Warehouse roles are decided by a handful of facts and one judgement call. The facts: tickets, availability, transport, physical capability for the role. The judgement: will this person turn up on time, work safely, and still be here in three months?
A phone screen collects those facts one missed call at a time. An async video campaign collects them from every applicant on the night they apply. The trick is asking questions that surface the facts fast and give the judgement something real to work with.
The question set
1. “Do you hold a current forklift (LF) licence? If it’s handy, hold it up to the camera.” — 30 seconds. The most common placement blocker, resolved instantly. If the role doesn’t need a ticket, swap in the licence or certificate that gates it — white card, HR licence, dangerous goods.
2. “What shifts can you reliably work — days, afternoons, nights, weekends?” — 45 seconds. The word reliably does the work. Candidates over-promise availability on paper; saying it to a camera makes it a commitment they think about.
3. “Walk us through your most recent warehouse or logistics role — what did you actually do day to day?” — 90 seconds. This is your substance question. Listen for specifics: RF scanning, pick rates, voice picking, load restraint. Vague answers here predict vague work.
4. “Tell us about a time you noticed a safety issue at work. What did you do?” — 60 seconds. The best predictor of site behaviour you can get in a minute. You’re not marking eloquence — you’re listening for whether safety is a real concept to them or a poster on a wall.
5. “When could you start, and how would you get to the site?” — 30 seconds. Transport kills more warehouse placements than skills do. Ask it directly and early.
Why the time limits matter
Short limits aren’t about rushing candidates — they’re about respect and signal. A 30-second cap on a factual question tells candidates you value their evening; a 90-second cap on the substance question is enough for a real answer without inviting a ramble. Total answer time for this set is about four minutes, which keeps completion rates high even for casual applicants juggling multiple applications.
Reviewing at volume
Review answers side by side rather than candidate by candidate: watch all the ticket answers first and disqualify the blockers, then watch the substance answers only for candidates who passed the gates. With ratings and tags (“LF ticket”, “own transport”, “immediate start”), a 60-applicant campaign reviews in about ninety minutes — and your whole team sees the same evidence you did.
If you’re still running this round by phone, the maths is worth doing once: 60 applicants × 15 minutes is fifteen hours of calls, before reschedules. The phone screening vs video screening comparison breaks it down properly.
Ready to run this set on your next intake? Start a free trial — the questions above paste straight into your first campaign, and there’s a full guide for warehouse and logistics screening.