Qualifying questions and automatic disqualification

How to mark application form questions as qualifying, choose the answers that disqualify a candidate, and review or reverse the result.

A qualifying question is an application form question with one or more answers that disqualify the candidate automatically. Use it for hard requirements such as right to work or a licence you cannot hire without. The check runs when the candidate submits the form. Nobody has to review the answer first.

Who can set this up

Admin and HR users can mark questions as qualifying. You can do it in two places:

• On an application form template, under Settings, Application Form Templates.
• On a single job's form, using Edit application form on the job. This is available to Admin and HR only, and only once the job has been approved. Jobs created from a template start with the template's qualifying settings.

Which questions can qualify

Six field types can be qualifying questions: Short Text, Email, Phone, Dropdown, Checkbox and Multi-select. The Qualifying tick box does not appear on any other type (Long Text, Number, Date, URL, File Upload and so on). If you change a question to a type that cannot qualify, the qualifying setting and its disqualifying answers are cleared.

Set a qualifying question

1. Open the form template or the job's application form and find the question. Add it first if it does not exist yet. Dropdown and Multi-select questions need their options entered before you can pick a disqualifying answer.
2. Select Edit field details on the question.
3. Tick Qualifying. A panel headed Disqualify when answer is appears.
4. Choose the disqualifying answer or answers. What you see depends on the field type (see below).
5. Save the form.

Unticking Qualifying clears every disqualifying answer you had chosen.

How you set the disqualifying answer

• Dropdown and Multi-select: tick one or more of the question's options. Until options exist, the panel only shows a hint to select the answers that disqualify.
• Checkbox with no options: choose Yes or No. Only one can be chosen.
• Checkbox with options: tick the options that disqualify.
• Short Text, Email and Phone: type the disqualifying values into one box, separated by commas. The list is saved when you click out of the box.

A question is only checked if it has at least one disqualifying answer. Ticking Qualifying and choosing nothing does nothing.

How answers are matched

Matching ignores capital letters and spaces at the start and end of the answer. For a Short Text, Email or Phone question, the whole answer must equal one of your listed values. A value of UK does not match an answer of "UK resident". For a Multi-select question, one matching choice among those selected is enough to disqualify. If a candidate is disqualified by any one qualifying question, the whole application is disqualified. A question the candidate left blank does not disqualify them.

What the candidate sees

Nothing marks a question as qualifying. It looks like any other question on the form. On submission the candidate sees the normal confirmation and receives the normal application confirmation email. They are not told they have been disqualified, and Recruit sends no disqualification or rejection email of its own.

If you want the candidate to hear from you, contact them yourself.

What happens to the application

The application status becomes Disqualified. It stays out of the normal stage columns and lists unless you ask to see it. Other effects:

• The candidate is not moved on by any automatic move to another stage set up for the first stage.
• Automatic reminders for references and interview bookings stop.
• The candidate can no longer edit the application through the link in their emails.

The check only looks at questions the candidate could see. A qualifying question hidden by a "show when" rule, or sitting on a page hidden by a page rule, is ignored. See How conditional logic works on application forms for how those rules are set up. Changing a qualifying setting on a form does not re-check applications already submitted.

Viewing disqualified candidates on the pipeline

Admin and HR users can see them. Open the job's Pipeline tab, click Filters and tick View disqualified candidates. A Disqualified group is added alongside the stages. Members and Agency users do not get this option. Admin and HR can make it start switched on under Pipeline View Defaults in their profile settings, using the same tick box label.

A disqualified candidate's record also shows the status Disqualified in its list of applications.

Reviewing the answers on a candidate's record

Open the candidate's record. A Qualifying Questions card lists each qualifying question with the candidate's answer. Each answer is marked Passed, Failed or Not answered, and a badge at the top of the card reads Qualified or Disqualified. The card is hidden when the application has no qualifying questions.

The card leaves out any question that is classed as confidential monitoring data. Where the candidate's personal details are redacted for you, it also leaves out questions marked as containing personal information.

Reversing a disqualification

Only an Admin can do this, and only by correcting the answers. There is no button that reinstates a candidate directly, and Reactivate works on rejected applications only.

1. Open the candidate's record and go to the Qualifying Questions card.
2. Select Edit answers. The Edit Qualifying Answers window opens.
3. Change the answer. Text questions take typed text, Multi-select questions take ticked options and the rest take a single option.
4. Select Save.

Recruit checks the new answers straight away. If none of them disqualify, the status returns to Active. If a changed answer now disqualifies an active candidate, the status becomes Disqualified instead. The status only changes for Active and Disqualified applications. Rejected, withdrawn, hired and incomplete applications keep their status.

The edit does not move the candidate to a different stage and sends no email. The change is recorded in the audit log.

An answer cannot be saved blank, and an answer to a question with fixed options must be one of those options. Questions you did not change are left alone.