Amplify Screening Best Practices

A well-designed screening process helps you make the most of your AI-powered tools while ensuring a fair, engaging experience for candidates.

This guide shares best practices for using Amplify Screening effectively, from setup and configuration to candidate follow-up. Each practice is designed to improve both the candidate experience and your team’s overall efficiency.

We’ll continue to update these recommendations as Amplify evolves and new features are introduced.

Before the Screening

Be Transparent About the Use of AI

When sending your Invite to Screen message, be transparent that candidates will complete an AI-powered screening. Transparency builds trust and confidence.

Doing this helps you:

  • Set expectations and help candidates prepare for the experience.

  • Reduce drop-off from candidates who might be uncomfortable with AI tools.

  • Protect your organization legally by disclosing AI use upfront.

This simple step ensures candidates feel informed and respected from the very start.

Highlight the Benefits of AI Screening

AI screening may be new to some candidates, so it’s important to position it as a positive experience. Include a short explanation in your Invite to Screen message that shows how the process benefits them.

For example, you might emphasize that AI screening:

  • Saves time by helping candidates move through the hiring process faster.

  • Improves fairness by ensuring every candidate is evaluated consistently.

  • Increases flexibility by allowing candidates to complete their screening at a time that suits them.

This framing helps reduce hesitation and encourages more candidates to complete the screening.

Setting Up Your Screeners

Boost Engagement with Email and SMS Invitations

Send screening invitations by both email and text message to maximize engagement and completion rates. Sending SMS invitations alongside email ensures your message reaches candidates quickly and conveniently, no matter their preferred communication method.

This dual approach helps reduce missed invitations, improves overall response rates, and creates a more candidate-friendly experience.

Send Reminders to Complete the Screening

Use Automation to send reminders to candidates who haven’t yet completed their screening. After sending the initial invitation, we recommend sending at least two follow-up messages by email and SMS to ensure candidates are reminded to complete their screening.

Schedule your first reminder about 24 hours after the initial invite, and send a second reminder a short time later if needed.

Be sure to remove candidates from reminder workflows once they’ve completed their screening. This keeps your communications timely and relevant.

Use Branching for “Knockout” Questions

Use branching logic to automatically filter out ineligible candidates before they begin a full screening.

If you ask, “Are you authorized to work in the United States?” you can use branching so that candidates who select "Yes" proceed to the AI portion of the screening, while those who select "No" are filtered out automatically.

This approach saves time for both candidates and recruiters, and helps maintain an efficient and focused pipeline by ensuring only qualified candidates move forward.

Create Tailored Screeners for Different Scenarios

You can create multiple Screener Engagements for different candidate types or hiring stages. Tailoring your screeners helps you gather the right information for each scenario and keeps the experience relevant.

For instance:

  • Web Applicants: Include knockout questions to confirm eligibility.

  • Sourced or Matched Candidates: Skip knockout questions, since eligibility has already been confirmed.

This approach makes screening feel more personalized to candidates while giving your recruiters targeted, useful insights for faster decision-making.

Allow Retakes for a Better Candidate Experience

Enable the Allow Retakes option when configuring your Screener Engagement. This gives candidates the chance to retry a screening if they weren’t satisfied with their first attempt.

Allowing retakes benefits you, too. Candidates who know they can try again are less likely to abandon the process and more likely to perform at their best, giving you stronger, more representative responses.

Be sure to mention this in your Invite to Screen message so candidates know they can retake if needed. This helps reduce pressure and may increase participation.

Prevent Screenings for Closed Jobs

Select the Notify Candidates of Closed Jobs option when configuring your Screener Engagement Settings to ensure candidates aren’t completing a screening for a role that’s no longer open.

This avoids frustration for candidates and saves time for recruiters by preventing unnecessary screenings.

You can customize the message candidates see when this happens, so this is a great opportunity to redirect them to your Careers Page or Current Openings, helping keep potential talent engaged with your brand.

During and After the Screening

Don’t Reject Candidates While a Screening Is Pending

Avoid rejecting candidates who have been invited to complete a screening but haven’t yet finished. Doing so can create confusion or a negative impression of your process.

Instead, give candidates time to complete their screening before making a decision. This ensures fairness and helps maintain your brand reputation as a transparent, candidate-friendly employer.

Follow Up with Every Candidate

Follow up with every candidate who completes a screening — even if their score isn’t high.

This demonstrates respect for their time and leaves a positive impression of your organization. From a recruiter’s perspective, it’s also a valuable engagement opportunity:

  • Candidates who complete a screening are already showing initiative and interest. These are great traits for future roles.

  • Staying in touch helps you build a pool of active, engaged candidates who may be perfect for future openings.

If you can’t follow up with everyone, consider reaching out to candidates above a certain score threshold (for example, 80+).

Gather Candidate Feedback

At the end of each screening, candidates are asked to rate their experience. These ratings help you understand how candidates perceive your AI screening process.

Send a short post-screening survey to candidates who give a low rating (for example, anyone who rates the experience as “1”). This helps you capture specific feedback on what didn’t work well.

You might ask:

  • What would you change about the experience?

  • Was there anything confusing or unclear during the process?

  • Did the questions feel relevant to the role you applied for?

  • Did you feel the process was fair and transparent?

  • What would have made the experience more positive for you?

Collecting this feedback helps you continually refine your approach, improve candidate satisfaction and ensure your process stays competitive and human-centered.