Candidate Screening for Recruitment

Hello friends.

Well, till now we have talked about how we Source our profiles and how much work we do behind it, and what are our key considerations? Right?

Now, we will talk about “screening and sorting”.

Generally, what happens is, when we have all the profiles and people have started applying from our posts and advertisements, after that we have to screen the applications that we have received. Okay.

Now if we understand what is meant by screening, then it is a kind of filter that we are applying through which all our relevant profiles are gathered in one pile and other irrelevant profiles into another pile.

After that, from the relevant profile, we will narrow down more and shortlist the final candidates. (Understood?)

Now let’s have a detailed look at what is screening, what are its key considerations and how is screening actually done?

Well, if we talk about CV screening, then in this we generally evaluate the skills, and knowledge and see if the candidate which we are hiring is capable or not as they have mentioned in their CV. Now that is a later thing.

But, the thing that is in our hands is the candidate’s CV, and based on the candidate’s CV, we have to make the shortlisting decisions.

Now, the process of CV screening is a sorting process through which those candidates that do not fit our profile, can be disqualified.

 Well, generally CV screening tells us “Whether or not he or she is fit for the role based on his or her education, experience, and other essential information that is included on their CV”.

So basically CV is the first message that you get from a candidate through which you make the decision whether to go ahead with the candidate or not. Okay.

Now generally what happens is on the basis of CVs, we cannot identify adequately whether it is the right choice or not.

So what happens in today's time is once the recruiter receives the CV, after that, he also checks the social media account of the candidate generally which is LinkedIn.

So, to check if your cv language is matching your LinkedIn profile or not. Well, if both the profiles are in tandem, then we can proceed further and this thing generally becomes more important when we do the hirings for the key roles. (Got it?)

However, when there is bulk-hiring, we do the further process through CV screening only…

Now, let us know why is screening so important?

Well, generally what happens is “if we hire any wrong candidate, it will not only cost us money and time but eventually, our business targets will also get hampered. Right?

So generally, if we have any candidates, we will screen and evaluate them properly from the beginning itself and after that only we will make them on board in our organization.

Because what happens is if the Employee is not able to meet the expectations in later stages or if he proves unreliable, then it will be a great loss for the employer as he could have filled that position with a better candidate.

Eventually what happens is the opportunity cost also gets included in this. Suppose, if we have hired this X candidate, what are the things that we have left behind because of that.

Therefore, after considering all these things, one of the candidates is selected. Hence, if their screening or evaluation is not done correctly, then in the long run it can also be proven as a wrong decision. (Clear?)

Furthermore, the cv screening actually “helps with the analysis and verification of data with respect to work experience, education and other qualifications” and along with this it also tells us if the person we are evaluating is suitable for that position? Are they risk-free candidates? Okay.

Now here if we talk about risk-free, we generally consider some factors. First of all, the duration. For how much time on average will the employee be staying in our organization?

Second, how is his growth trajectory in terms of career and self-development?

And finally, when we talk about risk-free, we do a prior background check so that we can know if there are any pending cases or court cases on the candidates. Okay. And, then only that candidate is generally preferred.

And, if it is there, then also a clarification is taken that for what reasons that person is going through these trails. Okay.

Then, next, we will talk about a very interesting fact.

“52% of talent acquisition leaders say that the hardest part of recruitment is screening”. Why? Because there is a very large pool of candidates and in that, screening every candidate is a task in itself.

Hence, asking for an application and finally doing the interview is not that difficult as you have to go through every application and see which candidate is suitable and which is not. (Got it?)

Well, now let's talk about “how to screen the resumes?”

Generally, it is a three-step process in which first of all, we see the minimum and preferred qualifications for the role or both types of qualifications should be related to job performance.

It should not happen that the qualification we have written does not match the actual role.

So ideally the qualifications, both minimum and preferred are part of our job description.

Well, we have learned about job descriptions in the last module, and now we will see their application here. Okay.

So generally, when we look at the qualifications it has certain parameters. Like, what is included in the qualifications?

– So, the first one is “work experience”.

– Then, “education”.

– “Skills and knowledge”.

– Then our “personality traits”. And lastly,

– Our “competencies”.

So, these five things together create our entire qualifications basket and whenever you see any recruitment advertisement you will see these five things for sure whether explicitly or implicitly or it will be mixed with the sentences in fine prints or mentioned with bullet points, you will see these five points every time. (Alright)

Now, moving on, let’s talk about the first step. How we will do the screening based on minimum qualification?

Well, now, the minimum qualifications are basically a ground basic qualification that every candidate should have and these are the qualifications that will help every candidate to do his job better. Okay.

“A simple example of minimum qualification is whether a not a person is legally able to work in a country”.

Generally, if you apply abroad, then there is a question asked, are you eligible to work in XYZ country? If you tick it, you will go under a separate pile and if you don’t, then you will go under another separate pile.

Because generally what happens is, the next decisions are taken from these parameters only.

Now, these qualifications work as knockouts.

Knockouts mean if someone on the face of it is eligible, then he will fit into a certain category and if not fit, then he will go into a separate category.

Now the purpose of knockouts is that we start to shortlist the candidates like a funnel, a lot of candidates on the upper side, and as we proceed that decreases, and finally, we will have a very limited number who we have to assess. Okay.

Now, the candidates that meet the minimum qualifications and get selected, reach the second stage of screening.

Now, what is the second stage?

“Screening resumes based on preferred qualifications”.

Until now, we talked about minimum qualifications.

Now we will talk about preferred qualifications.

These are generally non-mandatory characteristics that would provide someone a stronger edge to move up compared to his or her competitors.

A common example of a preferred qualification is whether the candidate has prior related work experience. Now, suppose if you are searching for a candidate for search engine optimization and one particular candidate already has a prior experience of 4-5 years, well, definitely we will give him a priority because we don’t have to put much focus on his training. (Right?)

These qualifications are generally known “as nice to have” because they are generally a notch above the minimum qualifications.

So, candidates that meet both minimum qualifications and preferred qualifications move onto the further shortlisting process.

Now we come to the third step. This is basically “shortlisting candidates based on the minimum and preferred qualifications”.

So, deciding which candidate will be shortlisted for the interview phase depends on your recruiting needs.

For high-volume recruitment, generally, all candidates that meet minimum qualifications move forward to the interview process. But when we do low volume recruitment or recruitment for a niche profile, then generally we take the top few candidates that meet both minimum and preferred qualifications and they reach till the interview round. (Clear?)

Now, you can determine how many candidates you have to shortlist using your recruitment conversion rates.

Now you will ask what is “recruitment conversion rate?”

Well, every stage has a conversion like application to the selection, application to interviews, or offer to joining. So, these types of conversion rates are there.

Come, let’s talk about this too. 

So basically, based on your recruitment data, you get some conversion rates and let me share the conversion rates I have received on average.

Well, “12% for application to interview”. So how many people applied and went to interviews, that conversion rate is 12%.

then, from interviews how many got the offer? That rate is 17%.

And finally after giving the offer how many accept it? That rate is 89%. (Clear?)

So if you look into it, then for every 100 candidates that we are screening, 12 candidates are shortlisted for the interview. Through which two of them will get the offer and maybe one candidate will accept and join your company. Okay.

Here, a very important thing that you should know is that your screening process should be consistent and, in every scenario, it can be applied objectively.

It should not happen like for one Particular profile you have a screening process and as the profile change your screening process also changes. (Are you getting it?)

The high-level componence should remain the same and if you want to add any finer tweaks, then you can change it from profile to profile.

For instance, if we talk about recruitment tests, so the tests can be different at different levels but those tests are important to take.

Hence, your selection process should be consistent and objective across all resumes and all profiles. Okay.

Thank you.

(14:50-15:25)