Why is it Important to Screen Candidates?

Candidate Screening is one of the major tasks during recruitment. Recruiters are expected to select CVs that fit the best with job requirements, specially when it comes to hiring Interns. Interns have no previous experience; hence it becomes important to screen their CVs minutely. Companies hire interns to train them and turn them into full time employees in the longer run. They invest their time and efforts into training them.

Analysing numerous applications for finding the right Interns is not easy. Similarly, trusting them on the basis of just the information mentioned on their profile, is not enough. That is why it is important to screen them before deciding on whom to interview and whom to reject.
A few important points to keep in mind about why it is important to screen candidates for internship, are mentioned below:

1.    Streamlines the Hiring Process and Saves Time

Effective candidate screening helps companies avoid hiring unsuitable candidates, saving time and resources. If 100 CVs get selected out of 300, rest 200 get rejected only because they are unsuitable. Causes? Sloppy profiling, communication disasters, or just seemingly uninteresting information. By rejecting those 200 applications, companies save a lot of their time that they can invest into selecting the better ones for fulfilling their open positions. Interviews take time, be it an intern or an experienced candidate.

2.    Provides Valuable Candidate Insights

When the screened candidates come for interview, they don’t just answer your questions. They also divulge a lot of other interesting information that the company may not be aware of. It could be related to the job or any behavioural aspect. In the end it teaches the interviewers some new things. Such interactions prove to be a good investment of time.

3.    Enhances the Quality of Hiring Decisions

Screening candidate CVs also help in learning their interest in working with the company. Most interns apply at multiple firms at a single point of time; so they may seem not very serious for a said open position. Hence, screening them helps in deciding whether they will be worth investing into or not.

4.    Enables Pre-Interview Understanding of Candidates

It’s okay to talk to them over phone first or looking up their social media profiles. You will learn about their thoughts on making their career with the said company. If they show lack of focus or skills or any bad behaviour in the prelim call, it’s always good to let them go. As a company, you cannot take the risk of dismantling the current culture because of one rogue intern.

5.    Helps Craft Targeted and Insightful Interview Questions

Once the recruiter gets desired response over call in the prelims, the hiring panel can decide upon the next set of questions. That would save time because this new set could be directed towards finalising the hiring. If the candidate is good enough, he/she will be selected pretty quickly.

6.    Increases the Chances of Hiring the Ideal Candidate

Right person for the right job is what recruitment is all about. Screening candidates plays an important role in getting this done. Screening candidates before connecting with them, assists in getting the right talent onboard.

It doesn’t matter if it takes time to get the right candidates, but screening them prior is always a good idea as it is one of the major steps in the recruitment process. In absence of proper screening, the hiring may get affected adversely, and companies may also lose money unnecessarily.

Hiring recruiters who can screen and shortlist candidates efficiently, will always be a win-win situation for any company.