What to look for in resume screening: Best practices

Introduction

Nowadays, with platforms like LinkedIn facilitating job applications, companies are receiving up to 600-800 candidates per job listing. It’s a staggering number that can make resume screening feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Implementing best practices in resume screening is crucial to streamline this process and identify the most suitable candidates efficiently.

What to look for and what to avoid

When you’re sifting through this mountain of resumes, it’s easy to get sidetracked by subjective and biased conclusions. It’s important to acknowledge that this is a preliminary filter, where we are only evaluating specific criteria.

Avoid analyzing aspects such as:

• Soft skills: leadership, teamwork, communication.
• Cultural fit.
• Motivation and ambition.
• Potential for growth.

Instead, focus on objective criteria that we can determine through resume screening:

• Work experience.
• Skill sets.
• Educational background.
• Language and tool proficiencies.

To make this process even more effective, try creating a scoreboard. Assign weights to each requirement and calculate scores for the candidates. This way, you have a clear, objective method to decide who progresses to the interview stage. It’s also important to distinguish between mandatory and preferred criteria—mandatory being the deal-breakers that disqualify a candidate if unmet.

Introducing Brainner: 10x Faster AI Resume Screening

Let’s be honest, resume screening can be a real time-drain. But there are tools out there that can automate this process and save your talent team hundreds of hours. Brainner is one such tool—an AI-driven resume screening software that follows your criteria to the letter. This helps ensure the screening process is both objective and efficient, cutting down your HR team’s workload significantly.

Brainner’s AI model is only as good as the criteria you feed it. Remember the saying, “junk in, junk out”? If your input criteria are vague or poorly defined, you’re not going to get great results. That’s why it’s essential to carefully customize and refine your criteria to get the best outcomes from our software.

Brainner’s Approach to Customizing Criteria

Once you upload your job description (JD), Brainner will extract an initial draft of recruiting criteria. But this is just the starting point. It’s your job to fine-tune these criteria by adding, deleting, and modifying them.

Work Experience

• Quantify Criteria: For example, specify years of experience or the frequency of job changes.
• Be Specific: Detail the job titles, industry experience, company background, functions, or projects relevant to the role.

Skill Sets

• Quantify Criteria: Indicate years of proficiency in particular skills.
• Separate Skills into Different Criteria: Especially important for unrelated or distinct skills.
• Generate Logical Functions: Use OR logic for supplementary skills and AND logic for complementary skills.

Educational Background Specifics

• Mention Specific Degrees or Institutions: Highlight essential degrees or preferred educational institutions.

Additional Criteria

• Location: Consider location preferences or requirements.
• Language Proficiency: Include relevant language skills.

Mandatory Criteria

Finally, be strict in defining mandatory criteria. These are the deal-breakers—if the candidate doesn’t meet these, they should not be considered for an interview.

And that’s it; you’re now ready to start hiring smarter with Brainner. By customizing your screening criteria, you enhance the accuracy and efficiency of your hiring process, ensuring you select the best candidates based on objective measures.