5 Steps to Effective Applicant Screening in a Competitive Market

In a competitive market where applicants are in short supply and the struggle to even find one person who might be suitable for your role is real, it’s easy to think that there is no need to screen and assess applicants. Well, there is no one to screen, or so few applicants so what’s the point, right?

Actually, wrong. You see, despite there being far fewer applicants to chose from, the importance of making the right hiring choices hasn’t changed. The reality is you can’t outrun a bad hire. So even if there is only one applicant, hiring the wrong person is guaranteed to cause you more frustration, more stress and cost you more than hiring no one at all.

When we had only a handful of applicants to select from, screening effectively is even more important because in these moments we can lose focus and clarity on what’s really important, out of desperation, overwhelm and stress. We waiver on the previous non negotiables, and start to consider applicants who we know really aren’t right, just to get the role filled.

Having a solid and robust screening framework, no matter whether you have 5 or 500 applicants, ensures that you stay focused and on track to ensure you create the best possible shortlist for the following stages of your recruitment process.

Here is my 5-step framework for effective applicant screening:

Step 1 – Prepare
This is the work we do before even opening a resume. Specifically, here you need to look at what you really need in the position and what an applicant would need to have in terms of skills, experience, qualifications and alike to be successful in the role. This is where you also get clear on how you are going to run the project, who is screening resumes, how you will receive them and what you want applicants to do.

Doing the work here really sets the ground work for a successful recruitment campaign and is the single biggest way to help simplify the process and remove the overwhelm.

Clarity really is king, so before you get started make sure you spend the time to create the position description, do your planning and put some thought into the exact type of ideal applicant you are looking for.

Three things you must get clear about before moving forward”

• What are the must have criteria for the role? What are the 2-5 absolute essentials, that without these the applicant simply can’t do the job;
• Are there any deal breakers? Are there any criteria that might rule someone out – things like they don’t have a drivers licence but you need them to drive for the job;
• What are the ‘nice to have’ criteria? If you have a choice in applicants, what would be the other beneficial skills, experiences and knowledge that would help someone be successful in the role faster.

Step 2 – Must Have Only

This is where you get right into it and actually look at resumes. The key time saver here is to have between 2 and 5 ‘must have’ criteria front of mind before you open any resumes. You want to be clear about what these non negotiable, must have criteria are.

When reviewing resumes look at these top criteria and absolutely nothing else. If they have all of them, they move to a ‘yes’ pile, if they have most but not all they go to maybe, if they have none or only a small portion they are a no. You look at nothing else other than these critical must have criteria. You now have 3 groups of applicants, yes, no and maybe.

Step 3 – Deal Breakers

In step 3 we are looking for our deal breakers. Here what you need to do is take another look at all of the resumes in your ‘yes’ group and review them against any deal breakers. Now what might a deal breaker be? Put simply it is a criteria that would make it impossible for them to perform the role. It could be location based, if the role is physically based in a certain location and the applicant lives hours away or interstate, that’s not going to work, that’s a deal breaker. It could be that they require a specific qualification, licence or accreditation to perform the role, if they don’t have this it’s a deal breaker and they can’t move forward. Any of the applicants in your yes group who have a deal breaker, move them directly to your ‘no’ group.

Step 4 – Drill Down

Now it’s time to dig a little deeper, again here we are looking at your ‘yes’ group only and now it’s time to look at the desirable criteria, the extra little bonuses that might make one applicant a better fit than the other. You know the extra experience, systems skills, industry knowledge and those things that would mean applicants will be a closer fit, perhaps require less training and be able to hit the ground running sooner.

Now it’s time to create a rating scale within ‘yes’ group. Those who meet all of your must have’s and all or a lot of your desirable might be a 10, those who have all of your must have criteria but none of your desirable might be a  1, and you rank them in between depending on the skills, experience and alignment with the total sum of what your ideal applicant looks like on paper.

By the end of this process you will find that some applicants float to the top, you will have a handful of applicants who are in the 8, 9 and 10 scores based on the rating system explained above, but you really can use any rating system that works for you.

Step 5 – Confirm Shortlist
In Step 5 it’s time to confirm your shortlist. Do you have a top 5 candidates after step 4? If so, your shortlist is ready to go and you can move forward with your next step, which may be phone interviews or further screening.

If not, this is where you revert back to your ‘maybe’ group that you created in step 1. You look a little deeper at their experience and skills, and use your desirable criteria here to see if some of those applicants who didn’t meet every one of your must have’s, might be suitable based on them meeting many of your desirable criteria. These applicants get moved to your ‘yes’ group and become your shortlist.

This is not a complicated process, it’s surprisingly simple, yet incredibly powerful in ensuring you only shortlist applicants who are actually potentially right for the role. Of course, screening is only one aspect of an effective recruitment campaign, but it is the critical step that can set the rest of the process up for success.

An Invitation
If you have questions about effective applicant screening, I’d love for you to join us inside our free Facebook Group where you can connect with other like minded business owners, leaders and managers to discuss all things HR:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia