Changes in technology have not only led the normal exhaustive processes to become more streamlined but it has also led to a lot of processes being automated and hence working has become much easier. This has also led to a huge impact on the way the recruiting strategies are structured and how recruiters are now optimizing more social networking sites to connect with candidates. With the help of this article, you will get to understand the most effective and common techniques and tools that most recruiters have been using to solve a lot of issues about candidate screening and evaluation.
What is candidate screening?
While a lot of recruiters are aware of the candidate screening part of the hiring process, there are times when new recruiters do not understand the meaning of candidate screening. The process of candidate screening here means the process of narrowing down the number of applicants based on the number of applications you have received which will depend on the talent of the candidate and his or her various abilities.
Candidate screening is the initial hurdle that any recruiter needs to get over to go on to the next step. This is the step where a lot of recruiters need tools that will assist them to find out exceptional candidates out and hence saving a lot of time for the recruiters. It is also observed that if you do not find the right tool for this step you might lose on the candidate who actually meets the criteria of one of your ideal candidates and hence you need to be very careful in this step.
3-step guide to candidate screening
When you screen candidates, you need the easiest solution to check out the best candidates while taking out as many bad candidates as possible. If you are among those recruiters who have had the same trouble in the past then now all you need to do is follow some really easy 3-step guide that will help you understand the way you need to conduct candidate screening. The 3-step guide to candidate screening can be provided as follows:
Step 1: Ticking off the must-have requirements
In order to find the ideal candidate, you will need to tick off the must-have requirements that you have made a list of. If you do not have these requirements in place then you initially need to make sure that the requirement list is prepared only after which you will be able to identify which requirements are a priority and which need to be ticked off.
Step 2: Checking out qualifications that are good to have and are not that mandatory
Once you have filtered candidates based on the must-have qualification you can now filter out even more candidates based on their additional qualifications that can be a great add-on value to the team. These extra qualification helps the candidate to be viewed in a better light and will also help the candidate to do a great job during the role.
Step 3: Using great candidate screening tools
While it is important to check out all the requirements, it is also important to use tools that will help remove all those candidates who are not the best match for the said qualification. Tools do not only help to remove candidates but they also help filter out only the exceptions and the most ideal ones.
Candidate sourcing with recruitment automation tools
Now that you’ve understood what are the 3 steps to screen a candidate and how to shortlist one of the best candidates here are some of the tools that will help you get those dream candidates to be a part of your team:
1. Candidate Ranking:
This is one of the best ways to segregate candidates based on their abilities. Based on the abilities that the candidates show, it is possible to rank the candidates using the candidate ranking feature. Based on the ranks that you acquire you are then able to judge the candidate whether they are that one particular ideal candidate you’ve been looking for.
2. Resume Parsing:
Resume parsing is one of the tools that will help you filter out all those resumes that do not even meet the basic line of requirements. This means you will get only those candidates who have at least passed through the basic requirements. The resume parser is also such a tool that will help highlight the special features of the candidate which is essential for the recruiter to know and sometimes might miss out on due to the amount of resume that they go through.
3. Smart cards:
Get your small card-shaped smart cards which will consist of bite-sized information. This information will help recruiters judge the candidate at a glance and hence allow for a better judgment regarding the eligibility of the candidate.
Why is candidate screening essential for finding the right candidates
Candidate screening is the only way to check what sort of a candidate is the applicant and all about their behavior, their methods, and their capabilities. Especially when you screen candidates you will need to find out the following details which will help learn more about the candidate:
- Joining and leaving dates
- Key achievements
- Strengths and weakness
- Ability to thrive even under immense pressure
- Problem-solving and decision-making skills
- Leadership and management skill must be paid attention to check where the candidate stands.
Understanding all of these points and making sure that the candidate is fitting into the right categories is important.
Final thoughts
Even though technology in candidate screening was something new a few years back, recruiters have started to recognize the importance and the benefits of recruitment automation in candidate screening and how it has been helping to find the right candidates. Relying only on the traditional and manual processes will prove to be quite hard especially when the hiring outcomes are considered. To know more about how recruitment automation can help overcome your problems regarding to candidate screening here is a report that might interest you.Â
