Improved Shortlist+ Screens Applicants Even Better

We’re delighted to announce a significant upgrade to Shortlist+

What is Shortlist+

If you’re unaware Shortlist+ is unique to Recruitment Genius, allowing employers to ask applicants questions relevant to a job. We invite applicants to respond by calling a local rate telephone number so we can record their answers – just like an advanced answering machine. The applicant’s answers are available for employers to play back anytime to ascertain how relevant applicants are.

Shortlist+ has proved hugely popular, in July 2017 we conducted over 102,212 calls. Best of all Shortlist+ continues to be included at no additional charge.

What improvements have been made?

Employers can now indicate if they expect a desired answer and if required auto reject applicants who don’t provide that desired answer.

Applicants benefit from improved usability to make answering questions a lot easier.

Response rates will increase because applicants may also receive SMS messages which have a higher open rate than emails.

Lots of other technical improvements have been included to achieve even greater reliability.

How can you benefit from Shortlist+?

Start asking questions for every job that are important for screening and unlikely to be answered on CVs.

It is best to ask open questions that encourage a longer meaningful answer. However you can ask applicants to choose between Yes/No answers and if they don’t provide the desired response they can be auto rejected.

Good questions

The best type of questions require an explanation from the applicant. You can be quite imaginative just like one customer who runs a care agency asking “What is your favourite child hood memory” to benchmark the applicant’s level of empathy.

If you’re stuck for ideas two of our favourite questions are:

1.     What is most important for you about your next job?

2.     What would you not like to do again professionally?

These questions are really useful because you can see if an applicant’s career goals are aligned with your organisation and the role.

Bad questions

Naturally there are some bad questions:

1. Discriminatory (eg. “Are you planning on having children?”)

2. Irrelevant/un-important (eg. “Describe yourself in three words”)

3. Many questions in one – because applicant can get confused

4. Requiring a long answer – because applicants only have up to 30 seconds to respond

5. Already answered on their CV – applicants don’t like to repeat themselves when they’ve already gone to so much effort creating a CV and often will not ask any of your questions

6. Too basic (eg. “Do you have the right to work in the UK” – applicants typically ignore every question if they see this!)

For example one customer wanted to ask “What is your favourite football team?” despite the fact it had nothing to do with the job!

FAQs about Shortlist+

Do I need to record the questions myself?
No. We use text-to-speech software.

Do you screen/approve all Shortlist+ questions?
Yes. We manually check all screening questions to ensure they add value and follow best practice.

Can I change my questions?
Yes. Although applicants who answered your initial questions will not be re-invited.

Does the applicant know my question before answering?
We tell the applicant your questions before asking them to answer because we found this dramatically increases the likelihood of an applicant providing answers. We accept some employers may prefer a spontaneous answer, however even a prepared answer is better than no answer at all.

If the applicant doesn’t answer should I reject them?
NO. The applicant may simply not have the opportunity to answer but may still be appropriate. You cannot determine if someone is motivated for your job based on whether they answer – they could be desperate and inappropriate.

How long have applicants got to answer my question
Applicants have up to 30 seconds to answer your question. (This keeps answers concise and saves your time).

How does the applicant get invited to Shortlist+?
We automatically send email invitations to every applicant. If necessary we send a reminder email 2 days later and follow up with an SMS reminder is appropriate 1 day after that.