The Journey of Hiring in the Modern Age Part 3: Screening For Top Candidates

Warren Pugash | July 25th, 2017
When a company publishes a job posting, they must have a very clear idea of the type of candidate they want to attract, interview, and eventually hire. Finding these candidates out of the multitudes that reply to the job posting is called screening. A well-established, efficient screening process is especially important in making sure that as many of the best candidates are interviewed before they are off the market. Usually, the hiring team analyzes all the application materials using a type of applicant screening worksheet to see at a glance if each candidate meets the minimum requirements to be qualified for an interview. From this, a shortlist of all candidates are selected for an interview. A quality screening process that is thorough in its parsing of candidates is paramount in building a team of the best possible talent available. According to TEKsystems, “81% of IT professionals and 95% of IT leaders surveyed indicate the more thorough the screening process, the better the chances of making a high-quality match for both the candidate seeking employment and the employer”.
Doing the Dirty Work:
Reading resumes is the most arduous task of every recruiter’s job. Every influx of resumes responding to a job posting is filled with unqualified applications that are not worth the time of the person reading them. Quick ways to disqualify these candidates are useful, including reading their cover letter to begin, paying definite attention to presentation, spelling and grammar. An absence of these, or an absence of a cover letter entirely (unless specifically told not to include one), shows that the candidate is not especially interested.The next step is to quickly scan the resume, looking for noticeable education, experience, accomplishments, and contributions. Any candidate that matches the general requirements at first glance must be put aside to be reviewed further. Immediate red flags include long employment gaps, lack of career progression or direction, and evidence of decreasing responsibility. Unfortunately, this is an extremely tedious task and uses approximately 60% of a recruiter’s time that could be spent getting to know the most qualified candidates much better.
Pre-Interview Report:
Those candidates that make it through the round of resume reviewing proceed into the interview stage. However, before diving straight into interviews with candidates, each of them should be researched first and the information should be compiled into a pre-interview report for each interviewee. This is important to give a prepared and professional image, but also to get to know the most qualified candidates better and make the interview run more smoothly. However, because of the extended amount of time it takes to simply comb through the stack of resumes dramatically reduces the time available for this necessary step. This process is commonly rushed, resulting in common errors like inaccurate ratings and calculations of years of experience, the exclusion of rationales behind interviewing one candidate but rejecting a similar one, and incomplete definitions of how the search committee evaluated related experience on resumes. Interviewees don’t feel as welcomed because there is less of a personal connection in the interview, not at the fault of the recruiter, but because there is simply not enough time to get to know them.
The Telephone Screen:
An interview, either face-to-face or over the phone, is always the most effective way to truly get to know a candidate. However, only 50% of all recruiters perform interviews before submitting their final list of candidates due to how lengthy the hiring process is. This is unfortunate because the resume and cover letter combination doesn’t fill in the whole picture of who the candidate is, and may allow top talent to fall through the cracks. At the very least, a telephone screening call should be used in cases where the hiring team isn’t sure if a candidate does or does not meet the requisite qualifications. In reality, every candidate who meets these qualifications should be interviewed, as it demonstrates their abilities to communicate and think on the spot. The interview also verifies if candidates are active and available to avoid wasting time sending them offers if they are not. Another use for the interview is to evaluate the candidate’s personal portfolio or past experiences. It should be suspicious if they are not able to explain their success or how they achieved it. After the interview, checking references is also a must, from peers and managers to criminal records as well. This type of screening is used to determine if the candidate can be trusted with confidential information or finances, as well as any information that may harm the company. It also saves time by disqualifying candidates before extending them offers.
Identifying Top Candidates:
Before finally selecting a candidate, there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure the best talent is being chosen. Having knowledge of how personal biases may have influence on how an applicant is regarded and attempting to tune those biases out is necessary. Weighing how people from different perspectives and experiences will have an effect on company culture is especially important, as the diversity helps a company move forward. Recruiters should have the attitude of screening applicants to be inclusive rather than just to narrow down the pool to a target number. Finally, it is very important to make sure candidates are being judged on more than one standard. This can be developed in the early stages of the hiring process to establish a clear idea of the type of candidate the company wishes to attract.
At Spark AI, we recognize how time consuming and challenging screening is. That’s why we’ve built intelligent software that uses your custom preferences to screen candidates in seconds, not hours. Getting through resume screening quickly allows you to reach out in person to top candidates immediately, giving your company a competitive advantage. This also allows you more time to create the important relationships that will build your employer brand image and push top talent towards your company.
On average, our customers reduce screening times by 90%. Let’s find your talent quickly. Visit our website to request a demo and learn how we can bring the top candidates to your talent pipeline.
Works Cited
Gimbel, Tom. “Here’s the Right Way to Screen Potential Job Candidates.” Entrepreneur. Entrepreneur Media, Inc, 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 25 July 2017. <https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241000>.
Heathfield, Susan M. “Sample Questions for an Effective Phone Interview.” The Balance. N.p., 1 July 2017. Web. 25 July 2017. <https://www.thebalance.com/phone-screen-best-practices-sample-questions-1916800>.
McNamara, Carter. “How to Screen Job Candidates (Interviewing, Background Checks).”Free Management Library. Authenticity Consulting, LLC, n.d. Web. 25 July 2017. <http://managementhelp.org/staffing/screening.htm>.
“Recruitment for Startups: Screening Job Candidates.” MaRS. MaRS DISCOVERY DISTRICT, 11
Apr. 2014. Web. 25 July 2017. <https://www.marsdd.com/mars-library/screening-job-candidates/>.
“The Importance of a Quality Screening Process.” TEKsystems. TEKSYSTEMS INC., n.d. Web. 25 July 2017. <https://www.teksystems.com/en/resources/thought-leadership/it-talent-management/quality-screening-it-professionals>.
