Screening a potential employee is a necessary part of the hiring process. For any given job, you could have hundreds of applications and very little time to review all candidate applications in detail. Pre-employment screening helps you eliminate non-contenders, helps you focus your search, and spend time on the top applicants.
A strong, thorough, and effective pre-screening process can save you time, money, and it can help you reduce the odds of making a hiring mistake. Here are some effective tips from Toronto recruiters to improve your pre-employment screening process:
1. Implement a Pre-Screening Process
If you don’t already have pre-screening built into your hiring process, it’s an important step to add. You can quickly improve your effectiveness and improve your ability to focus your recruiting efforts on the right people. It can also help you reduce turnover costs and save money on other areas of the recruiting process, such as reducing the time to hire and filling vacancies quicker.
2. Use Pre-Employment Screening Questions on the Job Application
Ask candidates to do more than submit a resume, cover letter, and application. Including some screening questions as part of the job application will help you immediately identify if a candidate meets your minimum requirements. If they don’t, they are eliminated from the process. If they meet your minimum requirements, they move on to the next step in the hiring process.
Make the questions relevant to the specific job, be specific in how you ask questions and ask make-or-break questions. The goal is to eliminate unqualified candidates.
3. Use Telephone/Video Interviews
Video and telephone interviews provide another screening step before you have a more traditional face-to-face interview. A quick 5 to 10 minute phone call can help you screen out candidates who appear qualified based on the application but are not the right fit. Use phone/video interviews to dive deeper into candidates’ skills and experience, and learn more about them and their fit for the job. Use this step to see if they meet the qualifications and have the potential to be the right candidate.
4. Verify Previous Employment History
People lie on resumes and job applications to get an edge or appear more qualified. Performing a check to verify previous employment history can help you quickly eliminate candidates who falsify their application. Enlist the services of an employment screening company to assist with this task.
More Tips From Toronto Recruiters to Effectively Screen Candidates
How to Prioritize Job Applicants – Pre-Screening Questions!
The Future of Recruiting in the AI Age
4 Benefits of Using Candidate Skills Tests During the Recruitment Process
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