In this article we explore how the use of technology in the workplace seems to have impacted telephone communication skills and confidence. As these skills are vital in many roles, we discuss how you can screen for them and the alarm bells to look for.
I attended a business leaders’ dinner in London recently with around 20 people. We discussed several issues businesses are currently facing and an interesting topic that came up (which I was not expecting) was a concern about the reluctance of many employees to communicate by phone. Without fail, each of the people in attendance had one or more people in their business who were very reluctant to have direct communication with people both inside and outside their businesses and who would only communicate via e-mail, Teams, text, etc.
The consensus was that the problem with this approach is that it slows things down – something that could be sorted out in one telephone call was actually taking several days of to-ing and fro-ing via email for example.
Whilst people should be free to choose their mode of personal communications, we believe that a lack of phone confidence is unacceptable in business as time is money – literally! As this trend is becoming more prevalent (to such an extent that it is a topic of conversation for business leaders), we would suggest that testing for confidence levels when speaking directly with people is explored with candidates at interview.
There are several ways a candidate’s attitude to the phone can be tested at an interview:
1. Ask how confident someone feels speaking on the phone and watch the body language as the answer is given
2. Ask for recent examples of a productive business phone conversation that the applicant has had
3. Ask for examples of when it is more appropriate to call someone rather than use email
4. Set a live task for the applicant in the interview – this could be in the form of using a phone to call someone to ask for something. You will need to think about the context of this task as you do not want it to be a sales call because that can be truly intimidating for even confident phone users
5. Follow up from the interview with a phone call with the applicant – if they are not available leave a voice message asking them to call you back – if they email or text instead, alarm bells should be ringing
6. Check the applicant’s phone manner and confidence as part of the reference taking process
The world of technology has allowed people to work more flexibly and can lead to real efficiencies, but when people rely on messaging for ALL communication we would argue that it is detrimental to efficiency and achieving desired outcomes. Verbal communication is a key skill in so many jobs. It helps build relationships, it adds tone to a conversation (which can often be misread in an email) and it should not be forgotten in the interview process.
Finally, please do not hesitate to call Samantha Smith at Parkhouse Bell if you would like to discuss staffing – she enjoys speaking with people on the telephone and we are here to help! Samantha’s mobile is: 0405 248 406.
