4 Strategies that Streamline Your Screening Processes

Filling your latest job opening is your top priority. In the eyes of your internal customers, you are a human resources rock star. Every day you work tirelessly to find the perfect candidate for each position to help avoid a backlog of undone tasks for internal teams. On most days, your cape hides within your business attire as you make the hiring process as efficient as possible.

With the workforce becoming more flexible, being remote, and more people showcasing their work online, your company has asked your department to start checking more than what other employers check. Your company requests that you now spend time vetting a candidate’s social media accounts and or information publishing channels as part of a candidate screening process.

You’re acutely aware of the hidden costs of slower hiring practices, and the last thing you want to do is add another 60-90 minutes tracking down and sorting through every candidate’s social media or publishing channels. You’re also aware of some pitfalls of using social media accounts in hiring practices, but you also know that thorough screening is essential.

Here are four strategies that will help you find a balanced approach and still feel confident about your screening methods.

Determine Your Priorities 

You need a careful strategy to perform effective screening. Start by determining which underlying issues are most important to your company. 

• Is it more important that the potential candidate has relevant job experience?
• Is it more important that the candidate be more seasoned for the role in question? 
• Is the personality fit more of a priority for the team that put in the hiring request?
• Is it more important that the candidate be honest and trustworthy first and foremost? 

Deciding on which factors are the most important helps you determine what you’re screening for first. Making this decision allows you to approach a more prominent candidate base more quickly. 

Obtain Firm Deadlines

Deadlines go both ways. You need to know the new candidate’s start date to place the hiring vacancy in the proper priority. The requesting department head will need to abide by similar deadlines for wrapping up their portion of job interviews or feedback on resumes you’ve previously sent.

Suppose the department head cannot meet their deadlines with you for the resume feedback or interviews. In that case, you’ll know in advance which portion of your initially planned screening methods you may be willing to sacrifice (such as certain social media checks). You will have already communicated with the department head on letting certain extra screenings go if this situation arises.

Because you’ve already agreed upon your screening priorities, the vacancy still gets filled, and you won’t have necessarily added any more time to the hiring process. It’s a win-win. 

Screen the Candidate via Email, Phone, and or Video

Try to incorporate at least phone and email when communicating with the candidates. You’ll be able to spot potential deficiencies in communication styles, professional habits, and attitudes. This type of screening can give you a good first impression without necessarily having to do a round of social media investigations that could negatively influence any neutrality in your evaluations.

Reconsider Resume Discrepancies

If you’ve already determined which screening items are most important to your company, you might reconsider a candidate if there’s a plausible explanation for resume discrepancies.

• Did the employment end in July, but the candidate put January on the resume? Follow up in the prescreening or interview phases. Maybe they just got the months turned around in their mind.
• Did the candidate say they worked for one company, but it turns out they worked for a temp agency instead? Check to see if the candidate did this with just one job listing or all of them. If there is only one, there’s a chance this was a simple mistake. If it is for all of them, decide how you want to proceed.

If you followed these strategies but find your hiring processes are still taking longer than you prefer, consider outsourcing employment verification tasks.

Benefits of Outsourcing Employment Verification Tasks

By outsourcing screening tasks, you don’t have to spend time your department may not have. You don’t have to worry about protected class information affecting your decision or overlooking a new compliance law or ruling.