Adding screening questions

To filter out unsuitable candidates or to get a better picture of how candidates compare, add screening questions to your job ads.

As an account-managed client, you can attach multiple questions to an ad at no additional cost through our applicant manager system.

What can you ask?

Screening questions appear when an applicant clicks on ‘apply’. You write the questions, so you decide what to ask and how to ask it, but be careful not to include any questions that could be construed as discriminatory. Common questions, sometimes referred to as pre-screening questions, include whether a candidate is eligible to work in the UK or whether they have a work visa. You could also pose more job-specific questions, such as asking a candidate to confirm they have a certain level of experience or a particular skill.

Some real examples from our recruiters include:

• Applications will only be accepted from candidates with a valid UK work permit. Do you have a valid permit?
• Are there any restrictions on your working hours?
• Career wise, where do you aim to be in 3 years time?

Scoring

You can also weight the questions differently, assigning points to each. So, if a jobseeker answers positively to a few important questions and negatively to a few minor questions, they’ll  get a high score.

The basics

• You can have as many you like (although we recommend three)

• They don’t have to be ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. Candidates have up to 500 characters for their response.

• You can assign a point system to the questions for easier filtering later.

• Screening questions won’t prevent an individual from applying but they will help you quickly compare candidates.

• You can order the questions as you like. 

• An easy management system lets you save questions for later use.