The 4 most important screening questions to include in your recruitment advertisements

Using screening questions in recruitment advertisements is the fastest way to efficiently create a great shortlist of candidates. These four screening questions and additional tips are an invaluable way to find your ideal candidate, sooner. 

Many recruiters understand the importance of providing a great candidate experience and how, a part of this, is making it easy for candidates to apply online. Sometimes, recruiters are reluctant to add an extra layer to your recruitment process, thinking it will reduce applications. Interestingly however, many high-quality candidates like answering screening questions, as it gives them a way to highlight their key skills and stand out from other applicants.

We recently shared the 6 reasons to include screening questions in your recruitment advertisements, from distinguishing serious applicants from tire kickers and reducing the time required to create a great shortlist, to having a consistent format to analyse. But did you know screening questions can effectively act as a cover letter and give you the opportunity to ask candidates more relevant questions?

While you, of course, want to have a structured list of screening questions for your phone, video and in-person interviews, the following list includes the best questions to use specifically in your recruitment advertisements.

1. “Do you have the unrestricted legal right to live and work in Australia?” (Yes/no)

Overseas applicants will always apply for roles. However, this simple yes/no question allows you to eliminate candidates applying from overseas (from the “no” responses). If your organisation is not accepting overseas applicants, include a statement to this effect in your advertisement and target the advertisement in your specified location.

That being said, your organisation might be willing to offer relocation assistance fees, whether that be within Australia or from overseas. But even so, include this question in your advertisement as it’s useful to be informed about a candidate’s current location and residential status.

If your organisation is open to accepting candidates from overseas, you can include optional additional questions. For example, a recruiter advertising for temporary roles such as fruit pickers might not require candidates to be Australian citizens. If a candidate selects the “yes” response, the recruiter can also include a question asking candidates to specify the terms of their visa (if applicable).

2. “If you hold any relevant qualifications, please detail them here.”

If the role you are advertising for requires specific qualifications, this is a great question to ask in your recruitment advertisement instead of sifting through resumes or waiting for the interview stage.

Even if you do not require specific qualifications, this is still a useful optional question to include as “highly regarded” with the note “if applicable”, so you can quickly rank top candidates.

Qualifications should include all certifications and licenses, not just education. For example, first aid certificates.

Ask candidates to list their qualifications with institution names and dates obtained.

3. “Please outline your relevant experience in [skill/s relevant to the role].”

Depending on your role, you may prefer to merge the above questions 2 and 3. If your roles typically receive hundreds of applications, including these questions will drastically reduce your time to shortlist. Those candidates with relevant qualifications, experience and skills can be ranked higher on your shortlist.

As stated above, even if you do not require previous experience, it’s still a useful optional question to include as “highly regarded” with the note “if applicable”, so you can rank top candidates faster.

4. “If you were to be successful, what date could you commence?”

Many organisations require their employees to provide a four week notice period. If you have two equally great candidates that you are struggling to distinguish between, one may be able to start next week, and the other in a month or two. Which one will you choose? This is a really helpful question to give you a better idea about your candidates’ commitments and requirements.

Additional questions 

What kind of culture and employer brand does your organisation have? It can be useful to include a fun or behavioural question that reflects your culture. While it may not be appropriate for a construction role, it can work for a role that is more creative, or if you have a social office where cultural and behavioural fit is important. For example, an organisation hiring for a creative marketing role asked candidates, “if you could be any animal, which would you be, and why?”. These type of questions allow candidates to showcase their personality and creativity. It’s a great way to find those hidden gems!

Another screening question that is not as common is asking candidates to outline their salary expectations. Sometimes organisations advertise for roles, receive few responses and are unsure if this is to do with the salary range they have specified. Other times, they’re just not sure what they should be paying! While a good recruitment specialist will conduct market research and provide a sound recommendation, asking this screening question in your recruitment advertisement is an extra way to gauge candidate expectations.

Important final tips

Research reveals if you have more than five screening questions, the number of applications submitted drops by 50%, with significant drop-off rates every additional question asked.

Specialists typically advise against including any more than six or seven screening questions in your recruitment advertisement, as it increases the difficulty of the application process for candidates. Three to four questions is the sweet spot!

Identify the key behaviours and skills required for your role, and use your best judgement to determine if there are any additional questions to the ones listed above that will help make your shortlisting process easier.

For example, for a finance manager role that requires leadership skills and management of a monthly accounting cycle, you may like to include questions such as: “what is your approach to leadership in an organisation that….”, and/or “have you managed a monthly accounting cycle? List your experience.” This gives you a great way to assess candidates beyond two-dimensional resumes.

Screening questions in recruitment advertisements are designed to make your shortlisting process easier. Without them, you are more likely to receive an excessive amount of low-quality applications.

Use your best judgement or seek the advice of a recruitment advertisement specialist. If you include sound screening questions, you should not need to ask for cover letters! Combined with resumes, they should supply you with all the information you require.

Trends reveal more organisations are now starting to use this smart recruitment marketing strategy. So, if you’re receiving a large quantity of candidates but not the quality you are looking for, or are struggling to create a great shortlist in a timely manner, screening questions might just be the key you need.