Screening Candidates

When you receive a large number of applications for an advertised position, the golden rule should be to interview less people for longer, so you need to screen the applications to select the most suitable candidates for interview. This can involve:
 Using the job description and employee specification to compare against the CV.
 Conducting short telephone interviews to gauge an individual’s suitability. This can often be a useful exercise as the candidates
are frequently less ‘prepared’ so you get a better feel for their natural self; plus, if telephone techniques are important for the advertised position, then you can also assess their telephone manner.
The purpose of the screening process is to narrow down the field so that you can spend more time with each candidate for formal interview. It is important to note here too that you cannot contact a candidate’s previous employer at this point for references without their explicit permission.

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