Sifting through applications to find the best candidates is often a challenging task. In fact, 37% of employers believe that identifying full-time talent with the right skills is one of the biggest challenges in the recruitment process.

The number of applications recruiters are receiving on Jobs.ie has increased significantly this year so here is a shortlisting checklist to help you build an effective shortlisting and screening strategy.

Before you receive an application

Screening begins before you even publish your job on Jobs.ie. It’s well worth spending some time considering preparing your role and thinking about the skills and experience you would like applicants to possess.

Write a clear job description

A well written, clear job description will help you attract the right candidate to your role from the get-go. It can also be used to determine your shortlist criteria. Here are some factors to consider when creating a job description:

• What skills and traits are desirable, essential, or required for the role?
• How many years of experience are needed?
• What are the key and day-to-day responsibilities of the role?
• What company benefits are offered?

Use filter questions

When you are preparing your job for publication on Jobs.ie you have the option to add screening questions.  It’s a useful way to filter down to the most suitable candidates, as the responses given will indicate whether a candidate meets the minimum requirements for the role. It saves you time otherwise viewing unsuitable CVs.

In the Recruiter Hub you can choose from a selection of the most commonly asked filter questions.  To speed the application process and improve candidate experience most answers require a simple Yes/No answer. Some examples of questions include:

• What are the company culture and values? What is it like to work there?
• Do you have a legal right to work in Ireland?
• Do you have a driving licence?
• Are you educated to degree level?
• Do you have more than ‘x’ years’ experience in ‘x’ industry?
• Do you have experience with ‘x’ software?

Identify your criteria for selection

It’s important you identify your ‘must-haves’ and your ‘nice-to-haves’ to strengthen and speed your selection shortlist. You should have already done a lot of heavy lifting in this regard when you write the job description. Here are some assessment criteria that could be applied:

• Assessing skills, traits and experience: Identify what skills, experience and attributes are required for the role
• Education level: Determine the minimum educational qualifications needed to perform the job
• Competencies: Define thekey behaviours, abilities and knowledge that would drive candidates to be successful in the role
• Right to work in your location: Ensure any potential employee has a legal right to work in your country
• Criminal convictions: Perform checks to reveal whether a candidate has any kind of criminal history
• References: Necessary to gain insight into a candidates’ performance, personality or work ethic, as well as potentially uncover any misleading information
• Agree number of applicants to be shortlisted: This will depend on the role being advertised, how many applicants will need to be hired, and how much time you have available to interview candidates.

However, it’s important to strike a balance so that your criteria are robust enough to successfully identify high-quality candidates, but not so strict that you risk eliminating other talented individuals.

Assessing applications

Now you have applications, it’s time to assess your candidates, using a range of assessors. Having a variety will give you a more rounded view of each applicant, as well as improve accuracy, as each method will have a slightly different approach to the assessment. It’s crucial that all assessments are standardised and fair, to reduce any risk of discrimination or bias during the hiring process.

CV screening

You’ve whittled down your applicants and you’re now ready to view their CVs. Before reducing the shortlist down further, and ahead of inviting them to interview, you’ll need to screen CVs to determine whether they’re suitable for the role.

Cover letter

A cover letter can reveal just as much about a person than just their CV, as it gives candidates a chance to elaborate on their skills and experience, as well as personalise their application. If you regard cover letters as an important part of the selection process, make sure you screen out candidates who omit these from their application.

Keywords

Jobs.ie’s technology gets the most relevant CVs in front of your eyes, so you can focus your attention on the candidates who are most likely to fit the bill. When glancing through CVs, look for specific keywords used by the applicant, to identify the people who are best qualified for the role.

The keywords used will obviously depend on the job itself, and the industry you’re working in, so try searching for keywords that relate to the job description. Here are some generic examples of keywords to look out for:

• Launched
• Solved
• Transformed
• Improved
• Delivered
• Increased
• Achieved
• Created
• Managed
• Influenced

Screening Interviews

Every organisation has different interview requirements depending on their size, structure, and industry.

If you are a small business owner who is also looking after recruitment then you may decide to spend more time screening CVs and bring candidates straight in for interview

If you are a HR manager recruiting for a large organisation then you may need to do some preliminary screening interviews before you bring a candidate in for an interview with the hiring manager. The aim of a preliminary interview is to determine whether a candidate has the basic qualifications, skills, and experience to meet the requirements of the role and progress to the next stage.

A short, informal phone conversation can be a useful way to shortlist candidates. It not only saves time in the hiring process, but also enables you to seek out answers to any questions you may have for them, based on their applications. In the recent years, many companies are adopting video recruitment technology to assess candidates.

Sample screening interview questions include:

• Why are you interested in this role?
• What do you know about this company?
• Why should we hire you?
• What are your career goals?

A final thought

For each role, it can be a good idea to create a shortlisting form. Use scoring methods to help narrow down your pool of applicants by marking candidates against your defined list of criteria. Scores can then be recorded on a rating sheet or scorecard. It is a simple but effective and fair way to process applications and identify the best people to bring forward to interview.