Reviewing Candidate applications

Reviewing Candidate applications

Who should be involved?

Who is involved in shortlisting depends on your organisation’s policy on recruitment, and on the role being recruited for? Some organisations have procedures which specify who should be involved, depending on the level and nature of the role. Generally, the line manager recruiting for the role should be involved. HR are usually involved at this stage to manage the process and to bring experience of recruitment and selection across the organisation. HR can also provide support in coaching line managers through the various stages of recruitment and to ensure fairness and equity. It is vital to ensure that no discriminatory practice takes place and the best candidates are progressed.

If the role is a very technical one, a technical expert may be involved at this stage.

Ideally, all those involved in the interview process should be involved at the shortlisting stage. If this is not feasible it is important that others involved at the next stage accept the decision of the shortlisting panel.

Where you have used a recruitment agency to assist you with your recruitment, they will often provide you with a shortlist of applicants recommended for interview. It is still important for you as the employing organisation to review applicants put forward against your criteria to determine whether they should called for interview. Applicants put forward by recruitment agencies should be considered at the same time and in the same way as internal applicants and applicants who have applied directly.

What information should the shortlisting panel see?

• All formal applicants for the role, i.e. those who have formally applied, not individuals who may have enquired or expressed an interest.
• CVs or application forms completed at this stage.
• Answers to any screening questions asked at the application stage.
• Other information provided by the applicant, whether or not you have requested it, for example, a covering letter or portfolio of evidence.

Shortlisting

Criteria for shortlisting

When deciding to recruit for the role, you will have reviewed the person specification and made sure you are clear on your essential criteria. You now need to determine which criteria to use to shortlist and which criteria you will measure at a later stage of the process i.e. at interview or through an assessment centre. It is not possible to measure all criteria fully at this stage; you may need to interview individuals to gain a better understanding or use further assessments in order to determine suitability for appointment.

Always create your initial shortlist against the essential criteria first. If you find you have too many candidates to interview based on the essential criteria, then you may want to introduce consideration of the desirable criteria at this stage. Desirable criteria are those criteria which are ‘nice to have’ or give an applicant an advantage, such as a qualification or experience in a particular sector. It is important to make the clear distinction between what is essential and what is desirable in order to consider all applicants on the same basis and ensure desirable criteria does not give a “halo effect” to a candidate who perhaps doesn’t meet some of the essential requirements.

Using the essential criteria focus on the most important points first then review others, so if you have 20 things you are looking to find evidence of you should review each of those criteria and rank them in order of importance to the ability to carry out the role and focus on the most important ones first. If you find that you still have a significant number of candidates who meet these criteria you should then go back to look at other criteria in priority order.

If you have used screening questions when advertising you should review the answers to these first as these criteria will be ones you have identified as essential for the role so any candidate who does not meet them would not meet your shortlist.

List the criteria being used in a grid, along with candidates’ names so that you can use this to record your thoughts on each candidate against each criteria.

You may wish to use the scoring sheet included here.