Pre-Screening Job Applicants

The recruitment interview process is a particularly complicated exercise, often underestimated by professional recruiters. Recruiting quality candidates heavily relies on the recruiters' skill to recruit as well as their knowledge of how to pre-screen job applicants.

Many recruiters neglect that the opportunity to ask job applicants relevant pre-screening questions from the first briefing from your client. By closely paying attention to your client and their specific candidate requirements, pre-screening questions can be identified almost immediately.

In this "Pre-screening Job Applicants" article we focus on the types of screening questions to pose to Job Seekers. Asking the right pre-screening questions will assist in streamlining your recruitment process and filter out any unsuitable job applicants. Job applicant pre-screening questions may be applied in various effective forms. Knowing how to take advantage of these different screening methods will improve your recruitment success and shorten the overall time taken to place the suitable candidate in the right job.

Online Job Advertising Pre-Screening Questionnaires.

Jobs.co.za offers recruiters the ability to apply a set of pre-screening questions to their job applicants from the moment that recruiters advertise the job post online. Online pre-screening and job applicant filtering questions are posed to the Job Seeker from the moment they hit the ‘Apply Now' button. This sets the tone for exactly what the recruiter is looking for from the job applicant in relation to the job advertisement from the very start, thereby initiating the interview process effective immediately. Job Seekers are required to answer a short list of pre-screening questions relating directly to the job function that the job applicant is applying to.

These initial filtering questions are compiled by the recruiter. Recruitment agents are therefore able are able to filter and sort quality candidates from unsuitable ones as soon as job applications are received. Jobs.co.za further assists the recruiter in filtering out unsuitable job applicants by providing recruiters with a percentage match of the job applicant to the job advertisement. Asking pre-screening questions in job postings provide recruiters with more accurate and relevant candidate applications. Recruiters save priceless time and recruitment money by making use of this proactive pre-screening technique.

Telephonic Screening.

The impromptu telephonic screening of candidates is probably a more traditional means to pre-screening job applicants. Listening to the way a candidate speaks over the telephone and how they handle the unexpected call is a significant way to evaluate a candidate's calibre. Naturally certain job functions call for the candidate to be well spoken and articulate over the telephone more than others. While this is so, talking to a candidate on the telephone provides recruiters with a pre-screening advantage. Regardless of the job function, talking to candidate telephonically lends clues to recruiters about the candidate in question. By pre-screening candidates over the telephone recruiters are able to gauge the candidate's enthusiasm for the role and their knowledge of the job function. Recruiters are easily able to tell if they are talking with a suitable prospect candidate or a "chance taker". By carefully listening to the answers that the candidate offers, the tone in their voice and the confidence with which they speak, recruiters can easily short-list or regret their candidates of choice.

Video Screening.

Video screening is still somewhat immature in the South African market, however this technologically innovative screening mechanism can reveal much about the job applicant to the recruitment consultant. Jobs.co.za offers its Job Seekers an opportunity to really sell themselves to recruiters in thirty seconds by providing them with the technology and means to create a short video profile introduction to attach to their job applications together with their standard cover note, CV and if requested, pre-screening questions.

Screening job applicants by viewing their video profiles allows the recruiter to "meet" the job applicant without having to conduct a face-to-face interview just yet. This effective pre-screening method provides recruiters with insight into the candidate's presentation, articulation, confidence levels and their overall knowledge of the advertised job. With the advancement of technology today, recruiters are able to take this one step further and may even conduct the complete interview in a "video conference" setting. Video profiles provide recruiters with an audio and visual experience of the Job Seeker. Not only do video screening allow for a comprehensive understanding of the Job Seeker but also a greater pool of candidates to select from. Video interviews may be received from candidates all over the country and in fact the world. Those job applicants willing to relocate are also able to submit a relevant job application and stand a good chance at being placed.

Effective job applicant screening techniques provide smart recruiters with a means to effective recruitment. Making use of several screening methods available to you, recruiters are proactively able to assess the relevancy of a candidate's job application. Using easily identifiable criteria that is required of the incumbent allows recruiters to sieve through mass job applications and pinpoint applicable candidates quickly and cost effectively.