Screening Questions: The Underrated Tool You Should Have In Your TA Toolkit

If you’re an old-school recruiter, you’ll know the pain of asking the same screening questions of candidates over, and over, and over again. It’s not that you hate talking to them. Far from it. Finding and speaking to talent is why we do what we do in the recruitment industry.

However, as a process, it’s pretty monotonous and, let’s be honest, there are much better uses of your time where you can add real value for your organisation.

Fast forward to 2021 and automation is everywhere. AI is leading the way by simplifying a ton of previously human-recruiter based processes that have historically been resource-heavy. 

Fortunately, automated screening is one of these areas – if you listen really closely you can hear talent acquisition professionals everywhere sigh in relief – which is pretty fortunate considering we’re coming to the end of the Government’s furlough scheme that ends in September. Soon we’ll find ourselves in a world with increased application volumes as a result of a spike in unemployment. 

Automated screening, while an investment, will seriously impact your organisation’s bottom-line over time due to a reduced reliance on additional headcount to accommodate this increased volume. What’s more, the benefits of utilising screening questions are far greater than just saving the time (and sanity) of your recruiters!

We’ll be exploring all of these benefits on our webinar on Tuesday 16th March, with Harri’s host, Olajide Alabi. Olajide will discuss the importance of setting screening questions for HR teams who are serious about finding the right talent in preparation for re-opening and beyond. 

Before we get started, here’s a little insight into the key areas, and benefits, we’ll be discussing.

The impact on your D&I strategy

Here at Harri, we’re passionate about diversity, which is why we believe using AI to eliminate bias from the recruitment process is crucial. Our system boasts such functionality, offering a suite of screening questions and a scoring system designed to remove any potential for recruiter’s unconscious bias. Did someone say win-win?

Leads to data-driven hiring decisions

Ask yourself this question and answer it honestly. Do you think that as a recruiter, you are capable of setting a recruitment selection criterion and avoiding relying on “gut feeling” (even when under such time pressures as we are forecasting), every single time? 

We’re not just talking about potential bias — your onion may vary from day to day for seemingly no reason at all. You’re not alone, you’re human! 

Each individual’s interpretation of a selection criteria can differ slightly. We get into tricky ground when it comes to making consistent and fair hiring decisions. This is why automated screening is so beneficial — it relies on data and removes the ambiguity of human emotion and thoughts.

Imagine the ease of each candidate who passes your screening, being booked into your hiring managers diary, a time they’ve offered interview slots. Thanks to AI, all admin work is taken care of in an entirely seamless process.

This means that only those invited to interview meet the criteria, leading to consistency and standardisation throughout the process. We know, you want to know where to sign up? Details below!

Values fit and culture add

Finding the right people, for the right roles, at the right time…that’s what talent acquisition is all about, right? Sounds simple, but it’s not always so easy. An interview is really only an indication of how well someone can interview, it’s important to truly understand if your candidate’s values are aligned to the companies, as well as what skills and experience they can bring to the team. Automated questions improve your ability in successfully doing this well, at a time where each hire is integral and will play a key role in your business’s recovery. 

Watch our Recharge webinar on screening candidates here