Why shortlist candidates

The next stage is to consider your desirable criteria. Your approach here will depend on how far away you are from your target shortlist number. If you have a lot of candidates left to exclude, start by rejecting the ones with the fewest desirable criteria. You can then compare candidates side-by-side, and keep the best ones on your shortlist. Even experience in. Screening is a popular topic in the world of recruiting. From phone screens and social media screening to resume reviews.

Free trial. Get a demo. Hiring Resources. Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on linkedin. Share on email. What is shortlisting? Why shortlist candidates? This leads to: A better candidate experience: top candidates receive more personalized attention Shorter time-to-hire: recruiters spend less time reviewing resumes Higher hiring success rates: top candidates are less likely to have accepted another position before an offer is made Likewise, a shortlist can also provide feedback as to how well your sourcing process is working.

How to shortlist candidates The success of your CV shortlisting process hinges on two things: your shortlist criteria and the mechanics of actually creating a shortlist of candidates. Examples of criteria for shortlisting candidates. List of ranked candidates in Vervoe. List of shortlisted candidates in Vervoe. Candidate comparison matrix in Vervoe.

Individual candidate criteria for shortlisting candidates. Email for candidates not on the shortlist. Emily Heaslip Emily Heaslip is a versatile freelance copywriter who writes for finance, tech, and e-commerce brands. She currently lives in Cape Town and can be found running, hiking, and exploring the South African coast in her free time.

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Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website.

These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Necessary Necessary. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. You can also try different methods as there are many of them available. If you still have more candidates to shortlist than you need to consider other eliminating factors.

However, no matter what your reason for taking someone off your shortlist, make sure that your reason is proper and ethical. If you are considering to convey a thorough M. Why am I saying this? Come on! Besides, it may be an injustice to some candidates also! So what can you do instead? The best way to evade shortlisting burnout is to break it up into stages. For this, you can follow the steps below:. By treading on the heels of the steps, your shortlisting process will surely become easier!

It can be a brilliant idea to screen the applicants before face to face session. That is to say; interviews can be time-consuming. So, it can be helpful to have a short Skype chat or phone call before you commit to a one-to-one meeting. It not only saves you time, in the long run, but it also enables you to address any burning questions you may have for the candidate.

References are great for providing some additional reassurance on your candidate. However, it is pretty hard to make a call on their cultural fit by seeing a piece of paper. Therefore, meeting the person face-to-face is an integral part of the next shortlisting stage.

As well as being a critical step in determining whether a prospective employee would be successful in your organisation and getting to know them more , a face-to-face interview also represents an opportunity to get a better understanding of their level of motivation.

Do they appear to enjoy their work? Are they excited about the opportunity? Would they be proud to work for the company? The best way to reduce this is to think about what might be lacking in the existing culture.

After the completion of shortlisting candidates, try to notify the unsuccessful ones as humble gratitude of your company. So what things you have to consider while interviewing the applicants? Definitely, it depends on the job criteria, but here are the common things that you need to think about before recruiting any employee:. While the interview is going on, try to understand the personal characteristics as well as the attitude of the individual towards the job and their profession.

Also, try to gauge how serious he is about the job. It would be best if you also scanned whether the interviewee can strike a balance between their personal and professional lives. Also, your questions should aim to find out whether the candidate brings about any individual assets to the company , or whether the qualifications that they bring are more of a supportive kind.

The body language of an individual goes a long way in informing you about many intricacies of the individual. With this, you can get the scope to cross-check whatever the interviewee has informed you about them earlier. You can also verify these facts, later on, when you give a call to the references. Suppose the references are his or her previous managers or colleagues.

In that case, the interviewer should try to know the former-mutual-contact experiences. Please make it clear about the timeframe that you are looking at, in case of hiring the interviewee. With a concrete timeframe in mind, the interviewer is free to decide and discuss whether the potential candidate is the best person for the job at hand. More common roles with fewer requirements will receive more applicants; shortlisting candidates quickly will benefit any hiring team.

Whether you are an independent recruiter, hiring manager, or employer with a full-fledged hiring team, we have some tips for you. Take action to fill open positions quickly and effectively by learning how to shortlist candidates with these easy-to-follow steps.

This is the first and most crucial step when shortlisting candidates. Developing screening questions that elicit answers from candidates delivers an idea of whether they will be a good fit early on. This interview with Hotjar explains how this can benefit a real-life recruitment process. Hotjar likes to create a detailed, intimidating survey that automatically weeds out disengaged applicants. They take standard questions used for every job opening and mix them with questions tailored to the open position, specifically.

At least one question is a key filter question, allowing the survey answers to be sorted through and applicants to be filtered easily. Instead of wasting time interviewing all of the qualifying and knowledgeable applicants, use screening questions or questionnaires to identify the candidates that match the position and the company.

Recruitee has an easy-to-use application form builder. In the screenshot above, you can see that once you create a job opening, you can customize the application process. Add screening questions to form the survey that will save you all the hiring time!

You can make certain or all questions required, which we highly suggest. Scoring your applicants on pre-determined merits, including their qualifications and experience, might seem crude when looking for the ideal applicants, but it can help simplify tough decisions.

Where you may think your applicants all look very similar on paper, then a scoring system can show you precisely where the differences are. Consider giving each applicant 3 points for the necessary skills or qualifications they need to do the job, 2 points for qualities that would be beneficial to the role, and 3 points for those that would help them really stand out from the opposition.

Another must-have method when looking into how to shortlist candidates for interviews is using an applicant tracking system. An ATS automates streamlining your shortlisting process, and using a ranking system makes your candidate shortlists even more effective.

Recruitee is built with teams in mind, so shortlisting can be an efficient, collaborative system.