How Do Your Recruiters Rank in Candidate Screening?
Candidate screening is a crucial process to ensure busy hiring managers only spend time with the best and brightest candidates. But how do you know if your recruiters are truly effective at screening candidates?
A standard phone screen may suffice for some companies. However, the difference between a basic phone screen (simply asking about compensation requirements and work authorization) and a comprehensive interview is enormous regarding the value and time savings recruiters can provide to hiring teams and stakeholders. To help you evaluate and improve your candidate screening process, we’ve developed a 10-level rubric that transforms basic screening conversations into expert interviews conducted by recruiters and talent acquisition partners.
Here’s how your screening process can evolve from a basic chat to a highly structured and insightful interview. To Skip to Level 10, scroll down for the Honeit cheat code. 👾
Level 1: Casual Conversation (The Basic Screen)
At this level, the call is little more than a casual conversation confirming a few basic topics, such as compensation expectations and work authorization. There is no structure or preparation, and the interviewer might not even have the job description in front of them. This approach can lead to inconsistent results and often misses the mark on evaluating the candidate’s suitability for the role.
Key Attribute: Unstructured, spontaneous conversation.
Level 2: General Questions (Basic Qualification)
The recruiter begins to ask standard questions aimed at confirming basic qualifications. However, these questions are generic and don’t delve into the specifics of the role. While this is a step up, it still lacks depth and often results in a superficial understanding of the candidate’s abilities.
Key Attribute: General, non-role-specific questions.
Level 3: Consistent Call Structure (Basic Interview Framework)
The recruiter follows a basic structure, ensuring consistency across interviews. The conversation covers key areas such as experience, skills, and availability. While this structure adds some level of standardization, it still lacks customization for different roles.
Key Attribute: Basic structured framework, but still not role-specific.
Level 4: Role-Specific Questions (Targeted Qualification)
Screening questions begin to focus on the specific requirements of the role. The interviewer now has a deeper understanding of the job description and can ask more relevant questions. This approach improves the accuracy of the screening process but still depends heavily on the interviewer’s discretion.
Key Attribute: Role-specific questions with a focus on key qualifications.
Level 5: Structured Call Guides (Increased Consistency)
The introduction of structured screening call guides standardizes the interview process further. These guides ensure that every recruiter asks the same questions for each role, leading to more consistent data across candidates. This level minimizes biases and covers all critical aspects of the role. Req-specific call guides can be generated in seconds and reviewed by the hiring teams to ensure only the best technical, industry, and behavioral-based questions are being asked for the specific requisition.
Key Attribute: Consistent use of structured call guides.
Level 6: Automated Note-Taking (Improved Efficiency)
Automated note-taking tools start to capture key conversation points and interview answers, freeing the recruiter to focus more on the candidate. This technology ensures no critical detail is missed and allows for a more thorough review post-interview. Efficiency increases, and the interviewer can spend more time assessing the candidate than jotting down notes.
Key Attribute: Automated note-taking and documentation.
Level 7: Technical and Behavioral Questions (Deeper Insights)
At this stage, the recruiter digs deep and asks key technical, industry-specific, and behavioral-based questions that provide deeper insights into the candidate’s past performance and predict future behavior. These questions help assess cultural fit, problem-solving skills, and the ability to handle role-specific challenges.
Key Attribute: Tecnical and behavioral-based questions for talent insights.
Level 8: Interview Intelligence & Highlights (Enhanced Submissions)
Recruiters now use tools that capture and share key interview highlights and soundbites. This allows hiring teams to review the most important moments without listening to the entire interview. This level enhances collaboration and speeds up decision-making.
Key Attribute: Captured and shared interview highlights.
Level 9: Role-Specific Competency Assessment (Expert Evaluation)
In addition to structured questions, the interviewer now assesses role-specific competencies through tailored evaluation metrics. This might include practical exercises, case studies, or other job-related tasks. This level of screening ensures candidates are not only qualified but also capable of performing in the role.
Key Attribute: Tailored competency assessments and practical evaluations.
Level 10: Comprehensive Candidate Screening (The Expert Interview)
The final level is a comprehensive interview that combines all previous advancements. The process is now highly structured, with role-specific questions, behavioral assessments, competency evaluations, and advanced tools for capturing and sharing insights. The result is a well-rounded understanding of each candidate, allowing for data-driven hiring decisions.
Key Attribute: Fully comprehensive interview combining all best practices.
Conclusion
Improving your candidate screening is not just about asking more questions; it’s about asking the right questions in the right way and at the right time. By following this 10-level rubric, you can transform a basic candidate screening conversation into an expert interview, reducing interview steps, saving hiring managers time, and accelerating consensus to hire the right candidate faster.
Ask yourself: Are your recruiters equipped to conduct expert-level interviews? If not, it might be time to evaluate and upgrade your screening process using these levels. The result? A more efficient hiring process and better-fit candidates who are more likely to succeed in your organization.
PS… Skip to Level 10 with the Honeit cheat code. Get started with a free trial or live demo of the Honeit candidate screening and interview intelligence platform – purpose-built for recruiters and talent acquisition partners to elevate conversations and candidate presentations.
