Screening In vs Screening Out: Which is best?

By 2024, there will be over 8 million job vacancies in the U.S., making the job market more competitive. However, finding the right candidate can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. 

As power skills take centre stage in hiring, recruiters often struggle to screen candidates effectively. How can you streamline your candidate screening process to ensure you don’t miss out on your ideal talent?

The answer lies in understanding the critical distinction between screening in vs screening out. Which strategy should you use? What are the benefits of each, and how are they different? Read on to find answers to all your questions on screening in vs screening out. 

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What is screening in?

Screening in is the process of evaluating potential candidates to identify the best match for the job. It is an inclusive approach to recruitment that focuses on candidates’ skills and competencies—even if they don’t fit all the criteria required for a role.

Screening in approach is critical to narrow a large talent pool to a manageable size for further assessment.

Such a focus allows the candidates to showcase their skills and provide additional context that often gets lost in a traditional resume or cover letter.

This type of screening mainly relies on pre-employment tests, screening interviews, skills assessments, etc, to find top talent. 

Not sure where to begin? Explore Testlify’s extensive test library to get started. 

Benefits of screening in 

On average, recruiters take 42 days to fill a role. Hence, finding the right candidates who check all the boxes is difficult.

Transitioning from rigid traditional practices to a more flexible screening-in approach can significantly benefit companies.

Screening-in focuses on candidates who may not have the perfect credentials or a traditional background but have the skills and potential to excel in the role.

This approach helps companies tap into capable talent they might otherwise overlook, offering a more inclusive and effective way to find the right fit. 

Such an approach inevitably promotes inclusivity and diversity. Since 32% of candidates prefer companies that emphasize diversity in their workplace, this is a win-win situation for both employers and candidates. 

Disadvantages of screening in 

A major con of the screening in method is that it is time-consuming. Recruiters may find themselves with an extensive list of potential candidates that need to be screened individually, requiring a thorough review of each resume and CV. 

While this approach can be effective, it is only practical when a dedicated hiring team has ample resources and time to manage the screening process efficiently.

It doesn’t mean that every screening technique needs to be time-intensive. 

Consider AI-powered skills assessment tools like Testlify, which evaluate candidates in real time, saving hiring managers time and resources.

What is screening out?

Screening out refers to eliminating candidates based on specific qualifications or criteria. This process helps narrow the applicant pool to find the most suitable candidate for hiring.

The main objective of screening out is to quickly categorize the talent pool and identify and remove candidates who may not fit the organization well.

Since this approach focuses on eliminating candidates, screening out can result in overlooking great talent who may possess the skills and potential to succeed in the role. 

It is often seen as a method focused on finding reasons not to hire someone.

Benefits of screening out

The screening out method is beneficial when searching for candidates with technical proficiency. It helps eliminate unqualified candidates in the first step.

For instance, candidates must possess essential, non-negotiable skills in technical roles such as Java or Python software developers. 

Applications that fail to meet these specific criteria can be automatically filtered out using an ATS or other screening technology.

However, there’s an essential distinction between screening out a candidate who lacks a required license and one who simply doesn’t hold a particular degree or level of education. 

The former is often non-negotiable, while the latter might exclude qualified candidates who possess the skills but don’t fit traditional academic requirements.

Additionally, if a candidate doesn’t meet the basic requirements for a role, you can screen out them. 

For example, if the position is up, especially for a time zone, location, etc. However, understand that screening out should not be used as a discriminatory way to eliminate any candidates. 

Screening-out techniques help to filter resumes that may have slipped past the spam filter, especially when dealing with a large influx of applications.

This is common in MNCs, where a single job posting often attracts many candidates.

Disadvantages of screening out

There are a few downsides to the screening out method.

Firstly, since screening out focuses on eliminating candidates quickly, it often results in unconscious biases. 

Recruiters might start evaluating candidates based on gender, ethnicity, demographics, and other irrelevant personal factors. Such bias-based hiring leads to bad hires, eventually hampering productivity, employee engagement, and the company’s success.

A single bad hire can cost your company approximately $15,000, and about 74% of hiring professionals agree to hire the wrong candidate. This signifies the importance of implementing more inclusive and objective hiring practices.

Another potential con of screening out is that recruiters sometimes use the wrong metrics to assess a candidate. 

This often arises from a misalignment between the hiring manager’s expectations and the recruiters’ understanding of those requirements.

What is the difference between screening in vs screening out?

Screening in and screening out are both screening methods that differ in their purpose. Screening in is used to find the potential candidate while screening out is used to eliminate candidates who don’t meet the criteria.

The screening-in approach is precious in a competitive job market, where employers should consider candidates who may not tick every box but still bring essential skills and qualities. 

On the other hand, screening out aims to simplify the hiring process by ensuring that only qualified candidates move on to the subsequent evaluation stages.

Examples of screening in vs screening out 

The best example of screening in is when recruiters look at a candidate’s profile and ask, “What qualities does this person possess that could fill our current gaps or add value?”

A screen-out mindset example involves evaluating a candidate’s profile by asking, “What aspects of this person do not meet my criteria?”

The best outreach a recruiter can take between screening in vs screening out should be “screening-in”. This is because instead of trying to eliminate candidates who don’t meet the entire criteria, screen in tries to find reasons why they would qualify. 

Where should screening in and screening out be used?

Companies use screening in method to retain the top candidates.

Scenarios where screen-in method is used include:

1. Limited applications: When a job posting receives fewer applicants and recruiters have to settle for the next best candidate, a screen-in strategy can be used. 
2. Final evaluation stage: This stage involves adding insights about what is already known about the candidate.
3. Integrated Approach: When hiring candidates requires integrated data, the screen-in method can be used. This utilizes multiple data sources to inform decisions rather than relying on a single factor (e.g., behavioural assessments, psychometric assessments, etc.).

Below are some of the situations where screening out can be used.

1. High-volume selection: When faced with large candidate pools that overwhelm traditional recruiting methods, implementing successive pass/fail milestones can streamline the process, reducing the number of candidates considered at each stage.
2. Lower-stakes positions: For roles that demand fewer resources and where performance is easy to measure, decisions can be automated through assessments, screening out unqualified candidates.
3. High-stakes testing: This approach ensures that only qualified individuals are selected for positions with significant consequences for failure.

How to include “screening in” recruitment methods to discover top talent? 

No candidate will meet every single job requirement perfectly. The screening-in approach is an excellent way to identify the ideal candidate with the most essential qualities for the role.

But how do you find them? 

A skills test is the answer. Assessing candidates based on their skills and competencies gives recruiters to gain a comprehensive understanding of them. It also helps effectively weed out less suitable applicants.

With Testlify, you can streamline this process and ensure you’re identifying top talent right from the start.

Testlify’s assessments rank candidates based on their performance rather than filtering them out for not meeting random benchmarks. 

Another excellent way to screen candidates is by using video interviews. You can either use customized questions or choose from the existing question pool to screen out candidates. 

Our advanced algorithms do the heavy lifting, automatically grading and ranking participants to help recruiters navigate the screening process quickly and thoroughly. Check out our test library and start hiring right.