Reviewing and scoring candidates in Shortlisting

Open a job's Shortlisting tab, read each candidate's application, score them against the stage checklist and see what other reviewers can see of your scores.

This guide is for reviewers and hiring managers who score candidates at a screening stage. It assumes a checklist has already been attached to the stage. If you need to build a checklist or set a pass threshold, see Shortlisting checklists.

Who can score

Admin and HR users can open every job. Members can open jobs where they are on the job team or are the hiring lead. Agency users do not get the Shortlisting tab. The tab is also hidden while a job is still a draft, waiting for approval or waiting for setup.

Anyone who can open the tab can score, with one exception. If Reviewer Scoping is on for the stage, only the assigned reviewers get an editable form. Everyone else, Admin and HR included, sees the form read-only with the message "You are not assigned as a reviewer for this stage".

Open the Shortlisting workspace

Open the job and select the Shortlisting tab.
If more than one stage has a checklist, choose the stage under Shortlisting stage. Changing stage clears your filter and returns you to page 1.
Read the summary card at the top. It shows the Evaluation type (Scoring or Ranking), the Evaluation checklist in use, any description the checklist has, and the Required respondents with the minimum, for example "Minimum required: 2 of 3".

If the tab says no stages have been configured, nobody has attached a checklist to a stage on this job yet. If a stage shows "Shortlisting scoring isn't enabled for this stage", its checklist is switched off. Candidates are still listed, but you cannot score them.

List view and comparison view

The workspace opens in List view. Each row shows the candidate, their Assessment, a Status and a Review button. For scoring checklists the assessment is the averaged total, for example 7.50/10, with a bar. For ranking checklists it is a count of how many reviewers chose each level. A candidate nobody has scored shows "Not scored".

The status badge reads Pending (no reviews yet), Ready (a ranking checklist with at least one review, or a scoring total that meets the pass threshold) or Manual (the total is below the threshold, or there is no threshold, so someone has to decide).

Use the filter above the list to show All, Reviewed by me or Not reviewed by me. Each option shows a count. The list holds 25 candidates per page.

The grid icon in the top right switches to Comparison view. Candidates become columns and criteria become rows, so you can compare scores side by side. Each column heading shows the candidate's name, how many reviews they have (or Pending) and an Evaluate button. The last row is the Total. When the stage has a pass threshold, it also shows a tick for candidates who meet it and a cross for those who do not. Sort by score puts the highest totals first and unreviewed candidates last. The grid shows only the candidates on the current page of the list, and you page through them from List view. A ranking checklist has a single Rank row instead of criteria.

Read the candidate

Select a row, or Review or Evaluate, to open the review window. The candidate's name and a count such as "Candidate 3 of 25" sit at the top, with arrows to move to the previous or next candidate. The arrows do not save anything, so submit your score before you move on.

The left side holds the application:

A card with the candidate's email, current title, company and application date.
CV, open by default, with a Download link. If your organisation hides candidate CVs from Members, this section does not appear for Members.
Cover Letter and Application Responses, both collapsed until you open them.
The candidate's Work History, with any employment gap marked in days.

On a confidential shortlisting job the candidate's name and cover letter are hidden and the CV is the anonymised copy. If that copy is still being produced you see "CV is processing. Please check back later." Try again in a few minutes.

Score a candidate

The checklist is on the right under Evaluation Criteria. The form uses the first enabled checklist on the stage.

Scoring checklists

Each criterion has a box for your score, with a small Essential or Desirable label beside the wording. The label shows what matters most to the hiring team. It does not change how the score is added up. The box starts at 0 and will not go above the criterion's maximum or below 0. Any criterion you leave alone is submitted as 0.

Ranking checklists

Open the Rank list and choose one level. You must choose one. Without it the submission fails with "Failed to submit evaluation".

Notes and submitting

Add Notes if you want to record your reasoning, up to 5,000 characters.
Select Submit & Next to save and open the next candidate, or Submit & Close (the underlined link beside it) to save and return to the list. On the last candidate on the page the only button is Submit & Close.
You see "Evaluation submitted successfully". Nothing is saved until you submit.

The first time you submit for a candidate, recruiters on the job who have the Shortlisting completed notification switched on are emailed. Changing your score later does not send another email.

What you can see of other reviewers

Below your form, Other Reviewers shows how many evaluations have been submitted, the average for each criterion (or the count for each rank level) and one entry per reviewer with their total or chosen level. Your own entry is labelled "You". What appears depends on your role and two stage settings, Reviewer Scoping and Blind Scoring.

Admin and HR users always see every reviewer's evaluation, with names, whatever the settings.
Recruiters on the job see everything, unless Blind Scoring is on. Then they see only their own.
Hiring managers, interviewers and anyone with no role on the job see only their own evaluation when either setting is on. With both off they see everyone's.

Scoped and blind views do more than hide names. The averages, the Assessment column, the Status badge and the review counts are all worked out from the evaluations you are allowed to see. If you are limited to your own, they show your score alone, so "Ready" or a cross beside a candidate reflects your evaluation and not the team's. Blind Scoring also anonymises reviewer names in the results export. Notes are not shown to other reviewers in this panel.

Reviewers assigned and review progress

A stage can have Assigned reviewers and a Minimum reviewers required. Only submissions from assigned reviewers count towards the minimum. With no minimum set, every assigned reviewer must submit. A stage with no assigned reviewers has no completion requirement.

On the Pipeline tab, candidates in a screening stage are grouped under a badge that tracks progress:

Unstarted: no evaluations yet.
Partially Complete: fewer evaluations than the minimum reviewers required.
Complete: the minimum has been reached. If no minimum is set on the stage, one evaluation is enough for this badge.

The first stage in the pipeline, usually Applied, does not show this badge.

Pass threshold and moving candidates on

For a scoring checklist the total is each criterion's average across reviewers, added together. It meets the pass threshold when it is equal to or higher than the number set. Moving a candidate forward from the stage is refused in two situations:

Not enough assigned reviewers have submitted. The message names the checklist and the count, for example "Shortlisting review is incomplete for: Sales checklist (1/2)". This is checked first.
The total is below the pass threshold. You see Shortlisting Threshold Not Met. A candidate with no evaluations at all is not stopped by the threshold.

Both checks count every reviewer's evaluation, even when you can only see your own. Moving a candidate backwards is never blocked. Admin, HR and the job's recruiters can move candidates, and so can others if your organisation allows it. If you cannot, the Move to Stage button in the workspace is greyed out.

Edit a score

Open the candidate again from the list. Your earlier scores, rank and notes are filled in.
Change what you need and select Submit & Next or Submit & Close.

Your evaluation is updated, not duplicated, and the candidate's totals and status recalculate. You cannot edit anyone else's score.

Common problems

The form is greyed out. Reviewer Scoping is on and you are not an assigned reviewer. Ask a recruiter on the job to add you under the job's Settings tab.
The Shortlisting tab is missing. The job is not live yet, or you are not on the job team.
A candidate has no CV section. The application form did not collect one, or your organisation hides CVs from Members.
A banner says evaluation templates have been updated. The checklist has changed since it was attached. A recruiter can reapply it from the job's Settings tab.