What do you think of these telephone role play scenarios that a lot of these employers make you do when you attend their assessment days? Do you hate them (a lot do, myself included!)? Do you think they are easy to pass? Do you think employers are all too quick to reject you just because you stumble a little on the role play?

Would love to hear your views on the telephone role play tests.

Never done one, heard about em though. Tbh, if an employer is going to judge someone's aptitude and suitability on the basis of a phonecall, then unless it's a job that mainly requires using a phone, they are probably not an employer worth working for, imo.

I have done and organised them and they are simply another way of checking on a person's suitability for the particular job so just treat as such. Remember that when answering the phone they will expect you to say "Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening as appropriate state your name and can I hlep you or how can I help you.
Hallo is totally taboo!

Best of luck.

and that should read "help" of course.

Does Hlep play for Croatia?

i done one just the other day and passed it, it's just as salmon says, to check suitability of their prospective employee, because if your telephone manner is poor then chances are the rest of your attitude will match.

not saying that if you're terrible on the phone then you WILL be bad in real life situations, but it's just so they can get an idea as to how you'd deal with strangers in situations you may or may not find yourself in.

I do it all the time. Keep getting these phone calls from Microsoft telling me I have a virus. Every time I am something/someone different and wind the scammers up something rotten.

That's not exactly what you are talking about though, is it?

Good fun!

I've been in touch with firms on the phone and the attitude over the blower of some of their employees is lamentable so can understand a check on people's "telephone manner" if that is how they are going to be employed. Any job interview is a suitability/aptitude test anyway I think. Can't understand those obstacle course tests though, except for the RM, SAS etc. obviously.

A degree of professionalism is needed when answering the telephone on behalf of your employer. First impressions are so importat and I have never understood why the idea of giving ones own personal name came into play.
Surely the company name is ample. By the time the customer has finished listening to all the greeting, they've probably forgotten what they want. There is also the chance that it is reeled off at such a speed that nobody understands what is said anyway,particularly with strong local accents.
I once worked in Birkenhead alongside a member of staff from Liverpool. One occasion remembered, was th,e day she answered the telephone and after all the necessary proceedure ,continued in a musical tone, 'sorry sweet'art I caan elp u, I cum from the uther side'!
The caller was from London so I dare say, he thought he had died and gone to heaven!

On the flipside, you can have people who are overly confident, excellent telephone manner, but are utterly shite employees. You could get someone who spends a lot of time on the phone to friends, meeting new people etc, and 6 weeks after you've taken them on, it suddenly dawns on you that they are a party animal, coming in on Mondays still recovering from the weekend (or pulling sickies), unreliable for weekend work, on a go-slow on Fridays, and hard to keep them away from their mobile phone (social life, texting, Facebook etc).

As I say, unless it's a job that requires using a phone a lot, then the employer is probably not worth working for; can you imagine the rabble that will pass these tests, get jobs, and then you have to spend half your time doing their work and picking up their mess etc...

There are people I know who can "talk the talk" very easily so to speak, but are not so good at "walking the walk" and ultimately turn out to be problem employees. One person I know of, is very over-confident to say the least, got a job as a manager somewhere, probably on the basis of his interview confidence and being able to talk the talk (it was a considerable step-up from his previous position/employer and it's the way he comes across), yet within 4 months he was "asked to leave" due to the extent of problems he had caused within the workforce, and generally not being effective at doing the job properly (mainly due to the workforce losing respect for his authority).