By now, you’ve likely whittled down your candidate pool to just a few prospects. Now it’s time to make your hiring decision!
The Goals of Your Hiring Decision
All of the hiring committee’s hard work is now put to the test. Your hiring decision should ensure the new hire has the skills and qualifications you need and quickly adds value to the team. Unfortunately, the last step can often be the hardest, as it also means saying “no” to some of the best prospects. But with a little more digging, you can be sure to hire the best candidate.
How Long Should a Hiring Decision Take?
This will depend on the role, company size, industry, applicant pool and labor market. A restaurant owner might choose a server in two weeks while a hospital takes six months to hire a heart surgeon. According to LinkedIn research, the industries/job roles with the longest hiring processes are engineering (49 days), research (48), project management (47), business development (46), finance (46) and IT (44). In contrast, the average time to hire for customer service positions is 34 days.
One thing’s for certain, companies are retooling hiring processes to fill positions faster. The employment market is too competitive to struggle with old-school methods. Not surprisingly, technology is key.
Investment in technology is imperative to support the pace of accelerated hiring needed for businesses across industries. In today’s job market, where candidates are now being pursued both nationally and internationally, and often receive multiple offers concurrently, it is critical for employers to rely on technology to expedite the hiring process. Tim Dowd, CEO of Accurate Background
What to Review Before Making Your Hiring Decision
The time has come to make a selection from your pool of top candidates. You want to be careful, but you risk losing applicants if this stage takes too long. You need to review the candidate scorecards, check references and perform a background check. Each of these tasks is important. The candidate scores measure hard and soft skills. Reference checking verifies work experience and credentials. A background check can uncover a criminal record or other red flags.
What is a Background Check?
A background check as part of a job application is a review of the applicant’s records and history. The employer wants to determine if the applicant is honest and trustworthy. They want to know if he/she poses a threat to the company in any way. For example, if the applicant has been convicted of theft or an assault, it would raise red flags.
Employers also check other information specific to the job role. For an accounting position, the employer might review the applicant’s financial records. If the applicant was highly leveraged with debt, the potential employer probably wouldn’t be comfortable letting them handle company funds.
Most employers contract with a company that specializes in performing background checks.
The purposes of a background check include the following:
Confirm the applicant’s identity
Determine if the applicant has a criminal record
Verify the employment history listed on the resume and/or application
Confirm the education listed on the resume and/or application
Review the applicant’s driving record (if applicable)
Check the applicant’s credit history (if applicable)
There are federal and state laws that regulate background checks. It’s important that employers understand how to conduct legal background checks.
When Should I Perform a Background Check For a Job Applicant?
Background checks are generally done following the review, before you extend an offer. However, it might make sense for you to do it at another point in the process.
What is a Reference Check?
Employers perform reference checks to evaluate and verify an applicant’s employment history. The candidate provides the names and contact information for the references on their resume or application.
There are two main types of references: professional and personal. A professional reference is usually a previous (or current) employer, manager, business associate, or client. A professional reference provides information about work history and skills.
If an applicant is new to the workforce and has no professional contacts, they might provide a personal, or character, reference. A personal reference may be a teacher, professor, coach, member of the clergy, or supervisor at a non-profit.
Reference checks vary in the types of information obtained. The employer might simply verify dates of employment and the job title. With a more extensive inquiry, the employer seeks information about the applicant’s performance in previous job roles.
Reference checks are regulated at the federal and state level. It’s important to understand how to conduct compliant reference checks.
What if the Process Reveals Two Top Picks?
What a great problem to have! In this era of low unemployment and talent shortages, some recruiting teams can’t find one top candidate, let alone two. If this happens to you, backtrack over the evaluation process. Are there stones left unturned? For example, perhaps because of the nature of the position, you didn’t do reference checks. Now’s the time to dig deeper to gain more insight into the candidate’s background. It always helps to spend more time with both candidates. For example, you can tour the office or share a meal. Be alert to differences in the way each candidate interacts with the team. We dive deeper into this topic here: Torn Between Two Equally-Desirable Candidates? How to Choose the Right One.
Make Sure Everyone is in Agreement
The goal is to build a consensus among the hiring committee. In most companies, the hiring manager has the final say if members of the team disagree. However, it’s important to discuss each team member’s concerns. If someone doesn’t agree with the manager’s pick, they may understandably become resentful. Of course, the hiring manager can’t make everyone happy if there are disagreements. However, discussing everyone’s concerns shows respect for others’ opinions.
How Can ApplicantStack Simplify Reference and Background Checks?
ApplicantStack applicant tracking system streamlines the evaluation and hiring decision process. For example, you can trigger reference and background checks at any stage in the hiring process. The candidate provides the references on the application and the software sends emails directly to references. All feedback is imported into the candidate profile.
ApplicantStack Automation + Customization
Intelligent automation and the ability to customize prevents logjams. This is true for the background and reference checking stages as well as the other workflows in the hiring process.
Background screening
This workflow can be triggered at any stage
The applicant is automatically sent a screening email
Reference checks
Can be triggered at any stage in the hiring process
Auto emails are sent to the applicant’s references
Responses are imported into the candidate feedback tab
Does ApplicantStack Integrate With Background Screening Companies?
ApplicantStack integrates with several background screening companies and we’re adding more all the time. Our current background screening partners are Verified First, Accurate Now, Amerisearch, CareerBuilder Employment Screening, DISA, and Trak-1.
Select Your Next Employee
Based on the feedback during the previous steps, you can now make your selection of the top choice candidate. When this stage is finished, you are ready to offer the job!
This article is part of our comprehensive series on hiring employees.
Welcome to our How To Hire Your Next Employee Series. Whether you are a new or veteran hiring manager, our series can help you improve your recruiting processes. In so doing, you will find employees faster. And it will cost you less.
The Applicant Journey
In today’s post, we describe the process from the applicant’s point of view. This is called the applicant, or candidate, journey. Unfortunately, the applicant journey doesn’t always receive the attention it deserves. Yet the ApplicantStack candidate interface is key to our success. That means it’s key to your success as well.
ApplicantStack creates an exceptional applicant journey and your company deserves nothing less.
The Applicant Moves Through Stages Along The Applicant Journey
Before we continue, let’s talk about applicant stages because it’s important to understand how they work.
A stage refers to one specific step in the hiring process. For example, an applicant could be in the interview stage. Or they could be in the manager review stage.
As you move an applicant through the hiring process, you change their stage in the system. Stage changes can trigger actions. For example, if you change an applicant’s stage to Do Not Pursue, you can cause the system to send a ‘Thank you for applying but you’re not a fit for the position’ email. You create a template for the email and even personalize it with merge fields. ApplicantStack will insert the applicant’s name.
As we talk about each point of contact between the applicant and your company, keep in mind that you can tie the applicant’s stage to auto communications.
The Applicant Sees Your Job Posting
Your job posting is the first point of contact in the applicant journey. Candidates can find your job posting on your chosen job boards (such as Indeed, Google, JuJu, CareerBuilder, Monster, etc.), social media sites, or your careers page.
Here are ApplicantStack job postings on Indeed. See the listing for the SwipeClock jobs:
Candidates look at these sites for jobs. Your ApplicantStack job postings start engaging candidates immediately. With branded postings, the applicant meets your employer brand at the first point of contact. Branded postings reflect the look and feel of your website.
Application
When the candidate sees your posting, they click a link which takes them to your application. (An application is called a ‘Questionnaire’ in the ApplicantStack system.)
Here is a questionnaire created in ApplicantStack:
Notice how easy it is to upload a resume. Applicants can use Dropbox or Google Drive. ApplicantStack makes everything easy and natural.
ApplicantStack has flexible settings to fit your ideal candidate. You can set the resume upload to allow the applicant to write a cover letter. If that isn’t customary in your industry, leave that turned off.
ApplicantStack Eliminates Redundant Processes
When the applicant uploads their resume, ApplicantStack parses some of the contact information. The applicant won’t have to reenter all of their contact information going forward.
Repeating tasks unnecessarily is frustrating for everyone. It’s especially frustrating for a job candidate who is in the process of applying for jobs at multiple companies.
Reentering contact info again and again wastes their time. And it makes your company seem twenty years behind the technological curve.
Personalized Candidate Emails
When the candidate fills out the application, they immediately receive a personalized email that confirms you received their application. If they are a good fit, you can reach out to them immediately.
The applicant never wonders ‘Did they get my application and resume?’ They see that your company is prompt and professional. You respect their time and appreciate their interest in your company.
Candidate Screening
In ApplicantStack, you can use questionnaires for prescreening. Screening questionnaires can play a role in a great applicant journey.
Here is a screening questionnaire:
Screening Questionnaires
Prescreening questionnaires with knockout questions help eliminate unqualified candidates. This is how a questionnaire with knockout questions works:
You create a screening questionnaire with knockout questions. The knockout questions will depend on the job description.
The candidate completes the questionnaire. If they aren’t qualified, the knockout questions will filter them out.
You won’t waste any more of their time. If a candidate is eliminated, you can program ApplicantStack to send a ‘Thank you for applying but you aren’t a fit for the position’ email. You create an email template and ApplicantStack will use merge fields to enter the necessary information. (As mentioned previously, all candidates receive a ‘We have received your application,’ email immediately after applying.’)
If they pass the prescreen questionnaire, the system presents the more extensive questionnaire.
If you want your applicants to receive the full questionnaire initially, you can program it that way. You understand the recruiting standards of your industry and company type. The job position also influences how you want to craft the process for your applicant.
You customize ApplicantStack to create an applicant journey that’s most effective for your hiring pool.
No-Hassle Reference Checks
In your questionnaire, you can ask for references. Your applicant will enter them when they apply. ApplicantStack saves them in the candidate profile. If the applicant passes the prescreening and interviews, you can move them to the ‘Reference Check’ stage. When this happens, ApplicantStack will automatically email the references. This is called a Questionnaire Action in ApplicantStack.
This saves your applicant the trouble of re-entering their references. And you won’t have to ask them for their references again or find them on their resume. It keeps the process moving and eliminates a common bottleneck.
Interview Scheduling Reinvented
If the candidate passes the questionnaire screening, they are invited to schedule an interview. ApplicantStack interview self-scheduling is a game changer. ApplicantStack integrates with Google and Office365 for interview scheduling. Because of the integration, any non-available time slots will be hidden from the applicant.
Let’s discuss this in detail.
Decide how many members of your team need to be in the interview. For this example, let’s say three team members need to be there.
ApplicantStack will pull information from Google Calendar or Office365 for each member of the interview team.
Let’s suppose there are four specific time slots where all interviewers are available. The applicant is only presented with these time slots. The applicant can choose the most convenient time slot.
Let’s suppose there is only one time slot for which all hiring members are available. If this is the case, ApplicantStack presents the applicant with one interview time.
Your Applicant Won’t Be Frustrated With Scheduling Hassles
Interview scheduling is a hiring process bottleneck for many companies. With slowdowns, you run the risk of abandoned applications. Interview self-scheduling keeps the process on track.
Job Offer
When the background and reference checks are complete, it’s time to offer the job. Here is an offer letter email:
Notice the electronic signature. The applicant can sign and accept the offer immediately.
ApplicantStack ensures that you never lose an applicant because they are confused. ApplicantStack is always ready for each stage change. Candidates advance through hiring stages as quickly as your team chooses to process them. You will never have a slowdown because of the ApplicantStack platform. Your hiring team, the applicant, and their references control the timeline.
ApplicantStack can send hiring team members task reminders. Task reminders help your hiring team support a fluid, timely applicant journey.
ApplicantStack Reports
By running reports in ApplicantStack, you can identify bottlenecks in your hiring process. This allows you to continually refine your process and keep improving your company’s applicant journey.
How to Hire Your Next Employee
We hope you’ve found our How To Hire Employees series helpful. Here are the links to the posts on each step in the process.
A manual candidate screening process make hiring harder than it needs to be. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to create a formalized process. Does your candidate screening process affect quality of hire? Absolutely!
What Are the Challenges of Manual Candidate Screening?
Before we dive into the details of formalized screening, let’s explain why manual screening will stymie talent acquisition.
The Problems With Manual Candidate Screening
No way to compare one applicant from another
If you don’t have a screening process and resources, it’s difficult to compare candidates. This is one of the easiest ways to let bias creep into your process.
Inability to identify a pool of qualified candidates quickly
You don’t have time to engage with everyone (especially those without minimum qualification), so you need to isolate the cream of the crop. Application questionnaires are a great automated pre employment screening tool. When candidates apply, they self-filter by taking a carefully-designed questionnaire based on the job description and each necessary skill.
Difficulty keeping track of multiple job boards and sources
If you promote your job well, applications will flow in from many sites–careers page, social media, job boards, employee referrals and internal job seekers, outside agencies. if you don’t set up a process for organization, you may lose track of some great applicants.
No tool for tracking applicant stages
A candidate screening process is essentially a workflow that includes stages. These may include Application Received, Resume Review, Do Not Pursue, Phone Interview Complete, Pending Live Interview, etc. With no workflow, you have no hiring stages, and this will make it hard to know the status of each job seeker. To screen candidates efficiently, build a workflow based on your needs.
Inability to filter out unqualified candidates
In today’s competitive hiring environment, you and your Human Resource team are in a race against time–spending precious hours engaging with unqualified applicants leaves less time for the top job candidate. Screening candidates automatically during the first pass gives you a head start. Using a formalized method for phone screen and interviews keep you on track.
EEOC compliance risks
If you can’t document a fair evaluation process, you are at risk of an EEOC challenge if a rejected job seeker suspects bias. In a way, this is a self-fulfilling disadvantage. Without a formal screening method, you ARE more likely to have a biased process. Consider, for example, if your hiring manager uses a ‘gut feeling’ to judge which applicant is a qualified candidate.
Difficulty collaborating with the hiring team
If each decision maker is using their own evaluation criteria for screening resumes or interviews, there is no way to tell which candidates are the most promising. In addition, as mentioned previously, this puts you at risk of bias, or at least the perception of bias. A disorganized team can’t identify a suitable candidate if they don’t even have a common benchmark.
What is Prescreening?
Now, let’s discuss the components of candidate screening. The first step is prescreening. This refers to evaluation that happens before any communication from the hiring team. As mentioned previously, this step can easily be automated. Using the job description, create a questionnaire that candidates will complete when they apply. Include elimination questions that filter out those who don’t meet the minimum qualifications.
Should you review resumes as part of the prescreening process? It will depend on the open position. If you are hiring for an entry-level opening, the questionnaire may suffice. Furthermore, if you are hiring for a high level position with relatively few applicants, you may want to take a look at the resumes. An applicant tracking system ATS can help you organize resumes and applications. Remember, however, not to base your decision solely on resumes–unless you are hiring a resume writer.
ATS search functions can help with resume review. Suppose you have 100 applicants and want to identify those with particular skills. Use keyword and boolean queries to zero in on your applicant pool.
Social Media Screening
Should you look at applicants’ social media sites? There isn’t a consensus among talent acquisition specialists. However, many employment law experts counsel waiting until after interviews if you insist on doing a social screening. A review of a candidate’s social media will reveal demographic information which shouldn’t be used in the hiring decision. If a rejected candidate accuses you of bias, you will have an easier time defending your decision if you interviewed all the top candidates–including those from underrepresented groups. For more protection, don’t have a decision maker do the social review. Bottom line, seek legal counsel to design a policy.
The First Screening Interview
Most hiring teams do the first interview as a phone call. The purpose of this interview is to isolate the group of candidates to move to the next step. For example, verify the skills and qualifications listed on the candidate’s resume. It’s also an ideal method to evaluate communication skills.
Useful questions for the phone screen include:
Tell me about yourself.
Why are you applying for this job?
Why are you leaving your current position?
What are your salary requirements?
(For jobs that require travel) Are you willing to travel?
What type of work environment are you looking for?
Notice that you can eliminate even high quality candidates if their salary expectations don’t match up or if they don’t want to travel and the position requires it.
Additional Screening
Every company has different hiring needs. Some do verification of the candidate before the first interview. These may include:
Calling of references
Background checks
Credit history checks
Education credentials
Prior work performance
How do you know which screens to perform before the interview? Review previous hiring experiences. If a relatively high percentage of previous candidates have failed the background screen, move that up in the process. It will save you time in the long run. If something in a job seeker’s application raises a red flag–say educational experience listed–check it out.
In-Person or Video Interview
At this stage, you should have a pool of great candidates: 1. They weren’t eliminated by the filtering questionnaire due to lack of qualifications, and, 2. They weren’t eliminated in the phone screen.
The best practice for all interviews is structured interviewing scripts. They allow you to compare candidates using the same yardstick and protect you legally.
Before we continue, let’s review where we are in the series:
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