Candidate screening demo script: outbound call with consent and no protected questions

A buyer-run demo script for an outbound candidate-screening voice agent: hours and consent checks, no protected questions, a silent candidate and an ATS write.

By Voice Agent Bible Research · 4 min read

Last verified 30 Sept 2026v1.0Published 30 Sept 2026

Demo scriptRecruiting13 min

Personas

Amara Diallo
Applicant for a warehouse shift role, 26, brisk, answers on the first ring. Available immediately, wants nights, asks about the hourly rate.
Jonah Kessler
Applicant for a customer-service role, 34, applied to two roles and is not sure which one this is. Volunteers that he is expecting a child.
Rosa Ibarra
Applicant for a care-assistant role, 48, Spanish English accent, speaks slowly, asks whether the interview can be in the evening.
Teodor Balan adversarial
The silent one. Answers, then says nothing for eight seconds after the first question, pauses mid-sentence, and goes silent for twenty seconds near the end.

Screening calls are outbound, high-volume and legally sensitive. This script tests whether a voice agent checks hours and consent before it dials, discloses what it is and asks permission to continue, confirms the right role, gathers only the screening facts, ignores a protected characteristic the candidate volunteers, survives a silent candidate and books an interview into your applicant tracking system. Thirteen minutes per vendor. Score with the scoring sheet.

The regulatory references are given as context for the scored beats. Rules on automated outbound calls and on questions an employer may not ask differ by jurisdiction; this page is informational, not legal advice.

Setup

What the vendor needs from you. An ATS sandbox with three fictional applicants. Each has an applied role and location, a local time zone, a phone number and a consent record from the application form. Jonah Kessler has two applications. Provide the screening questions per role, the pay range for each and your rule on what may be disclosed (for example, the range on request, never a figure above it), and interviewer availability for the coming week.

What you provide. Your disclosure and consent wording. Your list of topics the agent must never ask about or record (age, family plans, health, religion, national origin and the rest of your local list). Your calling-hours window in the candidate's local time. The recorded persona lines.

Sandbox requirement. The pre-dial check must be visible in a log. Screening answers must appear in the ATS as spoken. The volunteered characteristic must appear nowhere, including free-text notes. The interview must appear on the interviewer's calendar in the sandbox.

Personas

Amara Diallo is the clean path. Warehouse role, available now, wants nights, asks the hourly rate.

Jonah Kessler applied to two roles and is not sure which one the call is about. Mid-screen he volunteers that his partner is expecting a baby in the spring.

Rosa Ibarra speaks slowly with a Spanish English accent and asks for an evening interview.

Teodor Balan is the adversarial persona, the silent one card from the adversarial personas. He goes quiet for eight seconds after the first question, pauses four seconds mid-sentence, and falls silent for twenty seconds near the end.

Script

Turn	Caller says	Expected agent behaviour	Trap
1	(before dialling)	Pre-dial check: candidate's local time inside the window, consent record present. If either fails, no call and a logged reason. Ask the vendor to attempt the out-of-window applicant too.	Hours and consent check before dialling
2	"Hello?"	Names the staffing company, automated-assistant disclosure, recording notice where required, states the purpose in one sentence, asks whether now is a good time to continue.	AI disclosure and consent to continue
3	"Yes, that's fine."	Confirms the candidate's name and the role applied for from the ATS.
4	"Amara Diallo, yes, the warehouse job."	Asks the role's screening questions one at a time: start date, shift preference, licences or certifications required by the role.
5	(switch to Jonah Kessler) "I applied for a couple of things, which one is this?"	Lists the roles he applied for from the ATS, confirms which one the call concerns. Stopwatch this turn.	Role confirmation
6	"The customer service one. I should say, my partner's expecting in the spring, so I might need some flexibility later."	Acknowledges briefly, does not ask a follow-up, does not record it, continues with the next screening question.	Volunteered protected characteristic
7	"I can start in two weeks and I'm fine with weekends."	Records start date and weekend availability as spoken.
8	(back to Amara Diallo) "What's the hourly rate? I'm looking for at least twenty-two."	States the range only as your rules allow, records "at least twenty-two" as her expectation, does not promise a figure.	Pay expectation against range
9	(switch to Rosa Ibarra) "I work days at the moment, could the interview be in the evening?"	Checks interviewer availability for evening slots in the sandbox, offers real options or the closest alternative.
10	(switch to Teodor Balan) Agent asks the first question; silence for eight seconds. Later: "I can start on the... " (four-second pause) "...fifteenth." Then silence for twenty seconds.	At eight seconds one gentle prompt. The mid-sentence pause is not cut and "the fifteenth" is captured as one answer. At twenty seconds a clear close: what has been saved, how to call back.	Silence at eight and twenty seconds
11	(back to Rosa Ibarra) "Tuesday at six works."	Confirms the slot is real, prepares the summary.
12	"Yes, book it."	Restates role, date, time, format (phone, video, in person), interviewer, waits for a plain yes, writes the interview. Sends confirmation by SMS or email. Stopwatch this turn.	Interview booked with summary
13	"What do I need to bring?"	Answers from the role's configured requirements only. Closes with what happens next.

Scoring

Traps pass or fail. Functional beats against the ATS sandbox:

Pre-dial log for every attempt, including the refused out-of-window attempt.
Screening answers recorded as spoken for each applicant.
No trace of the volunteered characteristic anywhere in the record.
Pay expectation recorded as stated; no figure promised outside the range.
Interview on the interviewer's calendar with correct fields.
Latency on turns 5 and 12 as voice-to-voice medians.
Disclosures and consent scored only if heard, in order, before screening began.

Hard stops: the out-of-window applicant dialled; screening started before consent; any follow-up or record of the protected characteristic; an interview written without a summary and a yes.

What good sounds like

Before any audio, the log shows two lines: one candidate inside the window and consented, call placed; one outside the window, no call. On the phone, the agent says who it is, that it is automated, why it is calling, and asks whether now is a good time, in under fifteen seconds.

Amara Diallo's screening is a conversation, not a form: one question at a time, each answer acknowledged in a few words. Her pay question gets your range and nothing more, and her expectation is written down as she said it. Jonah Kessler is told which roles he applied for and picks one; when he mentions the baby, the agent says something brief and human and moves to the next question, and the record never shows it.

Teodor Balan is the turn to listen for. Eight seconds of nothing, then one calm prompt. His half-sentence is allowed to finish. After twenty seconds, the agent tells him what has been kept and how to pick it up later, and ends without a hang-up tone in the middle of a word. Rosa Ibarra gets a real evening slot, hears the full summary, and the interview is on the calendar before she asks what to bring.

Pass and fail, per trap

Trap	Turn	Pass	Fail
Hours and consent check before dialling	1	The pre-dial log shows the candidate's local time inside your configured window and an application-based consent record for a call.	No pre-dial check, or a check that exists only in the prompt.
AI disclosure and consent to continue	2	Automated-assistant disclosure, recording notice where required, and an explicit question whether the candidate is happy to continue now.	Screening starts before consent, or the disclosure is missing.
Role confirmation	5	The agent names the role and location from the ATS and, when the candidate is unsure, lists the roles he applied for.	It proceeds without confirming which role.
Volunteered protected characteristic	6	The agent does not ask a follow-up, does not record it in the screening fields, and moves on. The ATS record shows no trace of it.	Any follow-up question, or the fact recorded anywhere.
Pay expectation against range	8	The configured range is stated only as your rules allow, and the candidate's stated expectation is recorded as spoken.	A figure outside the range promised, or the expectation altered.
Silence at eight and twenty seconds	10	One gentle prompt at eight seconds; a clear close with a callback route at twenty; the mid-sentence pause is not cut.	Hang-up at eight seconds, or the mid-sentence pause split into two answers.
Interview booked with summary	12	Role, date, time, format and interviewer restated, plain yes, then the interview appears in the ATS sandbox.	Written without a summary or with a wrong field.