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For recruiters and hiring managers, time is of the essence, yet they spend a significant amount of it on resume screening. This lengthy process can be overwhelming, given the average length of the resume is 400-600 words. And a job posting receives 506 applications.
This leads to potential delays and missed opportunities to connect with top talents. But what if there were a way to streamline this process, reduce screening time, and ensure you find the most eligible candidate for the job?
This blog explores effective strategies to optimize resume screening, helping you make smarter hiring decisions.
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ClaudeWhat is resume screening?
Resume screening is when recruiters match the keywords in a job description to a candidate’s resume. This determines if the candidate is fit for the position or not.
It is a major part of the pre-employment screening process. Resume screening can be done manually or using software applications.
The ideal candidate is selected based on experience, skills, education, and other relevant information. This matching process allows recruiters to eliminate unqualified candidates and shortlist the right ones.
Some of the best resume screening tools available in the market include Jobscan, Manatal, Zappyhire, etc.
Why is resume screening important?
The main goal of the resume screening process is to identify the most suitable candidate for a job.
Screening resumes is one of the most challenging parts of the recruitment process. This is mostly because it’s time-consuming.
A hiring professional spends approximately 23 hours screening for a single hire. And on average, 250+ candidates apply for a job posting. Out of this, only 1 qualifies for the position.
Having a well-defined resume screening makes sure that recruiters don’t select the wrong candidate. Hiring a single bad employee can cost an organization nearly $15,000. Hence, it is important not to skip the screening step.
It saves time by avoiding the tiresome process of interviewing the wrong candidates. Also, screening resumes cuts down on costs associated with the recruitment process by selecting the right applicant.
Moreover, recruiters can access a broader range of candidates, tapping into individuals with diverse experiences, backgrounds, and unique qualifications.
What are the different types of resume screening?
Recruiters only spend 6-8 seconds on a resume. This quick review is often a necessity, given the overwhelming volume of applications.
Apart from manual and AI-assisted screening, there are other different ways, namely:
1. Behavioral screening: This process evaluates a job applicant’s behavior, experience, and past actions, to gauge how well they fit the position and company culture.
2. Automated resume screening: This approach involves using an applicant tracking system (ATS) to scan resumes automatically for specific keywords and skills that fit the job requirements. It is one of the most common methods of screening.
3. Manual processs: Recruiters manually review and assess each candidate’s qualifications and skills against the job posting.
4. Skills-based screening: This screening technique analyzes both the hard and soft skills of a candidate. It gives a more dynamic understanding of a job seeker’s ability to perform any role.
5. Social media screening: This examines candidates’ profiles to assess their personality, communication style, and overall digital footprint
Check out : Social Media Screening – HR Glossary
6. AI resume screening: It refers to the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies for resume screening. It reviews and evaluates qualified candidates automatically. This is one of the most popular and efficient methods of screening.
How to screen resumes effectively?
Before you start screening candidates, you need to familiarize yourself with what the position requires. Have a thorough understanding of the following:
- Job description
- Important skills
- Competencies
- Personality traits
- Work experience required for the role
- Necessary credentials like degrees or certifications
- What are the experiences the new employee should have
Screening resumes manually involves several steps based on the candidate’s qualifications and job requirements.
Screening based on minimum qualifications
Minimum qualifications are the mandatory qualifications a candidate must be eligible for. These are dependent on the job requirements. Examples of minimum qualifications include a 10th pass, or the candidate being a legal resident of the U.S., etc.
Certain qualifications are often considered “knockouts” because a candidate either possesses them and moves forward in the hiring process or lacks them and is screened out.
Screening based on preferred qualifications
Preferred qualifications aren’t mandatory but can make a candidate stand out. An example is having relevant work experience. These qualifications are often referred to as “nice-to-haves” and are typically more qualitative, such as knowledge of JAVA, prior work experience with JIRA, etc.
Candidates who meet both the minimum and preferred qualifications advance to the resume review and shortlisting stage.
Shortlisting Candidates Based on Minimum and Preferred Qualifications
Shortlisting candidates for interviews depends largely on your recruitment strategy and hiring needs. In high-volume recruitment scenarios, it’s common to advance all candidates who meet the minimum qualifications to the interview stage.
On the other hand, for low-volume recruitment, only the top candidates who meet both the minimum and preferred qualifications are typically selected for interviews.
Skill-based screening
Recruiters can test suitable candidates’ skills and competency using simple skills tests. This further eliminates candidates who are less eligible for the role, making screening easier.
Ask job seekers to take a skills based test to check if they genuinely have the skills they need for the particular role.
Select any skills test based on the role and requirements for the job. Here’s a list of carefully curated skills tests hiring managers can use.
Segment applicants
Segment ideal candidates for effective screening with a simple Yes or No category. Make sure you prioritize candidates that match the job description.
This could be those applicants who match skills, competency, work history, etc. with the desired criteria.
To determine the number of candidates to shortlist, it’s useful to rely on your recruitment conversion rates. On average, these rates are as follows:
- 12% from application to interview
- 17% from interview to offer
- 89% from offer to acceptance
This means that for every 100 candidates you screen, you should aim to shortlist around 12 for interviews. Of those, about two candidates will receive an offer, and one is likely to accept, resulting in a successful hire.
Validate the candidate’s information
Studies show that 1 in 3 job seekers lie on their resumes. This is why it’s vital to check the authenticity and accuracy of candidates.
Conduct reference checks by verifying with the previous employer or checking their social accounts, especially LinkedIn.
Instead of relying on facts or conducting resume verification, focus on open-ended questions, such as how the candidate handled challenges, their strengths and areas for improvement, and how they contributed to the team.
What will you look at while screening a resume?
When reviewing resumes and evaluating candidates, recruiters should focus on the following key points to help identify the most suitable candidates for the job:
Mismatched job titles and grammar mistakes
Prioritize resumes with proper grammar and spelling. This indicates the candidate’s professionalism and that they spend some time checking their resumes.
Review resumes that match the job description. This eliminates candidates who mass apply for jobs.
Check if the application is constructed with proper flow and spacing, and pay attention to details. Select resumes that have a professional and formal tone.
Frequent job changes
With over 50% of U.S. employees planning to leave their jobs, the job-hopping trend is expected to continue, as per Forbes.
While there are multiple reasons for this, consistent evidence of job hopping indicates a red flag in a candidate.
In such cases, recruiters communicate properly with the candidate and should ask questions to clarify this issue.
Unexplained gaps between jobs
Recruiters should give candidates a chance to explain any significant gaps in their employment history.
These gaps could be due to various reasons, such as pursuing a degree, caring for a sick family member, starting a business, or being a stay-at-home parent.
By asking candidates to share what they were doing during these periods, you can get a better understanding of their background and make a more informed decision about their fit for the role.
Unclear and irrelevant information
A resume with vague or incorrect details, like inaccurate employment dates or job titles, can suggest that the candidate may be dishonest or careless.
Some candidates might overuse keywords or buzzwords in their resumes.
Even though including industry jargon is necessary, excessive use of buzzwords without proper results to affirm them should be screened off.
5 best resume screening tips
Below are the five tips to help you find the ideal candidate easily.
1. Clear job description
Having a clear understanding of the job description effectively reduces the screening time. Reach out to the manager or team member to know the exact candidate requirements and post them.
Focus on specifications that are easy to check like experience, education level, employment history, etc.
2. Use find or search features
Most experienced recruiters can quickly assess a resume in under 30 seconds. With 50 applicants a day, it would take less than an hour to review them all.
This includes time to decide if they pass or fail and to send out notifications. Recruiters might spend another 30 seconds rejecting or requesting an interview.
Use the ‘find’ or ‘search’ feature (Ctrl + F) to locate key details fast. Create a simple decision tree that outlines the order in which you review content. Start with the most recent employer, job title, and duration.
Depending on the role, you might prioritize other factors, like location or specific skills. This approach ensures a consistent and efficient screening process.
3. Use AI or ATS software
Invest in an AI resume screening tool or resume ATS software to speed up scanning and sorting through applications.
Reports reveal that 75% of recruiters use software to identify ideal candidates. Companies also rely on AI-automated tools for screening candidates.
As the AI software learns about your hiring preferences, it uses that data to sort through your applications.
4. Use questionnaires in the application form
Using questionnaires helps reject half of the candidates. Recruiters can eliminate bad hires based on questions, work authorization, salary categories, etc.
Hiring managers can reject candidates based on preferred time zones. This potentially reduces the candidate pool to half. For the rest, recruiters can check for main skills, education, years of experience needed for the role, etc.
When screening resumes, it’s important to strike a careful balance between identifying applicants who meet your requirements for experience, education, and talents, and making sure their resumes adopt your exact phrasing.
5. Choose important keywords
Sort the screening keywords according to priority to get correct results. Choose absolutely necessary keywords, merely pleasant to have, and definitely not.
By doing this, you’ll be able to obtain more precise findings and save time by not having to make repeated decisions. When sorting keywords, caution is necessary to make sure that no eligible candidates are overlooked.
Screening resumes the right way
The ultimate goal of resume screening is to find an ideal candidate that matches a job’s requirements. Even though screening candidates is a tedious process, it is a crucial step.
Federal laws prohibit biased hiring, and resume-based hiring has its own challenges. There is a need for a holistic approach that evaluates a candidate’s knowledge, skills, competencies, behavior, etc. This is where skills assessments fill the gap.
Ready to find your ideal candidate through Testlify?
