How to Shortlist the Right Candidates?

So, you’ve posted a Job position, received a lot of applications against the position, and brainstormed over how to shortlist the most suitable candidates for the interview? Let me remind you that shortlisting of the candidates for the interview process is not just a case of leafing through the CVs and randomly picking the ones you like.

Especially when you’re bound to a strict hiring deadline, identifying the most suitable candidate to shortlist becomes a kind of tricky task to complete. If you want an effective way to shortlist the candidates for the interview in a marked deadline, you need a well-structured and simple process to shortlist. Check out the below tips for an effective shortlisting that can help you improve the quality of the interview.

Estimate exact number of candidates you need

Depending on the job’s nature and how much time you have to complete hiring, you can decide how many candidates you want to shortlist for the interview. These important parameters will help you calculate the exact number of candidates you should have.

Make it easy to shortlist

Fair shortlisting means rejecting odd-fit candidates who don’t match the job description and requirements. To make shortlisting credible, you can also refer to the job description and list of responsibilities a candidate has to execute. To make shortlisting easier, we recommend you split the process into two categories:

1. Essential criteria

Qualification, experience, and important abilities of applicants fall under essential criteria that you must need in a candidate for a particular position.  It helps you compile only those applications that possess the essential criteria for the position. At the first stage of your shortlisting, you can start with rejecting all the applications with missing essential criteria. At this stage, you don’t have to worry about desirable criteria that make your task simple and quick.

2. Desirable criteria

Experience in a certain industry for a set period and with particular expertise in equipment, and software falls under desirable criteria. A candidate with desirable criteria is a better fit for the position.

Heading to the next step, select those candidates that fulfill the desired criteria. Keep in mind that they must be picked from a list of filtered candidates, having essential requirements. When you are eliminating a candidate, your approach should depend on how far away you are from the target shortlist number. If you have many candidates left to shortlist, you can easily reject candidates with the fewest desirable criteria. Once you approach your target, you can score each candidate based on the maximum desirable criteria they meet and compare with the rest to keep the most suitable for the interview.

Consider other traits to eliminate

If there are still more candidates than you need after the shortlist, it’s time to consider and compare other factors that can help you eliminate the candidates. However, when rejecting a candidate, it is important to check that your reason for declaring someone odd-fit isn’t connected to a protected characteristic, such as disability.

Notify the misfit candidates 

Once your shortlist is complete, it’s considered professional and good practice to notify the unsuccessful candidates. If possible, highlight why they declared an odd-fit for the position without having specific.

Here your shortlist is completed successfully and effectively. Now, all you have to do is invite shortlisted candidates and start interviewing. For any further information related to your hiring process, visit our official website www.Jobma.com. You can also request a free demo on our website to know how a video interviewing tool can help you simplify your shortlisting and recruiting process. 

.