Creating and Editing Pre-screening forms

Pre-screening forms are a very powerful feature of TAM.  Basically they allow you to ask applicants a few important questions pertaining to the position they are applying for at the time of their application.  With pre-screening forms you are not reliant on what the applicant chooses to tell you in their resume.  You specifically ask the applicant, up front, for the information most important to you.

You can (and we highly recommend that you do) create a pre-screening form for each type of position you open, and reuse them for new positions.

Under Positions on the top menu, choose Prescreening Forms.  You can load from an existing form to start with.  The TAM_default is the basic form that TAM will use for each of your positions unless you create your own forms.

Creating the form is as simple as checking off those items you want included on your form, adding any pre-screening questions and/or pass/fail questions, then typing in a name for the form and hitting Save.  You can delete these forms by clicking on the red x next to the name of the form in the drop down.

The SignIn with LinkedIn and Apply Now via Indeed buttons can be placed on your forms to make it a little easier for applicants to apply.  These allow the applicants to pre-fill the form with information from their LinkedIn or Indeed accounts. 

For more information on the Apply Now via Indeed see this article.

In the section Personal Information, you can choose which personal data you want from your applicants.  Checking the "Use" box means the field will appear on your form but filling it in is optional for the applicant.  The "Required" box means the applicant must provide the information in order to submit the application.

Notice that the First name, Last name and Email items are always used and always required. TAM cannot create a record for an applicant without a name and you will find it difficult to communicate with the applicant without an email, so we always require this.

In the section Resume, Cover Letter, Attachments, you can request documents from the applicant.  Again, choosing Use or Required determines if the document is mandatory or optional.  If you require that a resume be included, you can have the applicant PASTE the resume or ATTACH the resume, or by checking both the "attach" and "paste" options, you can let him choose whichever method is most convenient for him.  You can also allow/request the applicant to attach other documents, such as certifications, work samples, references, etc.

In the section Information Questions, we've given you a few often-used prescreening questions.  You may use these by highlighting the question and clicking Add, or you may create your own by simply typing the question into the fields provided.  You must check the Use box to place the question on the form, and the Required box to make the question mandatory.

Prescreening questions are by default open-ended, meaning TAM places a box on the form and the applicant may enter anything they wish in the box.  If you like you can create a drop-down list or a check list in order to limit the applicant's response.  Drop-down lists are single-choice items, whereas checklists are multiple-choice items.  In the example below the question "What is your desired Salary?" is open-ended, "How many years of Accounting experience do you have?" is a drop-down list, meaning the applicant can choose only one of the responses.  "What Accounting software are you experienced in?" is a check list, meaning the applicant can choose as many from the list as they desire.

You may create as many pre-screening questions as you wish.  We recommend keeping them under 10 so as not to make the application process too painful.

The applicant's responses to information questions are displayed on each applicant's page as well as on the Applicants' Table, where you can sort all applicants by response.

You can block users from viewing pre-screening questions and responses that you deem sensitive.  For example, with the question "What is your desired salary?", you may not want Interviewers or even hiring managers to view the applicant's response. You can then hide selected pre-screening questions from selected user groups.  Click on "edit permissions" to display the access icons, then click on the icon fro the pre-screening question you wish to hide.  By default all users can view any question, so just click off those user groups you wish to hide this question from.  (Administrators don't show in this list as you cannot hide anything from administrators).

NOTE: If you use the Permissions feature and then add a user role later, we advise checking the permissions for that new role. If that role is copied from an existing role TAM will copy the permissions for you.

You can change the order of your pre-screening questions using drag-and-drop. Simply position your cursor on the row you wish to move, in an empty space of that row. The cursor will turn into a "cross".  Then click and while holding down the mouse key, drag the row to its new position. 

Pass/fail questions are used to immediately reject applicants who don't meet minimum requirements.  In the box Pass/Fail Questions, you can use our sample questions by highlighting a question and clicking Add, or you can type in your own.  Choose the answer (Yes or No).  Applicants who fail a pass/fail question will automatically be moved to the Inactive category for that position, meaning they are kept in the database and accessible if you need their information, but won't be an active candidate for the position listed.

Pass/Fail questions should be used carefully.  If you are over-rejecting applicants you may not know it as these applicants won't even appear on your Desktop.

If you want to narrow the time when you might be able to contact a candidate, enter your time slots in the box Phone Screen Slots. 

Notes on adding, deleting or editing existing pre-screening questions:

The results are the same as the previous paragraph above when adding a question to an existing prescreening form.