Talent hunting is a crucial process for every organization. But as any recruiter would say, a hiring process can get complex based on the roles you hire.
The complete hiring process is lengthy; screening consumes the most time. A survey found that the average recruiter spends 23 hours screening resumes for making a single hire.
An average job ad receives nearly 250 resumes; surprisingly, up to 88% are unqualified resumes. It’s undebatable that recruiting teams face significant challenges when screening suitable candidates from a large pool of talent.
According to a survey, 52% of HRs say that the most challenging part of recruitment is screening. Often, resume screening is the reason for a longer time to fill. With the increasing demand for talent, companies must overcome the screening challenge and hire faster.
This article is a quick how-to guide for recruiters and hiring managers to screen resumes faster and better using various techniques and technology. Let’s discuss what resume screening is, how to screen resumes effectively, the screening challenges that recruiters face, and how technology can improve the screening process.
A Quick Guide on Resume Screening for Recruiters
What is Resume Screening?
Resume Screening is the process of finding if a candidate is qualified for an open position based on their experience, education, skills, and other factors they discussed on their resume.
Simply put, resume screening is a crucial step of the recruitment process, where recruiters check if the candidate’s profile matches the job description. Ultimately, the screening process aims to move forward with the potential candidates and eliminate irrelevant resumes.
How to Screen Resumes Effectively?
Generally, screening resumes seem simple – finding if the candidate’s qualifications match the job description/role. But this is where most talent acquisition teams fail. You must break down the screening process into three stages to screen effectively.
1. Screen based on minimum qualifications
Minimum qualifications are those mandatory for a candidate to perform the job—for example, a degree or a work visa. This stage is shorter as you can simply shortlist or reject candidates based on these eligibilities.
2. Screen based on preferred qualifications
Candidates who meet the minimum qualifications as discussed above will enter this stage 2.
Preferred qualifications are those nice-to-have qualifications or skills that make candidates look closely perfect for the role—for example, strong communication skills for a technical job.
Pro Tip: Hiring managers should clearly communicate with recruiters about an ideal candidate and preferred or nice-to-have qualifications.
3. Shortlist based on both minimum & preferred qualifications
This is the final step in the screening process, where the shortlisted candidates go to the interview round.
However, this stage depends on the type of hiring you to do. If you are hiring for limited vacancies, generally, the top candidates that meet preferred qualifications get shortlisted.
Whereas if you are mass hiring, all candidates with minimum qualifications get an opportunity to interview with the hiring manager.
Screening Challenges that Recruiters Face
Quality of hire and time-to-fill are the two essential recruitment metrics that most recruiting teams need to achieve. As already said, screening is one of the top reasons quality is compromised, and hiring is delayed.
Let’s see how your screening process influences these two factors.
Quality of Hire
Quality of hire is the most crucial talent acquisition metric, which can be measured through new hires’ performance and employee turnover. The primary reason for the poor quality of hires is an ineffective screening process, as it is the first step of the candidate evaluation process.
Time to Fill
As stated in the very first part of this blog, an average recruiter spends 23 hours screening resumes to fill a single position. When hiring in large volumes, this rises even further.
The other challenge of resumes screening is:
Domain Expertise
Generally, recruiters have to screen resumes for different verticals. But not every recruiter is an expert in all domains. When a recruiter with zero or minimum knowledge in a domain you’re hiring for takes up the work, the first level of the screening process is simply an unproductive act.
As we cannot expect every recruiter to have expertise in all the verticals, it is the hiring manager’s job to assign tasks to selected professionals.
Resume Screening using AI
Recruitment technology makes the hiring process easy like never before. An applicant tracking system (ATS) parses resumes using keyword-matching algorithms and makes the screening process simpler and shorter.
An ATS can reduce time-to-screen and solve domain expertise of recruiters issues effectively. AI algorithm analyzes candidate databases to learn if the employees are the right fits for the role or not. Thus, an ATS helps improve the quality of hire, time to fill, and reduce turnover rate.
Invest in the Right Screening Tools
In today’s competitive job market, talent exists only for ten days. Employers must quickly grab them before they’re off the market. Technology plays a crucial role in helping companies acquire the right talent in the shortest time possible.
Applicant tracking systems have screening tools that make the screening process smoother and faster. Vultus Recruit is a cloud-based ATS with resume screening and parsing tools that collect and store candidate profiles based on keywords and make the screening more effective. Invest in the right recruitment technology today. Talk to us to learn more about the foolproof screening process.
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