There’s no denying the large talent pool across most industries but getting the candidate who is a great fit for the role and work culture that fits your organization can be a long and exhausting process. Also, many impressive candidates get passed over during the hiring process because of bias toward other candidates.

Candidate evaluation forms are structured guides for hiring managers. They help you assess candidates against pre-defined criteria and make informed hiring decisions. The form also ensures your recruitment process is fair by enabling you to select the right candidate without bias; candidates get a fair shot because they are all evaluated on the same criteria. 

Let’s explore candidate evaluation forms, how to leverage them to select the best candidates, and a free template to get you started.

Who Needs a Candidate Evaluation Form?

Candidate evaluation forms are standardized documents talent acquisition professionals use throughout the recruitment process to assess a candidate’s suitability for a specific position. It allows you to objectively evaluate a candidate’s qualifications, skills, and experience against the established criteria for the role.

The candidate evaluation form helps you quantify each candidate’s performance during the hiring process. It typically asks interviewers to rate each candidate’s performance in specific areas, such as their relevant work experience, enthusiasm, knowledge of the company, composure, and more.

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Key Components of a Candidate Evaluation Form

The following are the essential details you should always have in your candidate evaluation form:

• Candidate Information: This includes the applicant’s details, such as name, contact information, and the position applied for.
• Job Criteria: A clear outline of the essential skills, experience, and qualifications required for the role.
• Evaluation Criteria: These are the criteria for evaluating the candidate’s performance in key areas, such as work experience and past accomplishments, relevant technical and soft skills, communication skills, problem-solving and decision-making abilities, and alignment with the company’s values and culture.
• Rating Scales: Standardized rating scales allow interviewers to assess the candidate’s performance in each criterion objectively. For example, you can use descriptive ratings such as excellent, good, average, fairly satisfactory, or poor, or a numerical rating scale of 1-10.
• Open-Ended Questions: This section allows all interviewers to elaborate on specific observations, strengths, or weaknesses identified during the interview. They could have noticed a strength that may have been missed in the evaluation criteria.
• Overall Assessment and Recommendation: Space for interviewers to summarize their evaluation and provide a recommendation (e.g., proceed to the next round, not recommended for hire).

Importance of Candidate Evaluation Forms

Gallup conducted a study that suggests a high retention rate could potentially increase a company’s profits four times. The first step to achieving a high retention rate goal is hiring exceptional employees; if your candidates are not great, they will only slow down your company’s productivity, and you will not want to retain them.

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So, investing in exceptional candidates during the recruitment process can significantly grow your revenue. Let’s look at some major benefits of using the candidate evaluation form for your hiring process:

• Reliable Candidate Evaluation: Using the candidate evaluation form ensures all candidates are assessed based on the same criteria, promoting fairness and consistency. Instead of relying on how you feel about a candidate, candidate evaluation forms help you score them based on how well they meet the recruitment criteria.
• Providing a Structured Framework: The candidate evaluation guides you through key areas to evaluate after interviewing candidates, preventing you from overlooking important aspects of the candidate’s qualifications. For example, a candidate may be able to lead conversations but lack the relevant work experience; if you are not focusing on the criteria, you could end up choosing the candidate simply because you had a significant social interaction with them, passing up other qualified candidates.
• Enabling Comparative Analysis: Using candidate evaluation forms enables you to easily compare candidates based on their performance during interviews and assessments.
• Documenting the Selection Process: After completing the hiring process, you can use the candidate evaluation form to record the candidate’s performance during the interviews and use the documentation as a talent pool for future roles.
• Improved Decision-Making: Candidate evaluation forms also provide a clear framework and objective data, enabling hiring managers to make well-informed decisions about how to proceed within the recruitment process.
• Reduced Bias: Focusing on objective criteria and standardized questioning can significantly mitigate the potential for unconscious bias during recruitment.
• Legal Compliance: Documented evaluations through candidate evaluation forms can help demonstrate a fair and unbiased recruitment process if legal challenges arise. For example, if a candidate feels they are better qualified than the selected candidate and wants to take legal action claiming discriminatory practices, a candidate evaluation form would serve as evidence of fairness during the hiring process and resolve the dispute.

What Should a Candidate Evaluation Form Include

A comprehensive Candidate Evaluation Form is a structured tool for assessing a candidate’s suitability for the position. It should capture key information and clearly depict the candidate’s qualifications, skills, and fit within the organization. Here’s what a well-designed candidate evaluation should include:

Balance of Qualitative and Quantitative Measures

• Quantitative: Create a numerical rating scale or scoring system to evaluate specific skills needed for the position. This helps interviewers to compare candidates objectively. You could also add descriptions to the numerical scale to put candidate performance into perspective  (e.g., 1 = Needs Improvement, 5 = Exceeds Expectations)
• Qualitative: Include open-ended questions that delve into the candidate’s thinking process, communication skills, and problem-solving approach. This will help you gain more insight into their suitability from various interviewers’ viewpoints.
• Common Candidate Evaluation Form Sections:
  • Basic Information: Capture candidate details like name, contact information, and references.
  • Skills Assessment: Evaluate technical skills, soft skills, and job-specific competencies relevant to the position.
  • Work Experience: Assess past roles, responsibilities, and achievements relevant to the current opening.
  • Education and Training: Evaluate relevant educational background and any certifications or training programs completed.
  • Cultural Fit: Evaluate how well the candidate’s values, personality, and work style align with the organization’s culture.
  • Interview Feedback: Allow interviewers to provide specific comments and observations from the interview.

Tips for Creating Effective Candidate Evaluation Forms

Candidate evaluation forms will help you streamline your hiring process and get the best candidate if you design it appropriately. Here are some tips to ensure your candidate evaluation form helps you make the best hiring decisions:

• Align Form with Hiring Goals and Values: Ensure the candidate evaluation form reflects the requirements and priorities outlined in the job description and the organization’s overall values.
• Keep it Simple: Use clear and concise language throughout the form. Interviewers should struggle to understand the questions; ambiguous questions could confuse them, and they may rate candidates inaccurately. 
• Rating Scales: Choose appropriate rating scales that accurately measure the desired skills or competencies. Instead of using vague evaluation criteria, consider using behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) that link specific behaviors to performance levels. For example, for work experience, your rating scales can be excellent knowledge of marketing analytics- intermediate knowledge of marketing analytics- basic knowledge of marketing analytics- little knowledge of marketing analytics- no knowledge of marketing analytics.
• Open-Ended Questions: Craft open-ended questions encouraging interviewers to give detailed responses and reveal the candidate’s thought process and problem-solving approach.
• Tailoring the Form: Customize your candidate evaluation form to specific roles or departments. This allows for a more targeted evaluation process. For example, in a technical interview, your rating scale for experience could range from “Extensive proven experience with Rust to no experience working with Rust”.
• Use a Candidate Evaluation Form Template: Using a pre-designed template for your candidate evaluation forms helps you cut down the stress of building your form sections from scratch. You can simply edit a few questions or add new ones, and you have your form in minutes rather than taking days and hours to design it.
• Training for Interviewers: Train interviewers on using the candidate evaluation forms effectively, ensuring they accurately evaluate candidates and minimize bias.

Best Practices for Using Candidate Evaluation Forms

Candidate Evaluation Forms can significantly enhance your recruitment process if designed and implemented correctly. Here are a couple of practices to ensure you get the best out of your candidate evaluation forms:

• Train Hiring Managers: Equipping hiring managers with proper training on effectively using the candidate evaluation form by explaining what each criterion outlined in the form means and how to evaluate all candidates throughout the interview process with the same criteria. Also, encourage them to document their observations and feedback comprehensively within the candidate evaluation form.
• Regular Review and Updates:  Regularly review and update your CEFs to ensure they reflect current job requirements and desired skills for the position. Also, ensure the form evaluation criteria align with evolving industry standards and comply with any legal or regulatory requirements related to hiring practices.

Conclusion

Candidate evaluation forms allow you to streamline the recruitment process and make informed hiring decisions. It helps you to build a robust talent pipeline and foster a fair and unbiased recruitment strategy, improving your hiring outcomes.

Using candidate evaluation forms does not just optimize your recruitment process, it also ensures the process is fair and positive for candidates. Get a head start in your candidate evaluation process with this free candidate evaluation form template!