Shortlisting

Shortlisting

Shortlisting is carried out by the interview panel. Candidates who meet or exceed the essential criteria for the role as detailed in the person specification will proceed to the next stage of the process.

Depending on the number of applicants who meet the essential criteria, a cut-off score may be used to ensure that a manageable number of candidates are progressed to interview in line with the number of vacancies being filled. It may also be helpful to score applicants against both the essential and the desirable criteria in these circumstances.

How to shortlist

Shortlisting dates should be provided by hiring managers at the requisition stage, and time should be pre-planned in advance to ensure all panel members are available to complete the shortlisting within the required timescale of 5 working days. (Timescales will be extended for high-volume campaigns).

To assist in achieving this timescale, hiring managers can start to shortlist individual applications as they are being submitted and while the job advert is still live, before a final decision is made by the panel. Managers should be aware that the only way a candidate can replace or correct an incorrect application is by withdrawing and resubmitting; therefore, duplicates may occur.

Application forms are accessed via Fusion. If supplementary questions have been included as part of the application process, candidates will be asked to provide their responses to these as an additional uploaded Word document. Any additional responses should be assessed and scored against the essential criteria during the shortlisting process.

For consistency reasons, we do not accept CVs, therefore, if a CV has been uploaded, it should be ignored, and any information provided on the CV should not be used as part of the shortlisting decision. Any applicants who have provided a CV and nothing else should be rejected at screening, and they will be informed by an auto-generated email that they are ineligible to apply for the post.

Hiring managers should use the shortlisting scoring form to evidence their decision and to demonstrate that shortlisting has been carried out in line with the Council’s agreed process. A copy of the form can be obtained from the recruitment team.

Managers must progress candidates through the appropriate phases and states, and issue rejections at the correct stage of the entire recruitment process. This ensures that any automated notifications sent to candidates accurately reflect their status in the recruitment process and provide a suitable explanation. The system will not auto-reject candidates who do not meet the minimum criteria for the role.

Once the decision on which candidate(s) to take forward to interview has been made, the hiring manager is responsible for rejecting the unsuccessful candidates via Fusion. Managers should provide a professional comment on each candidate’s record, stating the reason behind the rejection. This should be done in a timely manner in line with the KPI targets. The unsuccessful candidates will receive an auto-generated email informing them of the decision.

The chair of the panel should retain this form confidentially for 6 months, in line with retention requirements.

Guaranteed interview

We are a disability confident employer and offer a guaranteed interview to applicants who consider themselves to be disabled, and who evidence the essential criteria for the job in their application.

We also hold the Armed Services Covenant Gold award and therefore offer a guaranteed interview to applicants who are veterans or service leavers and who evidence the essential criteria for the job in their application.

The manager is responsible for moving the successful candidates to the correct phase and state on Fusion prior to setting up the interviews.