Prescreening Candidates

Understanding the Prescreening Section in the Requisition

The Prescreening section in the requisition may contain disqualification questions, prescreening questions, and competencies used to find the top candidates for a position. The combination of these three elements is referred to as ACE Prescreening because they help identify ACE or top candidates for a position.

A disqualification question is a single-answer question that contains the minimum requirements for a candidate to be eligible for a job. For example "Are you entitled to work in the United States?" When candidates apply for a job, it’s mandatory to respond to the disqualification questions. Answers to the disqualification questions decide if candidates move forward in the selection process or are automatically disqualified. When you create a requisition, you can't add disqualification questions. It's your administrator who creates and manages disqualification questions and defines the context when the question is used. Disqualification questions are displayed in a requisition if the locations and job fields of the question matches the locations and job fields of the requisition.
Prescreening questions are used to learn more about a candidate in areas such as their career goal, job preferences, knowledge, and more. For example, you can ask "How good are your Java skills?". If the prescreening question is configured as mandatory, the candidate can't skip it while applying for the job. You can add questions to a requisition and you can create questions specific to a requisition.
You use competencies to gather proficiency levels and years of experience of a candidate. Competencies are supplied with the system. You can add competencies to a requisition.

Question and Competency Properties

When you define prescreening questions and competencies for a requisition, you need to consider several elements.

Apply Model

When you define competencies for a requisition, you can apply the predefined model of competencies and questions associated with the requisition. When you click Apply Model, competencies and questions that match one location or one job field of the requisition are added to the requisition.

Minimum Proficiency and Experience

When you add competencies to a requisition, you can specify the minimum proficiency level of the competency and the minimum years of experience required.

Your administrator decides if and how you can define that info. These three configurations are possible:

Simple format: Instead of overwhelming candidates with a list of competencies where different values must be assessed for each, the simple format presents a much simpler and faster experience where candidates simply check off those competencies where they have the required proficiency and experience.
Detailed format: The detailed format lets candidates assess each competency using 4 different metrics: Proficiency, Experience, Last Used, and Interest.
Simple or Detailed: You can use the simple format, the detailed format, or even both. When using both formats, candidates first go through a process in simple format and later, they're asked to provide the additional details. If you need to specify requirements that are different from those set by your administrator and used with the simple format, you need to select the option "Modify the minimum requirements of proficiency and experience" before you can select a minimum proficiency level of a competency and the minimum years of experience required.

Required and Asset

When you add questions and competencies to a requisition, you can specify if a certain answer is required or maybe just an asset.

Required: The candidate must have the competency or the right answer to a question to be considered for the job. It's like the minimum requirement.
Asset: The candidate doesn't need to have the competency or the answer to a question to be selected for the job, but it would distinguish a candidate compared to others. It's like a strongly preferred or nice to have qualification.

Weight

Weight is a numerical value added to a given answer to give it more consideration when prescreening candidates. The weight criterion is an optional third level filter. To use the weight feature, you assign a certain number of "points" to the answer you want to weight. Keep it simple, weighting is used to refine requirements and assets, so it should be used selectively.

Add Questions to a Requisition

You can add prescreening questions to a requisition.

Go to the Requisitions menu.
Open the requisition.
Click the Requisition Info tab.
Go to the Prescreening section and click the Edit icon.
Go to the Questions section and click Add.
Select one or more questions.
Click Add Questions.

The questions are added to the requisition. If you added several questions, you can reorder them. Select an order number from the list and click the Reorder button. You can also define required and asset criteria, and weight.

Create a Question for a Requisition

You can create questions for a specific requisition. It's recommended to do this only when the question isn't readily available in the Questions Library. Ideally, the content manager should create that question for you and place it in the library such that all users and candidates can benefit from that question. When the question is created, it's not available in the Questions Library and for other requisitions.

Go to the Requisitions menu.
Open the requisition.
Click the Requisition Info tab.
Go to the Prescreening section and click the Edit icon.
Go to the Questions section and click Create.
Enter the question in the Question field.
Select the type of answer:
- Single answer: The candidate selects one answer from a list of choices.
- Multiple answers: The candidate selects as many answers as applicable from a list of choices.
- Text answer: The candidate types a brief answer in response to a specific question. Use text questions sparingly; use them where they can allow for expansion of information asked in a previous question.
For a question with a single or multiple answers, decide if you want to display the answers with radio buttons or using a drop-down menu. Then provide possible answers to the question.
For a text answer, indicate the number of lines available for the candidates to provide an answer.
Click Save and Close.

Create a Question Based on a Library Question

You can copy a question from the Questions Library and use to create a question specific to the requisition.

Go to the Requisitions tab.
Open the requisition.
Go to the Prescreening section and click the Edit icon.
Go to the Questions section and click Copy from Library.
Select a question from the list.
Click Add Questions.
Click on the question and modify it to fit the requisition purpose.

Add Competencies to a Requisition

You can add competencies to a requisition to gather proficiency level and years of experience of a candidate to find the best candidate for a job.

Go to the Requisitions tab.
Open the requisition.
Go to the Prescreening section and click the Edit icon.
Go to the Competencies section and click Add.
Select one or more competencies.
Click Add Competencies.

The competencies are added to the requisition. If you added several competencies, you can reorder them. Select an order number from the list and click the Reorder button. You can also define properties such as the minimum proficiency and experience levels, required and asset criteria, and weight.

Library of Prescreening and Disqualification Questions

The Library contains prescreening questions and disqualification questions that can be added to requisitions to find the top candidates for a position.

As a content manager, you can create, edit, and manage prescreening questions and disqualification questions in the Library. You can access the Library from the hamburger menu.

When you view the list of questions or disqualification questions, Active questions are displayed by default. You can use filters and search fields to find a specific question. You can also use the Job Field and Location tabs in the filter panel to view questions by job field or location.

You can click the title of a question to open it and view all of its details. You can edit its content. You can also create new questions.

Create a Question in the Library

If you're a content manager, you can create prescreening questions in the Library. These prescreening questions can then be added to requisitions by recruiters and hiring managers to screen candidates and find the best candidates for a job.

In the Library menu, select Questions.
In the Questions list, click Create Questions. The Questions Details page appears.
Enter a code for the question.
Enter the question in the Question field.
Select the type of answer:
- Single answer: The candidate selects one answer from a list of choices.
- Multiple answers: The candidate selects as many answers as applicable from a list of choices.
- Text answer: The candidate types a brief answer in response to a specific question. Use text questions sparingly; use them where they can allow for expansion of information asked in a previous question.
For a question with a single or multiple answers, decide if you want to display the answers with radio buttons or using a drop-down menu. Then provide possible answers to the question.
For a text answer, indicate the number of lines available for the candidates to provide an answer.
You can associate the question to locations and job fields. Click Add/Modify and select specific locations and job fields. If you select the option Associate with Root, the questions will be available for all locations and all job fields.
If you decide to associate the question to locations or job fields, two options are available:
- In profile: The question will be available to users who create candidate profiles, and to candidates who are entering their profile in a career section. Questions will be sorted to match the location and job field preferences defined by the candidate.
- In model: The question will be added to requisitions when recruiters select the Apply Model option in the Prescreening section of a requisition. Questions will be grouped in a model based on the location and job field of the requisition.
Change the status to Active to make the question available for selection in requisitions.
Click Save and Close.

Create Disqualification Question in Library

If you're a content manager, you can create disqualification questions in the Library. These disqualification questions are then used in requisitions to screen candidates.

In the Library menu, select Disqualification Questions.
In the Questions list, click Create Disqualification Questions. The Questions Details page appears.
Enter a code for the question.
Enter the question in the Question field.
Select the type of answer:
- Single answer: The candidate selects one answer from a list of choices.
- Multiple answers: The candidate selects as many answers as applicable from a list of choices.
- Text answer: The candidate types a brief answer in response to a specific question. Use text questions sparingly; use them where they can allow for expansion of information asked in a previous question.
For a question with a single or multiple answers, decide if you want to display the answers with radio buttons or using a drop-down menu. Then provide possible answers to the question.
For a text answer, indicate the number of lines available for the candidates to provide an answer.
For each answer, you need to indicate the result:
- The candidate passes
- The candidate is disqualified.
- To be verified: the candidate file must be reviewed.
For each answer, you can indicate if the candidate is required to provide an explanation for their answer.
You can associate the question to locations and job fields. Click Add/Modify and select specific locations and job fields. If you select the option Associate with Root, the questions will be available for all locations and all job fields.
If you decide to associate the question to locations or job fields, two options are available:
- In profile: The question will be available to users who create candidate profiles, and to candidates who are entering their profile in a career section. Questions will be sorted to match the location and job field preferences defined by the candidate.
- In model: The question will be added to requisitions when recruiters select the Apply Model option in the Prescreening section of a requisition. Questions will be grouped in a model based on the location and job field of the requisition.
Change the status to Active to make the question available for selection in requisitions.
Click Save and Close.