Candidate scoring

When a hundred people apply for the same role, a recruiter needs to know where to start. Reading every answer takes too long. A gut feeling differs per recruiter. A score puts every candidate on the same scale, based on the same questions.

How is a candidate score calculated?

A score starts from the screening questions for the role. Each question gets a weight that shows how much the job depends on it.

1. Give each question a weight. For a warehouse role, a start date next week may weigh high, earlier warehouse experience medium and a preferred shift low.
2. Score each answer. An answer that fits the role earns the full weight. A partial fit earns part of it.
3. Add up the points and express them on one scale, for example 0 to 100.

The result is one number per candidate. Two recruiters looking at the same answers get the same score.

What is a pass mark?

A pass mark is the lowest score a candidate needs to go to the next step. Candidates at or above it move on, for example to an interview. Candidates below it go to a recruiter, who decides what happens next.

Setting it well takes a few steps:

1. Agree on it in writing before the screening starts, so everyone uses the same number.
2. Start at a level you trust and look at the candidates just below it after the first week.
3. Adjust per role. A role that is hard to fill may need a lower pass mark than one with many applicants.

How does scoring relate to knock-out questions?

Scoring and knock-out questions do different jobs. A knock-out question checks a hard requirement, such as a certificate the job cannot do without. A score ranks the candidates who meet those requirements. Knock-out question explains the difference in detail.

Most screenings use both: a few knock-outs first, then a score on the rest.

What should a score never be based on?

A score is only as fair as the questions behind it.

• Score only answers to questions about the job: availability, certificates, experience, location.
• Leave out anything about who the candidate is, such as age, origin or family situation.
• Show the recruiter the answers behind the score, not only the number.
• Let a person decide every rejection. The score supports that decision.

How does Ringtime score candidates?

Ringtime turns the answers from each AI screening into a score.

1. You give each screening question a weight: mandatory, high, medium or low.
2. The AI assistant asks the questions by phone or WhatsApp.
3. Each answer counts by its importance. Every candidate gets a score from 0 to 100.
4. You set the pass mark per screening flow.
5. Candidates at or above the pass mark move on, for example to a booked interview. The rest go to a recruiter.
6. A candidate who fails a mandatory question goes to recruiter review. The assistant never rejects a candidate by itself.
7. The score and the answers land in the Ringtime web app and in your applicant tracking system (ATS).

The score uses the answers from the screening conversation.

To see which candidates fit before your team calls them, see how Ringtime screens candidates.