Recruiter phone screen call script for candidate outreach

The opener that earns ten minutes

A candidate applied two days ago and has probably been called by two agencies since. The opener that gets the screen is specific and bounded: name, agency, the exact role and facility, and a time ask of ten minutes that you then actually keep. “Is now a workable time” beats “do you have a minute” because it lets a working nurse say no and name a better time, and a named time becomes a callback task, not a lost screen.

Keeping to ten minutes is not a courtesy, it is the brand. Recruiters who run long get shorter answers; recruiters who end on time get candidates who pick up the next call, and who name a colleague when they do.

The screen, in an order that works

The questions run: still looking, current status and schedule target, shift flexibility, compensation floor, notice period, reservation. The order matters. Availability first keeps the conversation about the candidate’s life, which is what candidates want to talk about. Compensation in the middle, asked directly, framed as “what would make a move worthwhile.” The reservation question last, because by then the candidate trusts you enough to say the real thing, and the real thing is usually a commute, a parking garage or a daycare window.

What the screen does not do: interrogate the resume line by line. The recruiter has read it. The screen fills the gaps the resume cannot hold, and the submittal note is built from those gaps.

The objections and the lines that hold up

“I already accepted something”

Congratulate them, mean it, and ask two things: what the role is, and whether they want to hear about future openings that fit the schedule they just described. Log it as “Placed elsewhere, keep warm.” The best silver-medal list in recruiting is built from screens that ended with congratulations.

“What does it pay before I answer questions”

Answer honestly with the range you have, then return the question: “the range is 40 to 46 depending on shift; where in that range depends on what you tell me next.” Candidates accept real ranges. They punish recruiters who dance, and the dance costs the screen.

“I need to think about whether I even want to leave”

Do not push. Ask what would have to be true, log the answer as the condition, and set a two-week callback. A named condition is a live lead; a vague maybe worked weekly is a candidate who blocks your number.

“Another agency already called me about this role”

Acknowledge it without competing on spin. Ask whether they have been submitted already. If yes, you are done with this role for this candidate, and that answer protects the candidate and your reputation with the facility. If no, the screen proceeds, and your speed decides whose submittal lands first.

The compensation discipline that saves offers

The screen’s most valuable output is the pay floor, verbatim. “Thirty-eight now, would not move for under forty-two” is the sentence the offer negotiation turns on six days later. Paraphrased to “compensation negotiable,” it becomes a failed offer and a lost fee. In DialBreeze the AI summary captures compensation as a field while the recruiter dials the next candidate, and the recruiter checks the number against the recording before submitting. That habit, floor verbatim from the tape, is the difference between an agency that negotiates from facts and one that relitigates from memory.

The close, and the follow-through

The close states the process plainly: I am submitting you today with the schedule, the rate range and the start date; the facility usually responds within two days; I will call you either way. “Either way” is the phrase candidates remember, because most agencies go silent when the answer is no. The disposition is “Submittal” with a follow-up task dated two days out, and the summary carries the reservation (“parking, south side”) so the facility conversation can address it before the interview, not after the offer.

Compliance lines a recruiter should know

Candidate calls are generally not the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule’s core case because they do not solicit a purchase, but the TCPA’s restrictions on autodialed and prerecorded calls to wireless numbers apply regardless, see 47 CFR 64.1200. That is why the screen is a human-dialed call with a person talking. Honor every stop request the day it happens; candidates talk to each other. If your process pulls third-party background reports, the FCRA’s disclosure and authorization duties attach before the report, and the FTC’s employer guidance is the plain-language source. Recording requires consent in several states: disclose it, keep it role-relevant, and follow your retention policy. None of this is legal advice, and the calling program belongs in your operating policies, not in a recruiter’s memory.

Coaching screens from the recording

Pull one screen per recruiter per week and listen for three things: the time ask, the compensation question asked directly, and the reservation question asked at all. Most screens that fail, fail on the last one. In DialBreeze the summary flags it structurally: a screen summary with an empty reservation field is a screen that ended too politely, and the recording tells you in two minutes what a ride-along would have taken a day to learn.