in advance. Very recently the Vice President-Strategic Resourcing of a top three IT Companies of India came across with many cases where it was found that the candidate who were being interviewed are entirely different from the candidate who has finally joined the company. According to him since the entire interview process took place telephonically, candidate could manipulate the entire process. Similar feedback also came from many other companies engaged in mass recruitment initiative.

In the process of scaling up massive recruitment operation, in todays marketplace many organizations completes the entire recruitment process through telephonically without going through the face-to-face interaction process for the outstation candidates. Many organizations are also of the opinion that under tremendous time, project deadline as well as cost pressure, physical interaction though essential but could be avoided. Some organization has already made it a policy guideline and many are practicing the same as unwritten policy.

However when we are talking of recruiting an employee in any organization for long-term duration, it is extremely important to have a physical face-to-face interaction at the companys premises for both interviewee and interviewer before finalization of the deal. It is important because a face-to-face interaction gives a very good idea about the various cultural factors which both side will have to deal with extensively during the process of employment. In addition many other essential components of personality traits, body languages, individual as well as team dynamics and many other similar as well as dissimilar factors gets unlocked during the process of face to face interaction (in case of telephonic interview these factor may remain hidden) which virtually decides the bond between the employees and employer in any organization. Even a typical canteen atmosphere in any company gives very good signal about the organization culture.

Therefore in case any organization avoids face-to-face interaction between the employer and prospective employee at the companys premises before finalization of the deal, right candidate might not be hired by the company, which might damage the project or companies future very seriously in the long run. Moreover the prospective candidate might take a wrong step of his/her career, which eventually might prove to be highly expensive.

In conclusion telephonic interview process has become extremely popular in recent times across the corporate world and the entire industry has become tremendously benefited due to its massive advantages. However this process also has serious consequences, which normally remains hidden in case the process is not managed carefully. Instead of developing an organization it can destroy a very good organization in no amount of time besides destroying the future of many bright talented professional. The consequence is very much visible in the corporate sector and if appropriate steps are not taken immediately, consequence will be far more damaging

Author: Joydip Dey is a Post Graduate from X.L.R.I. Jamshedpur having more than 16 years of complex industry experience and currently heading the HR function of a highly reputed technology company. His E-mail address is href="mailto:deyjoydip@rediffmail.com">deyjoydip@rediffmail.com and Mobile number is 9810219389