: Candidate screening Archives - Everpool Recruitment

For years, companies in the Healthcare industry have relied heavily on CV screening to identify which candidates have the credentials and experience required to thrive in their organisation.

However, CV screening isn’t as effective as it appears.

The higher the number of applications received, the more time it takes to examine every CV That’s why many recruiting managers spend less than 7 seconds scanning through a CV.

Also, CVs aren’t always great indicators of a good job fit.

CVs, despite sharing academic data and work experience, provide little insight into genuine abilities, personality traits, and characteristics. The good news is that various screening techniques exist that Healthcare companies can use to improve the success of their recruitment efforts.

Here are some of the top options to consider.

1. Behavioural Interviewing Techniques

Behavioural/Behavioral interviews are a tested tool for Healthcare recruiting managers and
recruitment to assess a candidate’s “fit” for a role. In these interviews, which can be conducted in person, over the phone, or via video, interviewers ask candidates questions about their behaviour in past situations, similar to the situations they may encounter in their prospective role.

Candidates respond to questions often using the “STAR” (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) method, offering an overview of what they needed to accomplish, the challenges they had to overcome, and the goals they achieved. This form of interviewing provides a clear insight into how candidates reacted in real-life situations and specific results accomplished.

This helps recruiting managers make informed decisions about who to take to the next stage in the hiring process based on their proven skills, experience, and attributes.

2. Skill Assessments and Job Simulations

A CV offers limited insight into what a candidate can accomplish in a prospective role, and this is where skill testing can give you an unbiased, effective way to verify a candidate’s expertise.

With a straightforward online test, you can identify candidates with the right critical soft skills ( communication and problem-solving) and technical skills (mathematical or analytical). You can also use personality tests for insights into desirable traits (like proactivity).

To take skill-testing a step further, candidates can be asked to participate in a “job simulation,” where they are required to complete a task related to the responsibilities of their roles. Seeing candidates “in action” gives the recruiting manager an excellent opportunity to make informed decisions based on clear evidence of the candidate’s skills and abilities.

3. AI-Powered Screening Systems

For years, recruiting managers and companies in the Healthcare industry have used solutions like “Applicant Tracking Systems” to screen large numbers of candidates rapidly. In today’s world, these tools have become increasingly advanced with the addition of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

AI-powered systems, now used by around 79% of organisations worldwide, can accelerate the early stages of the screening process. AI solutions can be programmed to search for specific terms or references to certain skills in a CV or application. This saves companies hours of time they would otherwise spend reviewing CVs themselves.

However, it’s worth noting that AI-powered tools aren’t perfect. They can miss essential application details and generate biased results, which may rule out valuable candidates. It’s important to be cautious when implementing AI and automation and understand their limitations.

4. Video Screening Techniques

Over the years, video screening and preliminary interview sessions have become increasingly popular, replacing phone screening. With video conferencing solutions, Healthcare companies can engage in face-to-face conversations with clients wherever they are. This makes it easier for firms to assess a wider range of candidates, often from across the globe.

Video interviewing and screening also allow teams to learn more about their candidates based on their nonverbal cues, communication, and presentation skills.

Aside from the above, companies can also choose an asynchronous approach. Asynchronous video interviewing allows companies to record and send questions to candidates, who can respond with their recordings within a certain deadline. This can save hiring teams significant time during the initial interview stages.

5. Anti-Bias Screening Techniques

One of the biggest issues with relying on CVs for screening candidates is that it can lead to biased hiring decisions. With limited information, Healthcare hiring managers can unconsciously make decisions based on attributes like age and gender rather than skills.

To ensure you’re hiring diverse candidates to add to your teams, there should be a conscious focus on reducing bias in the screening process. This could include using:

Blind resumé screening: Using software or asking recruitment companies to remove details like age, gender, and location from CVs and applications.
Structured interviewing: Structured interviews, which involve asking every candidate the same questions in the same order, allow for a more objective comparison of candidates.
Diverse recruitment panels: Inviting various stakeholders to participate in the screening process can help companies make decisions based on varying perspectives.

It’s also advisable to provide everyone responsible for recruitment in the team with regular training to help them recognise signs of bias in hiring decisions.

6. Social Media Screening

Individuals use social media channels to communicate with friends and share their insights, passions, and accomplishments. While there are limitations to how much you can learn about someone from their social media profiles and online presence, social media screening can give the recruiting manager more insights into the Healthcare candidates.

It is said that around 90% of employers check a candidate’s online presence during the hiring process to learn about their personality, work ethic, and other factors. The important point to remember when using social media for screening is that bias can be an issue.

Companies must ensure their team members pay attention to only the most relevant information on a candidate’s social profiles, ignoring details like their outside hobbies, political views, or religious affiliations.

7. Cultural Fit and Value Alignment Assessments

A big issue with CV screening is that it provides little insight into a candidate’s values and personality or how they’ll mesh with existing company culture. Many people fail in their new role because of something connected to their attitude, personality, or values.

Conducting an effective interview, where you ask your Healthcare candidates about their priorities, goals, and expectations, can help you learn more about how well they’ll fit into your organisation. Personality assessments can also be useful alongside “trial work” periods, which allows you to see how your candidates interact with their colleagues.

Careful evaluation of what value a candidate will add to your company culture will help you to make better hiring decisions and increase talent retention rates.

Go Beyond the CV for Screening

Effective candidate screening ensures you make the best hiring decisions for your Healthcare company. However, CV screening can be flawed, offering limited insights into how effective someone might be in a particular role.

Advanced screening techniques, from skill tests to value alignment assessments, will ensure you make more informed, objective hiring choices. This can significantly reduce turnover rates for your business and improve your chances of building a diverse team.

An effective strategy for candidate evaluation is crucial to ensuring you make the right decisions on who to add to your Health and Social Care team. While hundreds of people might apply for a job, many companies only invite a small percentage to an interview.

The screening process is how business leaders shortlist candidates based on their skills, experience, and attributes. However, not every screening strategy is alike.

To ensure they’re not missing out on valuable talent or adding unnecessary complexity to the hiring process, companies need to analyse and implement the right screening methods for their specific needs. Here, we’ll explore some of the best ways to screen candidates this year.

CV Screening Works With Limitations

CV screening is among the most commonly used candidate evaluation methods. CVs and cover letters provide companies with a quick insight into a candidate’s experience, critical skills, and capabilities.

Unfortunately, CV screening has limitations.

If you receive hundreds of applications for a specific role, manually reading through everyone you receive takes time. Since HR teams have a lot of additional work to do each day, it’s easy to “rush through” reviews (even with the help of AI) and miss important details.

What’s more, a paper or digital document cannot provide a complete view of each candidate. It’s difficult to understand how well a candidate will fit into a company’s culture based on this method alone.

That’s why it’s so important for companies to take the right approach to screening by:

Using Technology

Leveraging technology, like automated screening tools, can help businesses or their recruitment partner rapidly sort through applications, searching for mentions of keywords or terms relevant to the job role. This can help companies quickly create short lists of candidates with the correct skills or capabilities.

Combining CV Screening with Other Methods

Companies should consider combining insights from CVs with other screening methods rather than relying exclusively on this method to find the right fit for a role. Conducting skill tests, using profiling tools, or working with a recruitment company to conduct initial phone interviews can be a great way to unlock additional insights into each candidate.

Profiling Tools for Candidate Evaluation

Profiling tools are an excellent way to dive deeper into the specific capabilities and personality traits of a potential Health and Social Care candidate. Companies can use various types of profiling solutions. For instance, personality profiling tests are an excellent way to learn about candidates’ attributes and determine how well they might fit into your company’s culture.

Options like the DiSC profile can help companies determine which candidates will fit well into leadership roles. Skills tests are also extremely useful, allowing companies to validate candidates’ competencies before they invite them for an interview.

Certain tests can examine critical soft skills, such as communication and collaboration skills, resiliency, or time management capabilities. Aside from helping companies shortlist candidates faster, skills tests can even help to reduce bias in hiring decisions, ensuring companies choose staff members based on their abilities.

Video Interviews

Video interviews have become increasingly common in recent years. They offer a fantastic replacement for in-person interviews, allowing for more flexibility, eliminating the need for candidates to travel long distances and employer scheduling challenges to arrange in-person interviews.

Video interviews can also be excellent for Health and Social Care candidate evaluation. They offer a fast-paced and convenient way to interact with multiple candidates, ask standardized questions, and get a feel for each applicant’s personality and communication skills.

Thanks to the rise of video conferencing and recording software, scheduling and conducting synchronous and asynchronous interviews is easier than ever today. Asynchronous video interviews can be particularly valuable for candidate evaluation, as they allow applicants to record answers to pre-set questions at a time that suits them.

Business leaders can then review these videos, compare them, and make notes throughout the process to help enhance their hiring strategies.

When conducting video interviews, it makes sense to focus on a few key things, such as making the interview process as simple as possible for candidates and asking questions that offer insights into soft and hard skills.

[Add your offer here for those who use video interviewing as part of your process.]

Leveraging AI and Automation in Hiring

Advanced technology, such as AI and automation solutions, can streamline hiring strategies and enhance the screening process. Already, many organisations use some form of automated technology to help optimise screening.

For instance, applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) can help shortlist Health and Social Care candidates instantly by searching for mentions of specific phrases and terms in cover letters and CVs. AI in hiring is increasingly common as companies leverage intelligent tools to analyse, and match candidates to job descriptions.

Both automation and AI in hiring processes can save companies time and effort in the screening process. However, it’s important to be cautious when relying on these tools.

Some automated solutions can disregard applications from valuable candidates simply because they haven’t used a specific keyword in their CV.

Additionally, AI systems can demonstrate bias due to limited data sets.

Additional Screening Methods to Consider

Alongside the four popular candidate evaluation methods mentioned above, some Health and Social Care companies will benefit from using additional strategies for screening. For instance, in highly regulated industries, background checks are an excellent way to confirm a CV accuracy and learn more about a candidate’s history.

References are another excellent tool, allowing companies to gather insights from previous employers who can confirm a person’s skills and behavioural traits.

Best Practices for Better Candidate Evaluation

Regardless of which screening methods you choose to evaluate Health and Social Care candidates, there are some best practices you should keep in mind, which we have shared here.

Use Multiple Screening Methods

Rather than relying exclusively on one screening strategy, like reviewing CVs, combine various methods for a comprehensive picture of each candidate. Consider using phone or video screening to help inform your hiring decisions.

Be Consistent

Build a comprehensive, standardised screening strategy, and use it every time you hire a new team member. A consistent approach will make it easier to assess candidates rapidly and ensure you’re making decisions fairly, with minimal bias.

Collaborate

Get multiple stakeholders involved in making hiring decisions. Ensure everyone has access to the same screening insights and data. This will help to reduce bias in hiring decisions. You can also work with Health and Social Care recruitment companies, who can conduct some of the screening process for you and save you considerable time.

Remember Candidate Experience

Put the experience of the candidate first throughout the hiring journey. Ensure you provide clear assessment instructions, make it easy for candidates to attend video screening sessions, and follow up with candidates after each stage in the hiring process.

Optimise and Improve

Gather feedback from your candidates (including the people you don’t hire) for insights into how you can improve the screening process. The right feedback will help you make your hiring strategy more efficient and improve your employer brand.

Final Points To Consider

Candidate evaluation is critical. When screening potential employees, you’ll need to consider various factors, from a person’s skills to how well they’ll fit into or improve your current company culture. Leveraging the right technology and process can help you streamline your screening process, but remember that you still need to keep human beings at the heart of your process.

Working with a Health and Social Care recruitment company can save significant time, effort, and money if you struggle with a time-consuming and complex screening process.

The right partner will be able to handle various aspects of the screening process for you, optimising candidate experiences and boosting your chances of making the right decisions for your team.

Top Screening Techniques when Recruiting Healthcare Talent

November 14, 2024