Screening candidates and shortlisting is a key stage of the recruitment process.

This step follows the talent sourcing and attraction prior to interviews. Here are 5 ways to improve screening candidates with focus on skills and fairness.

1. Objective Criteria & “Skills-First” Mindset

To minimize bias, leading companies emphasize what the candidate can do over who they are or where they come from.

Microsoft’s former VP of Global Talent, Lauren Gardner, explicitly advocates screening by skills and demonstrated growth mindset rather than school or pedigree.

This approach opens doors for self-taught coders or those with less typical career paths. It also addresses the reality that required skills change fast, so finding candidates who can learn and adapt is key.

Concretely, this means a candidate without a college degree but with great project experience might still make Microsoft’s shortlist – a notable shift from old habits.

Tesla similarly doesn’t require fancy degrees. Elon Musk has said he doesn’t care if someone graduated college as long as they have “evidence of exceptional ability.” 

At Tesla, problem-solving ability is a major screen. They want to see proof the candidate has tackled hard challenges (more on Musk’s favourite question in the interview section).

2. Structured Screening Process

Top firms create screening checklists or scorecards.

For example, a Google recruiter might tick off: “CS degree or equivalent coding experience? Yes. Python experience? Yes. At least one project demonstrating data analysis? Yes.”

Having a clear framework ensures each resume is judged consistently against the role’s requirements, rather than relying on gut feeling. It also makes it easier to justify why Candidate A was shortlisted over Candidate B (useful for both fairness and any compliance needs).

3. Screening for Cultural Fit (and Add)

Some companies include a few culture-oriented questions early on. Amazon’s recruiters might ask something like, “Which of our Leadership Principles resonates most with you?”. This helps gauge if the candidate has done their homework and aligns with Amazon’s values.

However, there’s a modern twist: whereas culture “fit” used to mean “same mould,” today’s best practice is culture “add”. Culture add is looking for candidates who align with core values but also bring diverse perspectives that add to the culture.

Amazon’s Bar Raiser program embodies this by ensuring new hires raise the standards and often bring something new to the table.

An internal Amazon Bar Raiser said one of their favourite questions to hiring managers in debrief is: “What would we miss out on if we don’t hire this person?”. If the answer highlights a unique contribution or perspective, that’s a good sign.

4. Screening Candidates with AI

AI resume screening can inadvertently introduce bias. The best practice is to use AI to augment, not replace, human judgment, and to audit these tools for fairness.

Uber’s team, for example, only uses AI to flag potential matches, but humans still make the call on whom to contact. They also program the tools to ignore demographic or personal info, focusing only on job-related attributes.

5. Fairly Screening Candidates

To reduce unconscious bias at the screening stage, some companies mask identifying information on resumes. They removed names, addresses etc in what’s called “blind resume review.

While our highlighted companies haven’t publicly stated doing this routinely, it’s a growing practice elsewhere. What these companies do is train recruiters on recognizing their biases. Microsoft, for example, provides training that covers “identifying bias when screening” as part of their inclusive hiring practices.

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Job Intake & Kickoff →
The recruitment process begins with an intake meeting between the recruiter and the hiring manager.

Sourcing & Attraction →
In the sourcing stage, recruiters cast a wide net to find and attract potential candidates.

Screening & Shortlisting →
This is about identifying the most qualified candidates from a large pool to decide who moves forward to interviews.

Interviews & Assessment →
In this stage, the shortlisted candidates undergo rigorous evaluation through interviews and specialized assessment.

Selection & Decision →
Here, the hiring team analyses all the input from interviews and assessments to determine which candidate to hire (if any).

Offer & Hire →
In the final stage of the process, the company formally extends a job offer to the chosen candidate and negotiates terms as needed.