Table of Contents
A job seeker is expected to show up for an interview with a polished resume, but what if the company screening them simply can’t find qualified candidates? With growing demand and competition among companies, recruiters need a better system.
The “screening and evaluating candidates” is a process that most companies go through to make sure that they are hiring the best possible employee. The steps to finding the perfect candidate vary depending on what type of company you are looking for.
The process of first analyzing job applications and resumes, conducting pre-interviews, and doing reference and background checks is known as applicant screening. This is done to assess who is qualified to go to the next stage of the recruiting process. It entails identifying candidates who most closely match the job description’s credentials, experience, and skill sets, as well as weeding out those who are unfit for the post.
Step 1: Review Resumes & Applications
Manually evaluating each CV or application is one of the greatest candidate screening strategies. From a candidate’s résumé, you may discover a lot about them. Take the following into consideration:
- The length of your resume. How much job experience does your candidate have, and how well does he or she communicate big ideas succinctly?
- Grammar, vocabulary, and spelling are all important. How thorough is the applicant’s resume and cover letter, and are they ready to go the additional mile to have their resume and cover letter spell-checked?
- Personality. What does the applicant’s résumé reveal about his or her personality? The cover letter and CV, particularly in creative or design professions, may be an accurate representation of the applicant’s work output.
When analyzing applications, make sure your decisions are based on the job’s duties and expectations, not on personal preferences. Consider adopting a blind recruiting process by removing all names, gender, race, and other identifying information from the application prior to screening.
Using an applicant tracking system to auto-reject applications based on specified criteria is a simple approach to exclude underqualified individuals even before they view their application. By automatically building candidate profiles based on the information on their resumes, a smart applicant tracking system, such as Freshteam, may help you effectively manage the application screening process.
Pre-interviews are the second step.
If there is no desire to propel the applicant further in the process, pre-interviewing gives insight into the individual’s personality, working style, and experience with very no pressure. A video interview or a phone screen interview may be used to do these.
- Interviews on video
- Screening Interviews by Phone
One-way Interviews on video, different from traditional Interviews on video, are sometimes called asynchronous interviews because only one person, the job candidate, is present and talking. These types of interviews are typically conducted after an initial application review to get a bit more familiar with the job seeker.
The interview questions are delivered in the form of a text or a pre-recorded video. The applicant will be given the option to respond to the interview questions through video, which will be posted and sent to the recruiting team. The recruiting team may restrict (or not) how many times an applicant can try to answer each question, as well as set a deadline for the final recorded video interview.
Conducting phone screenings is another typical approach to filter out unqualified individuals.
A phone screen interview is used to restrict the candidate pool by learning more about an applicant and determining their suitability for a position. This stage happens after a hiring manager has manually reviewed a résumé and cover letter and before a face-to-face interview is arranged. Having a phone screen through video has grown increasingly widespread, despite the fact that most conversations are still performed over the phone.
Phone screenings normally run 15 to 20 minutes, and popular subjects of discussion during that period include:
- What has the applicant’s work history been like? How has his or her career progressed?
- Skills: The applicant’s ability to do specified tasks, get certifications, and obtain degrees required for the employment.
- Position description: A general description of the role as well as the team with whom it will collaborate closely.
- Salary expectations: Provide a wage range or inquire about the candidate’s salary expectations.
- Candidate’s job search: Whether or not the candidate is actively looking for work and how far along in the process they are.
- Steps to take next: After the screening, what happens next? When will the applicant be told that they have advanced to the next level, and how will they be contacted?
Phone interviews enable candidates to discover more about the organization, job, and team they may be joining. Despite the fact that phone screenings are often shorter than in-person or final interviews, they should be treated with the same professionalism as other interviewing strategies.
Step 3: Put Pre-employment Testing in Place
It’s not unusual to come across applications and individuals with great talents and expertise. Unfortunately, it is also usual for some candidates to misrepresent their degree of experience and talent.
Many firms have made it common practice to analyze applicants’ talents using tools like pre-employment Excel skill tests and personality evaluations before employing a candidate to prevent unpleasant surprises. Typing (popular for administrative roles), copywriting (common for occupations that need writing), and code writing are all examples of skill tests (mostly for software developers). These may be a great opportunity to observe a candidate’s abilities in action.
Avoid avoidable legal issues by ensuring that the exam is administered to all candidates for the position at the same time throughout the hiring process.
Step 4: Check your references
An employer does a reference check by contacting a candidate’s past employers, colleagues, and other sources to discover more about their on-the-job performance, work history, and job credentials. The parties who will be contacted are usually given by the potential employee, and reference checks may be done through email or phone by asking a series of pertinent questions regarding the candidate’s expertise.
Checking references may reveal a candidate’s work ethic, extent of previous work, and ability to form and keep connections. References should be taken into account since they are reflections of persons in different jobs’ experiences with the applicant. However, hiring choices should not be based exclusively on the results of a reference check on an applicant.
Step 5: Perform a background investigation
A background check is an excellent tool for ensuring that you made the best selection possible regarding a prospect. It may comprise information such as a candidate’s criminal background, traffic offenses, credit check, and so on. Employers often use a third party to undertake these checks, which might involve a verification of job mentioned on a résumé.
When doing a background check on a candidate, keep in mind that there are rules in place that limit what you can and cannot do with their social media accounts. Consider ShareAble for Hires if you need assistance with background checks. It assists in the verification of resumes, credit checks, and criminal background checks. You’ll only be charged for the background checks you order, and the findings will be available in minutes.
The Importance of Applicant Screening
Because it is critical to assess individuals for their education and experience before bringing them in to work for your firm, applicant screening should be the first step in the hiring process. Additionally, here is where you will carefully look through and examine their credentials before selecting whether or not they should proceed to a more formal interview later in the recruiting process.
During this procedure, it’s critical to make sure you’re following all of the rules and regulations. Give all applications and resumes your complete attention, and never disqualify a candidate because they belong to a protected group (age, race, gender, etc.). Additionally, throughout the application and pre-interview stages of the screening, do not ask prohibited interview questions.
Conclusion
A crucial stage in the process of selecting a quality hiring is to conduct effective prospect screening. Whether your organization decides to scrutinize each resume, use skill tests to ensure that only highly skilled candidates are considered, check references to verify your prospective new hire’s reputation, or use a combination of the above methods, the first step in curating a powerhouse team is thoroughly screening and eliminating unqualified applicants.
Candidate screening is important because it helps to find the perfect candidate. It also allows you to make sure that the person applying for a job, will be able to do what they are being asked to do. Reference: why is candidate screening important.
Related Tags
- sample applicant screening sheet
- methods for screening candidates
- evaluating candidates after interview
- what is screening process
- initial screening example
