Candidate Screening: an introduction Candidate screening (applicant filtering) allows employers to pre-screen candidates during the application process in order to find relevant candidates for your job while at the same time reduce the number of unsuitable applicants.

You might think that having too many candidates applying for your jobs is a wonderful problem to have. But think about it like this: you'll have to check every application, review every CV, read every covering letter, evaluate every candidate and respond to every one of them too. This process is burdensome at the best of times, but will become down-right irritating if many of the applicants are utterly inappropriate for the job.

Why are there so many inappropriate candidates?

There are many reasons for this. Candidates are often to blame. Sometimes they simply don't read the job ad. But it is our view that a significant reason for applicant overload is that applying for jobs on job boards is a little too easy. For example, a candidate can create a shortlist of ten or twenty jobs and, in a couple of clicks, write a generic covering note and send an uploaded CV to all of them.

How candidate screening works

Job boards are aware of this issue and most now allow employers to ask pre-screening or filtering questions of candidates during the application process. Typically, as you post your add to the job board you are also offered the option of adding one or more questions. The questions can be in a simple yes/no form, multiple choice, or may require a text input by candidates.

If a candidate answers a filtering question incorrectly you may choose to terminate the application process and, thus, avoid having to deal with an unsuitable candidate. More usually, however, the candidate is allowed to continue with the application, but their application is then "marked" or "scored" or "tagged" as having failed or being inappropriate. Later, when you come to review all the applicants, you'll quickly see the failed applicants and can respond appropriately.

Screening questions to filter candidates

How you write your screening questions will largely depend on your job board. However, we have outlined some common "themes" that are typically used in creating efficient screening questions. 

1. Valid permit/work visa. Establishing whether the candidate has a valid work permit or employment visa will help ensure that only people who can actually take up the job will apply for it. This will also help mitigate against unsuitable candidates from overseas.
2. Qualification or skill set. If your job necessitates a qualification or specific skill set, be sure to indicate this. It will help to remove candidates that do not have the required qualification or skill set.
3. Experience. If your job requires the candidate to have specific work experience in order to do the job, you can put this into your screening questions. By doing so you will remove those candidates who do not have the required experience.
4. Availability for work/interview. If you require candidates to be available immediately to start work or come for interview, say this. This will filter out those candidates who are not available immediately or who may be on longer notice periods.

Note: In many jurisdictions it is illegal to discriminate against applicants on the grounds of sex, race, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief. Do be careful when creating your filtering questions that you do not inadvertently fall foul of such legislation. It is your obligation as an employer to ensure that your filtering questions, your ad copy and your selection procedure conform to applicable anti-discriminatory laws. (see our disclaimer)

Article updated: January 2008

For more information on topics covered here, please visit the following links:

• Equality and Human Rights Commission (United Kingdom)
• The Equality Authority (Republic of Ireland)

Photo: © Darrenw | Dreamstime.com

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