What are scoring criteria? How do they work?
Updated last year
In JobScore scoring criteria are NOT used when interviewing and assessing candidates. What some people call “scorecards” are called interview templates with candidate ratings in JobScore.
Scores are designed to help you figure out which new candidates you want to speak with, not who to select to hire. JobScore calculates a 0-100 overall match score for every candidate in your account using each job’s scoring criteria.
How scoring criteria work
Every job in your account has its own scoring criteria.
You can add, edit, and delete scoring criteria on the add & edit job pages in the scoring criteria card.
Each scoring criteria has its own importance on a 1-100 point scale.
JobScore determines if there is a match, partial match, no match, or no data for each criteria and uses that information to calculate an overall match score.
When you click on scores you can see exactly how they were calculated.
Scores are recalculated whenever you edit a job’s scoring criteria and candidate records are updated.
If you don’t want JobScore to generate scores you can either not enter (or generate) any scoring criteria for a job, or completely turn off scoring in your account here.
JobScore can automatically generate scoring criteria using your job title & job description.
Users with permission to edit a job can change a job’s scoring criteria at any time.
Scoring criteria changes are recorded in edit job events in the history for auditing purposes.
Criteria Types
Location Criteria
JobScore uses the zip code from the job's location and the candidate's home address to calculate how far a candidate lives from your office. You choose the ideal distance (5 miles, 15 miles, 25 miles) then JobScore does the rest.
You can only enter one location criteria per job. If you can hire someone in more than one location and want to use this feature, we recommend adding a separate job with a different location. If your job is fully remote, we recommend removing the location criteria completely.
Keyword Criteria
Keywords are the most flexible way to tune overall match scores. JobScore searches for an exact match of each keyword criteria against the full text of a candidate’s resume.
Because JobScore looks for exact matches, sometimes it's a good idea to add multiple keyword terms based on different spellings, like "account manager" and "account management"
Skill Criteria
Skills are often the most precise way to tune match scores.
While keyword criteria look for exact text matches, skill criteria look for concepts. JobScore analyzes the candidate's resume text and identifies skills. So, for instance, JobScore might determine that a candidate is good at solution sales without them having the exact phrase "solution sales" on their resume.
Skills can only be selected from a pre-built list.
Skills are pass/fail - JobScore thinks the candidate has a skill or they don't.
Employment Criteria
Career Level: This is the desired level of experience for a job. You can only enter one "Career Level" criteria per job. JobScore determines whether a candidate is an exact match for the career level you selected or a partial match if they are a level or two removed. Just pick your ideal career level and JobScore will do the rest.
Company Name: If you prefer candidates that worked for specific companies, enter one or more "Company Name" criteria. You can choose if you prefer candidates who have ever worked for the company, who currently work there, or who worked there in the past. While you can enter companies as "Keyword" criteria, the scoring will be more accurate if you use the company name criteria, as it will avoid context mismatches. For example, it means something different to have the keyword "Microsoft" on your resume than to have worked for Microsoft the company.
Job Title: If you prefer candidates with specific job titles, enter one or more "Job Title" criteria.
More than one job title criteria might be appropriate for some jobs - for instance, you might want someone who has been an accountant or a controller... in this case, you should enter two separate criteria - one for "accountant", one for "controller."
You can choose if you prefer candidates who have ever held a job title, currently hold it, or held it in the past.
JobScore also identifies similar job titles… so if you choose the “Software Engineer” job title, JobScore considers the “Software Developer” title a partial match.
While you could enter job titles as "Keyword" criteria, the scoring will be more accurate if you use the "Job Title" criteria. For example, it means something different if someone says they reported to the Vice President of Finance vs. having the job title Vice President of Finance.
Education Criteria
Desired Degree: This is the desired educational level for a job. You can only enter one "Desired Degree" per job. JobScore determines whether a candidate is a match based on the highest degree on their profile. It’s an exact match if they received the degree you selected, and a partial match if they are a level or two removed. Just pick your desired degree, and JobScore will do the rest.
School Name: If you prefer candidates who attended particular schools or universities, enter one or more "School Name" criteria. These criteria work better if you put in the school's unique name (i.e., enter "Stanford", not "Stanford University"). For some schools that are commonly referred to by an acronym (e.g., UCLA), you may consider entering two "School Name" criteria -- one for "UCLA" and another for "University of California, Los Angeles."
Major: If you prefer candidates who studied a particular subject, you can enter one or more "Major" criteria. These criteria work well with either specific terms like "computer science" or more general terms like "computer" which will capture different varieties of computer degrees. If you prefer someone with a degree in finance or accounting, enter two separate "Major" criteria - one for finance, one for accounting.
Answer Criteria
JobScore makes it easy to ask candidates questions in job application forms and candidate forms.
Answer criteria allow you to select questions and the desired answers as scoring criteria.
Like other criteria, answers can only be used to increase a candidate’s score. Please investigate filtering candidates and automations if you want to use questions to disqualify candidates and knock them out of the process.
Criteria Importance
Importance determines how much weight JobScore puts on a criteria when calculating the overall match score. If you choose 20 for a criteria, it won't impact the score nearly as much as if you choose 90.
Importance is a relative weight. This means that if you assign all of your criteria 20 importance, it will produce the same result as assigning all of your criteria 90 importance. For every job, there are requirements and nice-to-haves, so make sure to tune your criteria and importance accordingly.
Number of Criteria
Adding more criteria is not necessarily better. Scores are diluted and take longer to calculate when you add many criteria.
As a rule of thumb, try not to have more than 10 total scoring criteria per job and prioritize them by setting a unique importance value for each criteria.