Hiring glossary
What is shortlisting in recruitment?
Shortlisting is the stage of hiring where a recruiter or hiring manager narrows the full applicant pool down to the small group of candidates who will move on to interviews.
It sits after sourcing and screening and before the first interview. The usual inputs are the must-have requirements from the job description, a review of each application, any screening questions and, where the employer uses one, an assessment result. The output is a short list of people per opening that the hiring team agrees is worth their interview time.
Shortlisting goes wrong when the criteria are decided after reading the applications, because the list then reflects whoever made the best first impression. Writing the pass criteria in advance and applying them to every applicant in the same order keeps the shortlist consistent and easy to explain.
Also called: candidate shortlisting.
Example
A team receives 300 applications for an operations coordinator role. They remove anyone without the required shift availability, ask the remaining applicants to complete a 20-minute scheduling exercise, and invite the eight highest scorers to interview.
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