Top 6 reasons to include screening questions in your recruitment process

Done correctly, screening questions will save you time in your recruitment process, enabling you to identify great candidates and eliminate those unsuitable quickly.

Whether you’re recruiting for five people or fifty, sorting through resumes to find great candidates can be an arduous process. It’s all the more difficult if you don’t have the right resources and strategies in place.

We know you understand the importance of effective recruitment advertising in attracting the best candidates and how to write a great recruitment advertisement. But there’s another layer you can add to this.

This one simple strategy is something that anyone can include in your job application process: screening questions. However, you have to do it the right way to reap the benefits!

Screening questions give you an extra information to help you distinguish the best candidates quickly. Miranda Nicholson reporting for Formstack shares the top reasons you should include screening questions.

1. Distinguish serious applicants from casual applicants

Casual applicants applying for any old job won’t bother to take the extra time to complete screening questions. Applicants who aren’t interested in anything more time-consuming than quickly uploading their resume will pass your advertisement by – and this is a good thing, as they aren’t truly invested in the role or your organisation.

“On the other hand, serious candidates who are truly interested in the open position won’t hesitate to fill out the application, even if it is a bit involved. They might even appreciate the extra layer of screening as a way to further make their case for an interview (since it often seems like resume-only applications get buried in some deep, dark place never to be seen).”

2. Obtain consistent information to compare

Resumes come in all different shapes and sizes. Candidates format them with different designs and fonts, across one page, or multiple pages, showcasing their skills and experience by relevance or chronologically.

Not so with screening questions!

“Asking a few consistent questions on the job application can give you an apples-to-apples comparison that is hard to come by with resumes. Seeing how job applicants compare on a few points can help you eliminate or elevate resumes if you’re on the fence.”

3. Gain insights into candidates’ personality and cultural fit

If you have a positive, collaborative workforce, then you want people who are going to make a good cultural fit. Great hires whose values resonate with your organisational mission and purpose will contribute to your growth and success.

As Nicholson reports, this is particularly useful for organisations with remote working environments, for example, by asking if candidates can succeed with autonomy.

4. Prompt deeper discussion during the interview stage

Screening questions can be similar to those you ask in an interview to gather surface-level information about candidates’ skills and personality.

“Getting some of these questions out of the way ahead of time allows you to dig a little deeper when it comes time for the actual interview. Instead of using the interview to learn about a job applicant’s [favourite] web apps, you can hone in on more useful information—like how the applicant uses a specific app to manage tasks or projects.”

5. Reduce your time spent interviewing qualified candidates

This strategy allows you to spend less time interviewing, as you have already asked candidates a series of questions. Therefore, your interview can be more focused and to-the-point.

6. Disqualify ineligible applicants quickly

You may have non-negotiable requirements for the role, such as candidates who need working rights in Australia, or particular qualifications. This is particularly helpful if you are reviewing a large volume of applications and need to disqualify ineligible candidates quickly.

You can also cut down on the number of interviews you need to do by eliminating those who are clearly not a great fit. For example, poor grammar and punctuation do not reflect well for a role that requires strong communication skills!

A word of caution. Don’t turn off great candidates by requesting too much detail, making questions too personal, or including too many questions, or irrelevant questions.

Screening questions can drastically streamline your recruitment process if done in the right way. While one of your goals should be to filter out undesirable candidates, keep your candidates at the forefront of your mind and don’t put great candidates off by asking the wrong questions. Save time and streamline your recruitment process by using the information you obtain from screening questions to inform your shortlisting and interviews.

Do you include screening questions in your recruitment process? How have they helped you? Let us know in the comments.

Source

5 Reasons to Add Screener Questions to Your Job Application

Miranda Nicholson

Form Stack