Introduction

Making decisions about whether to interview an applicant, as with all other aspects of the employment relationship, requires appropriate information that is valid and reliable. Your recruitment strategies will hopefully have netted a very good selection of potential employees, all of whom could effectively perform the duties of the position. You do not however have time to interview all applicants.

If you are using the services of an agency, you will only be provided with a short-list of people whom the agency has assessed against the criteria you have helped to develop and believes are most suitable. This process is also sometimes referred to as culling, where the majority of applicants are eliminated in order to leave only those people most likely to be selected. It should be obvious by now that EEO considerations will be paramount at this particular stage of the overall process.

Résumés, letters of application, test results and any other selection devices are also useful sources of information for this purpose. When screening suitable applicants, it is important to be objective and open-minded about the potential each applicant has to be successful in the job. Any specific gaps identified in these resources can be noted and raised during the interview.

If you have received a large number of applications, a pre interview cull will need to be undertaken in order to reduce the pool of applicants to a size that can be efficiently interviewed (generally 5-8). This process is often referred to as shortlisting. Clark & Seward (2000) remind us that as interviews are expensive, we should only target those applicants who thoroughly meet the specified criteria (ie critical factors—Learning outcome 1) and warrant further assessment (for example, an invitation to attend an interview). As mentioned previously, this is where a well designed, job specific application form will help streamline the process as it provides the desired information in an efficient format. If you are using a panel, they will need to be involved in this process.

The applications are culled according to who meets the essential criteria. Those applicants who clearly do not satisfy the essential criteria are not considered further. Through your job description and ideal applicant profile you have already defined the essential and desirable criteria necessary to perform the job successfully.

Compare each application to these criteria. Divide your applications into three piles labelled:

Notify unsuccessful applicants, preferably with some explanation as to their unsuitability. This can be done either at the time the person is eliminated or once interviews have been completed.

Merit is always the fundamental principle.