Job Candidate Screening – Steps That Can Make The Process A Success

By Jovia D’Souza

Screening candidates for a vacancy can be a hectic process because you could get applications from hundreds of interested candidates. To get the most suitable candidate for the post that you have open means paying close attention to the details. It would be easier to start screening the resumes to narrow down your best candidates before then going ahead with the candidate screening to decide who is best cut and suited for the post you have open.

After reducing the applications to maybe twenty of the best or a number that you find best for the screening process, you can start taking the important steps towards finding the best employee with the potential that you are looking for to fill up the gaps that you in the company.

Phone screening – A phone screen can give you lots of information about the candidate long before you meet them in person and you should be thorough with the job specific questions that you ask during the phone screen. From this you will develop baseline knowledge about the candidate as to whether they make potential fit for the vacancy.

In-person interview – After the phone screen, you can then go to the face to face interview where you now get to see the candidate and go in depth with the questions related to the job or otherwise. The interview should not be too long, but it should also not be too short and it should at least have two people in the interviewing panel. It helps to note down important facts about the candidate for later reference when making the decision.

Reference and background checking – Not many employers take this step and yet it is of great importance. Every position in your company should matter and should get the most suitable candidate to fill it, hence the importance of going further into knowing your potential employee better. After the in person interview and you have a few candidates you find to be the best, but for your company needs, take the time to speak with a few professional references of each. Background checks are also very important and you can hire services to help you know about the past records of the candidate you are considering for the post; the last thing you want to do is hire a person who risks dragging your business down.

Follow-up interviews – After taking all the steps, you will find that you have a candidate or candidates that interest you the most. If it is a junior role, then you can conduct an extra follow up interview just to be sure that the decision you are about to make is the best. Senior candidates might require several other meetings, but it will all depend on what you feel is best for the hire. You can then go right ahead and hire the candidate that meets your job and personality, expectations to add value to the business and take it even higher.

Screening job candidates can be time consuming and tedious for that matter. You can make the recruitment process easy by hiring candidate screening and candidate sourcing services from reliable providers.