Linking skills to sift questions

You should write sift questions around the skills you’ve chosen. 

Skills and sift questions are associated with each other - this ensures that sift questions are focused and specific on what you’re actually looking for in a hire. 

To write a sift question and link it with a skill:

1. Access the Build tab on the left hand side of the screen
2. Click on “Sift questions” under "Assessment Selection"
3. You can either add a question from the question library …
4. Or create your own
5. If you create your own, at the top of the question builder, you’ll see buttons with all the skills you previously listed for this role . As you write your questions, have a skill in mind. Click on the skill to link it with each question. 
   
6. If you add questions from the question library, click the "filter by skills" button and you'll see the ones you have chosen for your role as the first column on the left hand side. Tick each of these to get suggestions that meet the skills you have chosen. 

Remember:

• Each skill should be linked with at least one sift question.
   
• A sift question can test more than 1 skill at once
  e.g.  Tell us about an experience where you had to take responsibility for something, work out what to do and make it happen.
  Skills tested: motivation, initiative taking
  
  
• Candidates receive feedback based on the skills you’ve identified - these skills will be visible to them, so make sure they’re short and make sense! 
  
  
• Once you’ve made a role live, candidates can start applying to it. If a candidate submits an application, you won’t be able to make edits or to change the role. 

 

Why tag skills to questions?

By focusing on skills, you focus more on what people can do and less on who they are. Skills are also the fastest way to make sure you are  spending time on the most predictive form of hiring. 

When you tag skills to your questions, you reinforce this message and you are making sure you get the best insights from your use of the platform. 

Some of the main benefits include: 

• visualise candidates' relative strengths and weaknesses;

• identify if the question is useful for the skills that you are looking for;

• re-identify the question in your Question library; and,

• provide the best candidate experience when you send them feedback.

If anything in this article piques your interest or isn’t clear, don’t hesitate to get in touch at [e-mail], where a member of our team will be on hand to give you support.