A Guide to Shortlisting and Screening Candidates

A guide for recruitment to shortlist and screen candidates.

READ - Easy tips to help you look out for lemons
READ - 1: Know what you want
READ - 2: Skim & Sort
READ - 3: Detailed review of the YES CVs
READ - 4: To phone screen or not to phone screen?

Easy tips to help you look out for lemons

Remember: you are not looking to hire somebody straight from their CV.

You are simply trying to identify the best potential candidates for your organisation and 
quickly get rid of those who do not fit your needs.

Shortlisting is an imprecise process. You will know that CVs are very easy to “dress-up”. The 
truth is easily stretched and a piece of paper doesn’t always tell you much about a person.

For this reason, you must be prepared for a robust interview process once you have 
identified your candidates.

The CVs you select should tick as many of these boxes as possible, in priority order:

Skills, Experience & Education relevant to your job ✓

Stable job history ✓

Concise, well formatted and easy to follow (2-3 pages) ✓

Minimal spelling mistakes or grammatical errors ✓

No unexplained gaps ✓

Targeting the needs of your job – relevant ✓

Legal right to work in NZ (unless you can support a visa) ✓

A CV that ticks all, or most, of these boxes could be the sign of a candidate worth 
interviewing.

If there are some things missing, or things that raise a flag but you want to discuss further, a simple and short phone call to discuss could be useful if otherwise, you would short list them. 

Make sure you act on a good CV – even in a tight job market, a good candidate will have 
several options available to them, don’t lose good talent!

Below we outline in more detail effective steps to set yourself up for success when recruiting. 

1. Know what you want

• Do some preparation before you even pick up the CVs.
• Review the Job Description for your vacancy and highlight your non-negotiable skills,
  experience and education.
• Know what you are willing to pay for the right person. Talk to the MyHR team, look at a 
  salary guide (Hays Salary Guide is the largest, free guide in NZ) or have a look at other 
  adverts on Seek or TradeMe to see what the going rates are.

2. Skim & Sort

• Skim read the CVs and quickly sort them into 3 categories:

a. YES

Will have all or most of the required skills, education and experience captured in a 
concise 2 – 3 page CV that is easy to follow.

b. NO

Will have none of what you need (or not enough); possibly also in a badly formatted 
CV or big gaps which raise red flags.

c. MAYBE

These CVs look OK and the candidate may have some relevant experience, but not 
quite what you are looking for... difficult to make up your mind at first read.

• When the CVs are sorted into 3 categories:
  • Remove the No's and let the candidates know they are unsuccessful. 
  • Count the yes's - if you have enough - move them to the longlist, if you don't, revisit the maybes - don't lower your expectations!
  • When in doubt, ask another manager or someone in the hiring process to review your maybes. 

3. Detailed review of the YES CVs

• Aim to interview around 3 – 5 people for one job.
• Go back over each remaining CV in detail.
• Prioritise them from best to worst.
• Look for the following in this order of priority: 
  • Skills, experience and education that match your job needs. This is the best 
    indication you can hope to get from a CV that a person can do your job.
  • Focus on the recent employers; you want to make sure the candidate’s skills are 
    up to date.
  • Watch out for job hopping, you’re looking for a reasonably stable job history. 
    Many jobs for short periods is a real flag of potential issues.
  • A good CV should concisely and effectively outline a candidate’s relevant skills and experience, and market them to you.
  • The CV should be easy to follow and logically laid out. The exact order doesn’t matter as there are many styles of CV, but whatever layout a candidate chooses it should flow well and you should be able to understand what you are reading.

• • Be prepared to question unexplained gaps, but you don’t need to rule somebody out for this. There may be perfectly legitimate reasons why gaps appear, e.g. the candidate may have taken a few years out of the workforce to raise children or taken a 3 month break to travel. Both of these situations are pretty typical and you would hope people included a short explainer in their CV, but not everybody does.
    In contrast, CV gaps that cannot be explained by a candidate can be a sign of problems.
  • A good CV only gives you relevant information that targets your needs. You do not need to know everything about a person and it is a good indication that they are really interested in your job if they have targeted their CV to you rather than a generic template CV.
  • Do they have a legal right to work in NZ? If you have plenty of local applicants or you are not set up to support a working visa, you should not waste time reviewing candidates without the right to work.
  • However, if your job is highly specialised you may need to source talent overseas, be prepared for this process and get some further advice.
  • What about a cover letter? This is a positive, but not a deal breaker. If somebody doesn’t have one it may indicate a lack of care, but not necessarily, as the CV could speak for itself. If you have an email application, then their email should serve as a cover letter.
    If they have a cover letter, it should be concise and effective and not just replicate the CV. A cover letter is really a brief marketing blurb encouraging you to look further. 

4. To phone screen or not to phone screen?

• A phone screen is a 10-to-15-minute call to your prospective candidates to answer any 
  questions you might have after reading their CV and importantly, gives you a chance to 
  gauge their communication skills and enthusiasm prior to interview.
• It is an exchange of information so also gives you a chance to talk about your business 
  and the job they have applied for, to make sure they are still interested in the vacancy.
• It is not a confirmation of an interview, but if they tick all the boxes, why not use this call 
  to confirm an interview – strike while the iron is hot!
• Questions you might like to ask when phone screening:
  
  • What are they currently doing?
  • Why are they looking to leave if they say they are working?
  • Why are they interested in the role?
  • What makes them suited to the role?
  • What pay are they looking for?
  • What is their notice period?
  • Do they have any questions for you?

5. Book the interviews

• Take the top 3 – 5 CVs, these are your short-list candidates.
• At this is stage it is a good idea to call them to invite them to interview – this allows you 
  to check they are still interested in the job and also a chance to assess their 
  communication, and perhaps answer any quick questions you may have.
• Book each interview for 1 hour 30 minutes:
  • 5 minutes for the interviewer's to prepare
  • 5 minutes for the candidate to complete the Application Form (if not done prior to interview)
  • 1 hour to conduct the interview
  • 5 minutes to complete your assessment
  • 15 minute buffer before your next appointment, in case you run over time
• In your call to them, let them know what to expect at the interview and who they will be 
  meeting.
• Follow up with an email confirmation so that everyone knows when and where the 
  interview is taking places. Attach the application form for them to complete. 
• Keep the remaining YES CVs for now, in case the interviews don’t work out and you 
  have to revisit these people.

What if none of the applicants are right, or nobody applied?

• Make sure you’re not being too picky. Provided an applicant can tick the top 3 on the list 
  above, then you have the makings of a potential candidate for your job, and you may
  want to consider them for interview.
• If applicants only have some of the right skills, education & experience, then go back to 
  your “non-negotiable” list, identify what you must have and what you can live without. 
  When you interview them, you can check if they have the skill and aptitude to learn.
• However, don’t over compromise. If the applicants really don’t have what you need, 
  walk away and start again. The cost and hassle of hiring the wrong person is far greater 
  than a delay in the recruitment process.
• If you have to start again, you need to consider if your standards and expectations are 
  realistic for this market: Is the job attractive? Is it realistic to expect this combination of
  skills in the local market? Are you paying enough? Is the location an issue? What can 
  you do to minimise these issues? 

• Check your advertising strategy. Did you advertise in the right place? A general ad on 
  SEEK may not effectively target specialists, equally an ad in a specialist industry 
  magazine might have missed a wider audience.
• Remember to make use of your social media platforms, did you push out on LinkedIn? 
  Would this vacancy be more appropriate for Instagram?
  
• If you are out of time, you may want to consider using a temp or contractor. This will 
  cost you more upfront in wages, but it gives you ultimate flexibility, without loss of 
  productivity, while you look for the right person.
• If you don't want to go through this process, we have a Recruit + service which can do the full recruitment, or parts, for you. Click here to enquire.