Knockout Questions: A Time-Saver for Hiring Teams

Deal-breakers. Sticking points. Hard lines.

Whatever you call them, we all have them–and in nearly every situation. From relationships to business deals, we all require certain core criteria to be met in order to progress.

Maintaining these standards allows us to stay on track to getting what we ultimately want or need. In the recruiting world, this is finding the perfect candidate.

For the average open job, only 2 percent of candidates will be called for an interview. But, getting to these chosen few means digging through the other 98 percent; a process which takes time and money.

• Enter JazzHR’s Knockout Questions.

This seriously time-saving feature allows you to establish a set of baseline qualifications and automate the screening process for these criteria. You decide how preferred candidates should answer application questions, and JazzHR flags or “knocks out” the ones who do so incorrectly.

Sound too good to be true? Here’s why you should be using Knockout Questions if you aren’t already:

Breaking down our Knockout Questions functionality

Creating Knockout Questions in JazzHR is easy.

First, decide which questions to ask by selecting from our Candidate Profile Questions or creating your own as part of a Screening Questionnaire on the Application page of your job in JazzHR.

Remember that Knockout Questions are best suited for cut-and-dry areas of inquiry. Avoid questions that may warrant a subjective answer and instead, opt for things you can definitively label as disqualifying.

Once you’ve chosen/crafted question(s), identify disqualifying answers by marking them with the flag icon.

After flagging incorrect answers, you tell JazzHR exactly what to do when candidates don’t stack up.

You may simply want a way to quickly tell who answered incorrectly. Your job is done. Once candidates start applying, JazzHR will highlight and flag any/all disqualifying answers on the candidate profile.

Looking to make the process even simpler? Consider using the auto-reject functionality. You can enable this by clicking “Auto-Reject candidates” from the Actions dropdown on the Application page of the job.

Then, decide which Not Hired disposition you’d like these candidates moved to and if/when you’d like a rejection email sent.

Whether you decide to have your Knockout Questions auto-flag or auto-reject unqualified candidates, the addition of this automation can truly transform your hiring process.

Let’s face it: Besides being somewhat mind-numbing, having to manually identify and reject unqualified candidates takes valuable time away from active recruiting efforts–leaving you that much farther from finding the right candidate (which, on average, takes a whopping 27 days).

• Knockout Questions in JazzHR allow you to reclaim part of this time so you can more efficiently reach your recruiting goals.

Being able to quickly reference which candidates answered in a disqualifying way, via auto-flagging, saves you from sifting blindly through profile after profile, while auto-rejection goes even farther, eliminating unqualified candidates from the running before they ever reach you.