What are you approving that the screener hasn’t already decided?

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You’ve agreed on the criteria. Approved the screener. An applicant passes.

Then recruitment pauses while someone checks whether that applicant can proceed to validation.

What is that approval deciding?

If it checks the same requirements again, we’ve added a queue. If it applies requirements the screener doesn’t capture, we need to make those requirements explicit.

Either way, there’s a useful conversation to have before recruitment starts.

Be clear about what passing means

• Passing a screener means an applicant meets the requirements captured at that stage. It does not mean their experience has been fully validated or their attendance confirmed.
• At Gromotion, the next step is to explore the person behind those answers.
• Unless there is an agreed reason for an earlier review, we should be able to progress suitable applicants to that step.

Bring additional criteria into the open

• Sometimes a review reveals an important distinction that the brief or screener missed.
• That can be useful. The next action should be to clarify the requirement and agree how it will be applied consistently.
• Otherwise, the recruiter is working towards one definition of suitability while the client makes decisions against another.
• Repeated rejection of applicants who meet the agreed criteria is a reason to revisit the rules.

Place judgement where it adds value

• Researchers may need to make decisions about sample composition, overlapping quotas or a participant whose experience needs careful interpretation.
• Those are meaningful review points.
• Rechecking every eligible applicant before validation can occupy the same reviewers without giving them the richer information that validation is intended to provide.
• Where client selection is needed, agree the stage and information that make that decision worthwhile.

Establish the authority to progress

• Before recruitment begins, decide what the recruiter can do independently.
• That might include progressing applicants who meet the screening criteria, validating their experience and booking people who satisfy the agreed selection rules.
• Also define the exceptions requiring discussion: an unclear requirement, a difficult quota, conflicting information or a proposed change affecting the sample.
• The appropriate arrangement depends on the study, but it should be explicit.

Make ownership part of the service

• Our preferred working relationship gives Gromotion responsibility for the agreed recruitment work and gives clients clear visibility of progress.
• We raise issues that need their judgement and keep moving where the decision has already been made.

Planning your next brief? Let’s agree the criteria, review points and responsibility to deliver.