Phone screen questions for staffing agency recruiters

A staffing agency phone screen has to confirm that you can submit this candidate to this client, for this role, at this rate, soon. Below are 25 phone screen questions for staffing agency recruiters, grouped by what a submission needs: recent work, the role's required skills, start date, rate, location, interview times, the right to represent, work authorization, and anything that doesn't add up. A printable checklist is near the end.

The questions suit contract and direct-hire roles in the United States. Replace the parts in brackets with the details of your req. The notes on pay, work authorization and questions to avoid are general information, not legal advice.

What does a staffing phone screen need to confirm?

The call has two halves. One asks whether the person can do the work. The other asks whether the submission can actually happen: start date, rate, location, interview times and the paperwork that lets you submit. The second half is easy to rush, and it's the half that sinks a submission after the client has said yes. Our worked example on weak submissions puts numbers on what that costs an agency.

What should you ask about role fit and recent work?

Open questions about the last job tell you whether the resume holds up when the candidate describes it in their own words.

1. "Walk me through your current or most recent role. What did a normal week look like?" You want the team, the tools and what they owned. A vague answer to the easiest question on the call is worth a note.
2. "What made you start looking, and what made this role interesting?" If the job doesn't match what they want, expect trouble at the offer stage.
3. "Tell me about a recent project that's close to what this client needs. Which part was yours?" People describe team work as "we." You need to know what they did themselves.

How do you check the role's required skills on a phone screen?

Get the required skills from the client in writing, and ask the hiring manager which ones are must-haves.

4. "This role needs [required skill]. Where have you used it most recently, and for how long?" Recency matters more than total years. Five years of a skill that ended in 2019 tells you less than two years that ended last month.
5. "Tell me about a problem you solved with [required skill]. What did you try first, and what happened?" Ask one follow-up on whatever they say. A real answer gets more specific the further you go, and a rehearsed one gets vaguer.
6. "Of the skills on this req, which are you strongest in, and which would you need time to ramp up on?" An honest gap is useful to the client.
7. "The client requires [certification or license]. Do you hold it, and is it current?" Ask only when the client requires it, and confirm it with the issuer before you submit.

If you aren't technical, our screening question pages cover common jobs one at a time, with what strong and weak answers sound like. For a longer example, see how to screen a Java developer.

What should you ask about availability and start date?

8. "If the client made an offer this week, when could you start?" Listen for a notice period, a contract end date or a move.
9. "Are you interviewing anywhere else or holding any offers? How far along are those?" This tells you how fast to move, and whether the client should know they have competition.
10. "Are there dates in the next few months you already know you can't work?" Better to hear about a planned trip now than in week two of a contract. Ask about dates only, not the reasons for them.

How should you ask about rate and pay?

Ask what they want before you name a number, then state the range and the employment type plainly.

11. "What rate or salary are you looking for in this role?"
12. "This role pays [range] on [W-2, 1099 or corp-to-corp]. Does that work for you?"
13. "Apart from pay, is there anything you need for this to work, such as benefits, hours or remote days?"

Ask about expectations, not current or past pay. New York's Labor Law § 194-a, for example, bars employers from seeking an applicant's wage or salary history as a condition of being interviewed or considered for an offer, and from relying on it to set pay. Its definition of employer includes anyone "acting as an employment agent, recruiter, or otherwise connecting applicants with employers." Check the rules in the states where your candidates and clients are.

What should you ask about location and remote setup?

14. "Where will you be working from during this assignment? City and state is fine." Payroll setup needs it, and some clients limit where remote contractors can work.
15. For onsite or hybrid roles: "The client wants you at [office location] [number] days a week from the first day. Can you do that?"
16. For remote roles: "Do you have a reliable internet connection and a quiet place to take client calls?"
17. "If the client ships you a laptop, what address should it go to?" The FBI's July 2025 advisory on remote IT worker fraud says to ship work equipment only to the address on the worker's identification documents, and to "require additional documentation to verify the address" if they ask for a different one.

What should you ask about interview availability?

18. "What days and times work for a client interview over the next week?"
19. "The client interviews on video with cameras on. Does that work for you?" A candidate who resists video for every round is worth a closer look.

How do you confirm the right to represent?

A right to represent (RTR) is the candidate's written agreement that your agency may submit them to a specific client for a specific role, usually at an agreed rate. When two agencies send the same person, neither looks good to the client.

20. "Have you applied to [client] directly, or has another agency submitted you there in the last six months?"
21. "Can I submit you to [client] for this role at [rate]? I'll email you the details so you can reply with a written yes."

Keep the written RTR, naming the client, role and rate, on the candidate record.

Can you ask about work authorization on a phone screen?

Yes, with care. The Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) of the Justice Department has identified two questions as appropriate to ask job applicants. Use them word for word:

22. "Are you legally authorized to work in the United States?"
23. "Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H-1B visa status)?"

In a September 2022 letter, IER says it "has repeatedly cautioned employers against using pre-screening questions (beyond the two questions IER has deemed appropriate)," because extra questions can confuse or deter people the law protects from citizenship status discrimination. The letter also says that protection covers "recruitment and referral for a fee," which is agency work. Ask both questions of every candidate in the same words, and leave citizenship, country of birth and immigration status alone beyond them.

What red flags should you listen for?

A stand-in or an invented resume struggles with specifics, so most questions above double as identity checks. Two more help:

24. "Which phone number and email should I use for you, and which LinkedIn or portfolio profile should I look at?" Compare the answers with the resume and with your ATS.
25. "Who did you report to on the project you mentioned, and could they speak to your work later as a reference?"

Note these if you hear them:

• Contact details that don't match the resume, or a phone number or email already in your ATS under another name. The FBI's January 2025 advisory says North Korean IT workers have reused phone numbers and email addresses "on multiple resumes purportedly belonging to different applicants."
• Employers, dates or titles that change between the resume and the call.
• Fluent answers to textbook questions and vague ones about the candidate's own projects.
• A long pause before every answer, including easy ones, or pushback on any round with the camera on.

None of these proves anything on its own; our guide on how to spot a proxy interview covers how to verify. An accent, a name or the country where someone studied is never a red flag.

Which questions should you leave out?

The EEOC's guidance on pre-employment inquiries says the information you ask for "should be limited to those essential for determining if a person is qualified for the job," and that "Employers are explicitly prohibited from making pre-offer inquiries about disability." The same page says an employment agency may not take protected traits such as race, sex, national origin or age (40 or older) into account "when making decisions about job referrals." So skip age or graduation year, health, pregnancy or family plans, religion, and where someone is "originally" from.

Which questions can an AI voice screen cover?

An AI voice screen asks every candidate the same skills questions, whenever they open the link. A recruiter is better at the questions that turn into a negotiation, such as rate and start date. Here is how we'd split this list with Simplehire:

• The AI screen covers the required-skills questions (4 to 6). Simplehire asks about the role's required skills, and the Adaptive and Advanced tiers follow up on the candidate's answers.
• The recruiter keeps the rest, including both work authorization questions. Simplehire's recruiter screen does not check work authorization.
• Red flags come from both. The report records integrity events such as tab switches, pasted text and leaving full-screen, and your call adds the identity questions.

The report's Areas to probe section gives you a starting list for your call. Its verdict is a recommendation, and a person decides who gets submitted.

What should a printable phone screen checklist include?

Print this, or copy it into your notes template, and tick each row before you submit.

How would you run this with Simplehire?

Simplehire runs AI voice screening interviews for recruiters. You create a role with its required skills and send each candidate an interview link. The candidate talks with an AI interviewer in their browser, and you get a screening report with Skills demonstrated X/Y, Strengths and Areas to probe before you submit anyone.

Basic is $2 per screen and about 15 minutes, for high-volume first screens. Adaptive is $3 and about 20 minutes, with follow-up questions, for technical and client-submission roles. Advanced is $5 and about 30 minutes, for senior or client-critical roles, with an optional coding round. Every tier runs in enforced full-screen mode and records tab switches and copy and paste attempts, and a person reviews every flag.

You get 25 free Basic screens every month with no credit card. Start free, see pricing, or read AI phone screening for staffing agencies for the full agency workflow.