Part 2:
How To Build A Successful (and Repeatable) Screening Process
The Top Challenges People-Driven Organizations Are Facing in the Screening Process
As we’ve discussed in this piece—and as you’re likely experiencing right now—the screening process is anything but straightforward. This is especially true for those in organizations where your people are your service or business.
While managing overwhelming application volumes and ensuring a seamless candidate experience is common among all industries, leaders in people-forward industries such as healthcare, education, professional services, etc. face mounting pressure to build processes that are both efficient and human-centered.
Let’s explore the top challenges these industry’s HR teams face in the screening process, and how to overcome them.
Creating a Reliable Application Pipeline Management Strategy
The hiring funnel starts with the application process, and believe it or not, getting this step right is critical for the selection part of the process.
But here’s the challenge: some organizations are drowning in applications, while others struggle to attract enough candidates. Both scenarios happen and both create inefficiencies that slow down the entire hiring process.
If you’re dealing with too few applications, it might be time to revisit your employer brand. Investing in brand campaigns, social media outreach, or partnerships with industry-specific platforms can help you get your name in front of the right candidates.
You could also do this by showcasing employee testimonials or optimizing your careers page to reflect your company values.
On the flip side, if you’re overwhelmed by too many applications, consider creating the right amount of “friction” in your process. For example:
- Add pre-screening questions that filter out unqualified candidates early, like location questions, years of experience in a discipline, or required certifications.
- Use clear, concise job descriptions that outline must-have qualifications without overwhelming candidates with unnecessary details.
Interested in learning more? Check out our step-by-step guide to writing more effective job descriptions.
It’s also important to consider the context of the role you’re hiring for:
- For high turnover positions, you might need higher application volumes to ensure a steady pipeline of candidates. With the right applicant tracking system, you can even quickly refer back to previous applicants to streamline hiring rather than starting from the beginning each time.
- For specialized roles, focus on quality over quantity by targeting niche talent pools and refining your screening criteria.
Ultimately, efficient application management isn’t just about getting applications—it’s about getting the right applications from high-quality candidates who can seamlessly move through your hiring funnel.
Efficiently Navigating High Application Volumes
For organizations receiving hundreds (or even thousands) of applications per role, managing volume is one of the biggest screening challenges. Without a thoughtful strategy, it’s easy to miss out on top talent or waste resources on unqualified candidates.
Here’s where “mini gates” come in: small steps throughout the process that progressively filter candidates while keeping things fair, transparent, and moving forward quickly. Examples include:
- Binary Disqualifier Questions: Add simple yes or no questions upfront (e.g., “Are you legally authorized to work in this country?” or “Can you meet the physical requirements of this role?”).
- Skill Set Assessment: Use short tests or exercises to gauge technical abilities early on.
- Video Introductions: A one-way video interview can provide insight into a candidate’s communication style and enthusiasm for the role, allowing you to prioritize only those candidates that meet these needs before scheduling a live video interview that requires aligning more than one schedule.
Additionally, clarify job requirements in your postings—but keep candidate attention spans in mind. Keep in concise, but don’t leave out important details that will eliminate unqualified applicants before they toss their hat into the growing pile.
By implementing these strategies, you’ll create a streamlined process that reduces volume without sacrificing quality.
Implementing The Right Screening Parameters
One common concern among HR professionals is accidentally weeding out high-quality candidates by making them do too much work upfront.
But let’s reframe this: if a candidate isn’t willing to engage with your process, are they truly invested in joining your organization?
The key is to strike a balance between effort and value:
- Focus on identifying essential skills and qualifications early rather than trying to assess everything upfront.
- Use tools like structured interviews or behavioral assessment software to evaluate top candidates more deeply.
Remember, screening isn’t about finding perfect candidates right away, it’s about identifying those who align with your organization’s needs and values while maintaining fairness and transparency.
Balancing Candidate Experience and Hiring Efficiency
Creating a great candidate experience doesn’t mean sacrificing efficiency — it means being intentional about every step of your process. Candidates want clarity, respect for their time, and a sense of purpose behind each requirement.
You can achieve this balance by letting candidates know why each step exists (e.g., “This assessment helps us understand how you approach problem-solving”). Transparency builds trust and keeps candidates engaged.
As a best practice, many companies lay their screening process out in the job description or on the application landing page to set expectations from the beginning.
Here’s how we provide transparency to candidates applying for roles here at Spark Hire:
It’s also important to use the “friction” lever strategically throughout the process. While small hurdles like screening questions can help filter applicants, avoid adding unnecessary steps that might deter top talent (for example, having eight separate interviews with team members when a better option would be a panel interview).
You’ll also want to explore using technology like an applicant tracking system (ATS) or video interview platform to eliminate fragmented feedback, reduce bottlenecks, and speed up confident decision-making.
When efficiency and experience work hand-in-hand, you’ll not only attract better candidates but also improve your employer brand.
Prioritizing Ongoing Candidate Engagement
Engagement doesn’t stop after an application is submitted, it needs to be nurtured throughout the entire hiring process.
Without consistent touchpoints, even strong candidates may lose interest or accept offers elsewhere.
Here’s how to keep engagement high, especially in a longer hiring cycle:
- Encourage Mutual Opt-Ins: At every stage (e.g., after a phone screen or skills test), reaffirm alignment between the candidate’s goals and your organization’s needs.
- Use Strategic Touchpoints: Send personalized updates between steps, such as feedback after an interview or reminders about the next steps and timeline.
- Leverage Automation: Tools like automated email sequences or interview scheduling can help maintain candidate communication without adding extra work for your team.
By prioritizing engagement at every stage, you’ll reduce drop-offs and build stronger connections with top talent.
How To Identify and Develop Your Ideal Candidate Profile
Finding your “golden” candidate — the one who not only meets your job requirements but also aligns with your organization’s culture and company goals — can feel like a daunting task.
But with the right framework, you can set yourself up for success and create a smart, repeatable process for future hires. Here’s how to get started.
Know The Type of Role You’re Hiring For
Before diving into screening criteria or talent assessments, take a step back and define the type of role you’re filling. This foundational step ensures that your process is tailored to the specific needs of the position.
Consider the different positioning and strategy required for:
- New Roles: These often require more collaboration with stakeholders to clarify goals and expectations since there’s no precedent.
- Backfills: These roles may need candidates who can quickly adapt to established systems or team dynamics.
- Evergreen Positions: These are recurring roles (e.g., customer service representatives, nurses) that benefit from a streamlined, repeatable hiring process.
Understanding the type of role helps you align your strategy with the unique demands of the position, ensuring a smoother screening and selection process.
Clearly Define the Goals of Hiring for Each Role
Every role exists for a reason, so it’s essential to define the “why” behind the hire before diving into behavioral competencies or skills. Ask yourself:
- What problems will this person solve?
- What key outcomes do we expect from this role?
- How will their success impact the team or organization during the onboarding period (up to 90 days) and well after?
For example, if you’re hiring a project manager, your goal might be to improve cross-functional collaboration and ensure projects are delivered on time. These goals will guide every aspect of your screening process, from crafting the job description to structuring interview questions.
By starting with clear goals, you’ll create a solid foundation for identifying candidates who align with your organization’s needs.
Identify Required Hard Skills
Hard skills are the technical abilities or certifications a candidate must have to succeed in the role. These are often non-negotiable and should be clearly outlined in your job description.
Examples include:
- Fluency in specific software or programming languages (e.g., Salesforce, Python).
- Required certifications (e.g., CPA for accountants, RN for nurses).
- Industry-specific expertise (e.g., knowledge of data compliance regulations for IT services).
Defining these skills upfront ensures that only qualified candidates move forward in the process, saving time for both your team and applicants.
Identify Required Soft Skills
While hard skills are critical, soft skills often help identify the best candidates later in the process when you’re potentially down to a few really strong candidates. Soft skills are those that will determine whether a candidate will thrive in your organization — especially for senior-level or people-driven roles.
These include behavioral competencies like:
- Temperament: How does this person handle stress or conflict?
- Working Style: Are they collaborative, independent, or somewhere in between?
- Leadership Style: Do they align with your organization’s management philosophy? How do they give feedback and direction?
- Communication Preferences: Are they clear and concise communicators? Or do they tend to ramble in run-on sentences?
Think of this process as uncovering the “behavioral DNA” of your ideal candidate. For example, if you’re hiring a partner in an accounting firm, active listening, empathy, and adaptability might be just as important as their technical credentials.
To assess something like this during the screening process, use behavioral interview questions like ‘Tell me about a time you handled conflict at work’ to assess temperament or adaptability.
Food for thought: so many hiring teams over-focus on the hard skills upfront—but remember, you can teach skills easier than change temperament.
Prioritize The Required Skills By Importance
Once you’ve identified both hard and soft skills, it’s time to prioritize them.
Why? Because no candidate is likely to check every box on your list—and that’s okay!
Work with your hiring team to rank each skill by importance before speaking to a potential candidate (ideally, before you even post the job description.)
Doing so will help you and the rest of the hiring team focus on what matters most in this role. Group your skills into three buckets:
- Must-haves (e.g., certifications, technical expertise, and leadership skills)
- Nice-to-haves (e.g., familiarity with specific tools)
- Trainable (e.g., knowledge of internal processes)
This exercise helps you focus on what truly matters and prevents you from overlooking great candidates who meet most—but not all—of your criteria.
Check out this article from Spark Hire CEO, Josh Tolan, to dig deeper into the difference between must-haves and nice-to-haves.
Build An Ideal Candidate Template
Now you have all the data you need to create an Ideal Candidate Profile (ICP) template — here’s how to pull it all together.
Reminder: creating this upfront is one of the best ways to streamline your hiring process, especially for evergreen roles with consistent responsibilities and qualifications or positions that frequently open up.
Your ICP template should include:
- The role’s purpose and key goals.
- A ranked list of required hard and soft skills.
- Behavioral traits that align with your company culture.
Identifying and developing an Ideal Candidate Profile isn’t just about finding someone who can do the job — it’s about finding someone who can excel in it while contributing positively to your organization’s culture and goals.
By following these steps, you’ll create a repeatable process that saves time, reduces bias, and ensures you’re hiring candidates who are set up for long-term success.
Tips To Identify and Overcome Hiring Bias in The Screening Process
Let’s face it — bias exists in every hiring process, whether we realize it or not.
In fact, 48% of HR managers cite that bias affects their hiring decisions.
It’s often unintentional, but that doesn’t make it any less impactful. From limiting diversity to overlooking qualified candidates, bias can derail your efforts to build a strong, inclusive team.
The good news? You can take proactive steps to identify and mitigate bias early in your screening process. Here’s how.
Understanding Bias in Hiring
Bias isn’t always obvious. It often operates under the surface, influencing decisions in ways we don’t even notice.
Here are a few common types of hiring bias to watch out for:
- Affinity Bias: Favoring candidates who remind you of yourself (e.g., similar hobbies or backgrounds).
- Confirmation Bias: Looking for evidence that supports your initial impression of a candidate while ignoring contradictory information.
- Halo Effect: Allowing one positive attribute (like an impressive resume) to overshadow other considerations.
But it’s not just about unconscious bias; systemic issues in traditional hiring practices can also perpetuate inequities, like vague job descriptions that unintentionally exclude certain groups. Or inconsistent evaluation criteria that leave too much room for subjective judgment.
Why does this matter? Bias doesn’t just hurt your DEI efforts — it also limits innovation, reduces team performance, and can even damage your organization’s reputation.
Strategies to Mitigate Hiring Bias
Reducing bias starts with creating a more intentional, structured recruiting process.
You can start by standardizing your hiring approach. Use structured interviews with consistent, pre-defined questions for all candidates. Pair this with clear evaluation criteria to keep decisions focused on job-related factors as opposed to personal preferences.
Some companies also employ blind screening techniques, such as removing identifying information like names or schools from resumes during the initial review to focus solely on qualifications and experience.
Additionally, behavioral assessment solutions are super helpful here as they provide objective insights into candidates’ competencies, backed by data and research, helping you evaluate them based on measurable traits rather than gut feelings.
We’re sure candidates and companies will back us up on this one but try to avoid jargon or biased language (e.g., “rockstar” or “ninja”) in your job descriptions that might deter certain applicants. Instead, focus on skills and qualifications that truly matter for the role.
For instance, job descriptions that emphasize years of experience over skills can unintentionally exclude younger candidates who are equally qualified.
It’s also important to involve diverse perspectives when hiring. Panel interviews are an excellent vehicle for this as they can balance individual biases and bring fresh viewpoints into the evaluation process without adding more steps.
Pro tip: Consider offering bias awareness training for hiring teams as a great way to help everyone recognize and address their blind spots.
Leverage Technology to Reduce Bias
Technology can be a game-changer when creating a fairer hiring process, but only if you use it thoughtfully. Here are some ways to leverage technology to reduce the impact of bias in the screening and selection process:
- Explore AI Assistance: Some applicant tracking systems (ATS) can flag biased language in job descriptions or highlight patterns of bias in candidate evaluations.
- Use Video Interviewing: Tools like one-way video interviews allow you to standardize evaluations by having multiple team members review candidates using consistent criteria. This ensures fairness while scaling your process.
- Level the Playing Field: Certain platforms enable blind evaluations by focusing on key competencies rather than subjective factors like appearance or background.
Remember, technology is a tool — not a magic fix.
Pair it with human oversight to ensure fairness and accountability throughout your process, and be sure to regularly review and measure your hiring results to identify holes that your chosen HR tech stack may not actually be helping to fill.
Addressing bias builds stronger teams, fosters innovation, and creates an environment where everyone feels valued. By identifying and overcoming bias early in your screening process, you’ll attract more diverse talent and set your organization up for long-term success.
And remember — this is an ongoing effort, not a one-and-done task. By staying intentional and continuously improving your processes, you’ll create a fairer hiring ecosystem for everyone involved.
Evaluating Candidate Screening Software and Tools
Hiring teams face immense pressure to quickly and effectively screen candidates. To do that well, they may need to leverage the right technology.
This isn’t the case for every organization, but if you’re considering building your HR tech stack, this section will help get you started.
With so many options on the market, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or tempted to adopt the latest shiny object. But, remember, tools don’t solve problems, people do.
The key is to find tools that align with your unique hiring challenges and goals. Let’s break this down into three core areas: understanding the types of tools available, selecting the right software, and avoiding overbuying HR technology.
Steps To Selecting The Right Candidate Screening Software
Choosing the right software starts with understanding your organization’s unique needs — not just today but also as you scale. Here’s how to approach it intentionally:
Step 1: Know the True Business Problem
Before diving into demos or vendor calls, ask yourself: What problem are we trying to solve? Are you struggling with high application volumes? Difficulty assessing soft skills? High employee turnover rates? Identifying your pain points will help you focus on solutions that address them directly.
During this phase, it’s also important to evaluate what’s truly possible, a.k.a what your team can realistically implement. For example, if your team is small and stretched thin, investing in a highly customizable ATS might not be practical without additional support.
It’s also important to focus on scalability. Choose tools that can grow with your organization but don’t overinvest in features you won’t use for years. For example, if you anticipate doubling your hiring volume in the next year, look for tools that can handle increased data or integrate seamlessly with other systems as your needs grow.
Step 2: Intentionally Source Vendors
Once you know your needs, research vendors that specialize in solving those specific problems. Look for reviews, case studies, or recommendations from peers in HR communities to narrow down your options.
While you’re in this process, ask vendors about implementation timelines and ongoing support during the evaluation process, which will give you a clearer picture of whether their solution fits your current capacity.
Step 3: Be Open to Different Solutions
Sometimes the best solution isn’t what you initially expected. For example, if you’re struggling with inconsistent evaluations from various hiring managers, a structured interview tool might be more impactful than an ATS upgrade. Being open to different ideas can help you avoid overspending on screening technology.
To make things more efficient, involve key stakeholders (like hiring managers) in the selection process to ensure buy-in and alignment from the start.
Efficient Screening Tools To Consider
The right tools can help you streamline your screening process, but not all tools are created equal.
Here’s a quick overview of four common types of candidate screening tools, along with their advantages and potential drawbacks:
1. Video Interview Software:
- Advantages: Great for assessing communication skills, cultural fit, and enthusiasm early in the process as well as connecting you with candidates all over the world, if you’re hiring for remote or distributed roles. They also allow multiple stakeholders to review candidates asynchronously, saving time.
- Challenges: Without clear evaluation criteria, video interviews can introduce subjectivity.
2. Skills Tests:
- Advantages: Provide objective data on whether candidates have the technical abilities required for the role. These are especially useful for IT, creative, or technical positions.
- Challenges: Skills tests alone don’t capture broader traits like adaptability or collaboration.
3. Talent Assessment Solutions:
- Advantages: A predictive talent assessment evaluates behavioral competencies tied directly to job performance (e.g., teamwork or strategic thinking), which is critical for reducing bias and improving hiring accuracy and confidence.
- Challenges: They require upfront investment and some require training to interpret results effectively.
4. Personality Tests:
- Advantages: Offer insights into how a candidate might fit into your team’s dynamics or culture.
- Challenges: Personality traits don’t always correlate directly with job performance and can sometimes lead to overgeneralizations.
No single methodology will solve all your screening and selection challenges for every role. If your budget allows, instead of relying on one method, consider combining tools or working with a partner that offers multiple assessment options in one platform for a more holistic evaluation.
Remember: technology is only as effective as the strategy behind it. By focusing on your unique needs, sourcing intentionally, and avoiding overbuying, you’ll set yourself up for long-term success while keeping your hiring process human-centered.
Template
How to Build an Ideal Candidate Profile
Download our ICP template, which includes a step-by-step guide to building your own Ideal Candidate Profiles and examples of what this looks like in practice.
Download the Template
