Improving the Screening Process & How Priority Bridge Can Help

The screening process may be many things: tedious, monotonous, time consuming, and at times less than effective, but it doesn’t have to be. Screening is an essential part of the hiring process as it attempts to find the best matches between candidates and the job description itself, closely noting the qualifications, skills, and cultural fit. As trusted executive assistants are the gatekeepers for filtering out appointments for professionals, so is screening the gatekeeping of potential candidates, ensuring only those with the required qualifications and promising cultural fit potential proceed to the next steps. In this way, the screening process is the dam that resiliently controls the flood of job seekers to only allow those qualified to continue on down the river of hiring.

Here are 4 areas you should consider when making improvements to your screening process.

Job Posting

The best place to start is with your job posting. Keep in mind that this is a key marketing tool, so use it effectively. Don’t simply post the very detailed and dry job description used internally in the company. Instead, create interest and enthusiasm about the position by weaving the story of what it will be like if an applicant got the job. Yes, making sure the required skills are noted is important, but don’t simply state the facts about the position - sell it to prospective employees.

Application

Applications are a great way to pre-screen candidates. This provides the opportunity to ask candidates questions about their experience, expertises, and relevant questions related to company culture. Make sure the application process is not too lengthy yet still yields beneficial information to be reviewed. Additionally, ensure that the application does not include any components that could be perceived as discriminatory against any group protected by the EEOC. After applications are reviewed, sending qualified candidates of interest a Priority Bridge Cultural Fit Assessment allows the hiring team to see whether candidates value the same criteria (and to what degree) as the company. A good cultural fit is essential in a high employee retention rate because if an employee does not feel comfortable, they won’t stick around. Additionally, Priority Bridge is a bias-free hiring solution to support decision makers during the screening process.

Resume

Resumes are a very common way to pre-screen applicants. Resumes are a great snapshot of a candidate’s professional experience. Thus, this is an efficient way to determine what job-related skills, knowledge, and unique perspectives the candidate may bring to the table. Removing identifying information from resumes keeps the pre-screening process anonymous and effectively bias-free. This then increases the likelihood of increasing the diversity of the pool of candidates progressing further in the screening process. In the same way, Priority Bridge’s Assessment tool hides candidates’ information, so the results may be reviewed in a strictly objective, anonymous, and data-driven manner to find the ideal applicant.

Pre-Interview

After the initial screening techniques are utilized, now it’s time to speak with the candidates in a pre-interview. Leveraging Zoom to interview candidates is a great idea, especially during the pandemic. It can be helpful to ask all candidates the same list of questions for easy comparison. Use the pre-interview as an opportunity to fact-check their qualifications, see if their expectations and goals are properly aligned, and to get a sense of how they may fit into the company’s culture. Discussing the results of the Priority Bridge Cultural Fit Assessment with the candidate at this stage creates interesting talking points that can shed some much needed light on what the candidate values.

Screening is an essential part of the hiring process and we are here to help. Priority Bridge is committed to ensuring recruiters and hiring professionals are well-equipped to eliminate bad hires in a bias-free manner. Helping you make more informed hiring decisions while making your job that much easier is what we do best.

Priority Bridge LLC. Is dedicated to helping organizations of all types achieve greater success by using a proprietary analytical process that increases the cultural fit of employees to an organization. Bias-free Hiring + the World’s Most Accurate Cultural Fit Assessment = Priority Bridge LLC.