Creating a Screening Engagement

The Voice Screener question and Screener engagement type are only available with Bullhorn Automation Amplify Edition.

The Screening Engagement in Bullhorn Automation allows you to automatically evaluate candidates using voice-based AI interviews. This guide will walk you through creating a Screening Engagement from scratch, including configuration options and best practices.

Screener Engagement Types

The Screener engagement type can be used for Candidate and Submission-based engagements, depending on your workflow:

Candidate-Based Engagement

In this model, all candidates are screened against a single job record. Once a candidate completes their screening, they are submitted to the job as a New Submission. This approach is ideal for general or high-volume screenings.

You can use an "evergreen" job record to house general screening question. This lets you screen candidates even when the questions aren't tied to a specific live job.

Submission-Based Engagement

In this model, candidates are screened based on the job associated with their existing submission. This enables dynamic, job-specific screenings without the need to pre-configure a job ID. This approach is best for in-depth evaluations when candidates are already submitted to a specific job.

Creating a New Engagement

  1. Navigate to EngagementsClosed Using Automation to interact with Candidates and Clients. Typically done through Survey and chatbot. in Bullhorn Automation.

  2. Click + Add Engagement.

  3. Under Start from Scratch, select Blank Engagement.

  4. Choose the Entity TypeClosed Bullhorn Automation has six entities that can be utilized for Automations, List, and Engagements. They are: Candidates, Sales Contacts, Leads, Submissions, Placements, and Jobs.:

    • Candidate-Based: Screen multiple candidates against one job.

    • Submission-Based: Screen candidates already submitted to specific jobs.

  5. Enter a name for your engagement.

    Use a clear, descriptive name that makes it easy to find when building automations.

  6. Under Choose the type of engagement, select Screener.

  7. Click Save to continue.

Configuring the Voice Screener Question

Hover over the Voice Screener question and click Edit Question to open the Question Settings panel.

Question Settings

The available settings are:

  • Statement: Introductory text shown to the candidate.

    • You can include merge tags and basic formatting (bold, italic, underline, links).

  • Select a Job for Screening: Used for candidate-based screeners.

    • Enter a job title or ATS job ID to tie the screening to a specific job.

  • Agent Name: The name your AI screener introduces itself as.

    • Default: Alice

  • Optimized for Multilingual: When enabled, the screener detects the candidate’s browser language and provides translation support. For full details, see “Optimized for Multilingual” Amplify Screener Setting.

  • Always Generate Summary in English: When Optimized for Multilingual is enabled, this option ensures transcripts and summaries are always provided in English.

  • Voice: Choose from a list of AI voices (e.g., en-US-LunaNeural).

    • Click the play button to preview.

  • Page Header: This text displays at the top of the screening window.

  • Instructions: Intro guidance for candidates.

    • Supports formatting (bold, italic, lists).

    • Default: Please plan for about 7 - 10 minutes to answer a few questions about your background and qualifications for the role. When your call has ended, a transcript of this screening will be sent to your recruiter.

  • Optional Display Fields

    • Display Pay Rate (checkbox)

    • Display Location (checkbox): City & State from the job record

Advanced Settings

Click the Advanced Settings dropdown to fine-tune the voice screener experience.

  • Allow Retakes: Select this setting to allow candidates to retake a screening. If selected, you can choose the number of retakes from the dropdown ((1, 2, 3, or Unlimited).
    • If a candidate retakes a screening, screening fields like Status and Score will always reflect the most recent attempt. If you have note creation enabled, all notes from each attempt will remain on the record, giving you full visibility into every take.
  • Job Description to Display: Select the job field that contains the candidate-facing description.

    • Default: publicDescription

  • Agent Tone: Instruct the screener on how to speak to candidates.

    • Default: Your language should be supportive, friendly, and patient to make the candidate feel comfortable and at ease during the interview.

  • Welcome Message: Introduces the screener to the candidate.

    • Use merge tags for {agent name}, {customer name}, {position title}. These are the only available merge tags and this is the proper format.

    • Default: Hello, this is {agent name}, an AI agent for {customer name}. I am going to interview you for the {position title} position. Are you ready to begin the interview?

  • Question Asking Prompt: Transition statement inviting candidates to ask questions.

    • Default: Thank you for answering all our questions. Now, do you have any questions for me about the job or the company? You can ask up to three questions.

  • Additional Q&A Context: Enter any useful job info or FAQs to help the screener answer candidate questions.

    We recommend using the following format for FAQs:
    Q1: [Question]
    A1: [Answer]
    Q2: [Question]
    A2: [Answer]

  • Additional Q&A Context Fields: Reference job fields (e.g., benefits, hoursPerWeek) to supply additional dynamic content for Q&A answers.

  • Closing Message: Displayed after the screening concludes.

    • Default: Thank you for your time today. Your responses will be shared with our team.

  • Which submission status should they be created with? Choose which status to assign when creating submissions in Bullhorn ATS after the candidate completes a candidate-based screening.

Adding Knockout Questions

If your jobs have minimum eligibility requirements, you can add knockout questions to confirm those details before a candidate starts the voice screening.

Knockout questions are text-based chat questions that appear before the voice portion of the screener. If a candidate answers in a way that makes them ineligible, the screening ends immediately.

 

  • Are you over the age of 18?

  • Are you authorized to work in the United States?

These questions help avoid wasting a candidate’s time if they cannot meet the basic requirements for the job.

Using Branching with Knockout Questions

When setting up knockout questions, you have two options for how they work in the screening engagement:

  • With branching:

    • Eligible answers move the candidate forward to the voice screening.

    • Ineligible answers display a polite message and end the screening.

  • Without branching:

    • Candidates continue the screening even if they are disqualified for the current position.

    • This allows you to capture their screening summary and score, which may be useful for future opportunities where they could be a better fit.

To help with data cleanup, consider setting up an automation that updates the submission status (for example, to Rejected) when a candidate answers a knockout question in a way that disqualifies them. See our step-by-step guide to setting this up: Update Submission Status Based on Screener Knockout Questions

Configuring Screener Settings

In the top-right corner of the engagement, click Screener Settings.

You’ll see:

  • Screener Name (internal reference)

  • What webpage will people take this screener?

    • This is the page candidates land on when clicking the link (email/SMS).

    • Default: your home page URL.

  • Add screener responses as a single note (checkbox)

    • Adds a summarized AI analysis to the submission record.

  • Send notifications after each screener complete (checkbox)

    • Sends a summary email to configured contacts.

    • This is sent as a BCC.

    • The secondary recipient will only be sent a notification if the primary's email is invalid.

      A notification will only be sent if the screen has been completed. It will not send a notification or create a note if it is being run as a test.

  • Include Candidate Resume as attachment (checkbox)

    • Attaches the candidate’s resume to the summary report. This allows recruiters to review the screening results, transcript, and resume together directly from their inbox.

  • Notify Candidates of Closed Jobs (checkbox)

    • When selected, candidates will be notified if a job is no longer accepting screenings (based on its status in the ATS). Candidates will not be able to continue the screening process for that job.

  • Closed Job Statuses

    • If Notify Candidates of Closed Jobs is enabled, these are the job statuses that will mark a job as "Closed." Candidates will be prevented from completing a screening if the job is in any of these statuses.

  • Closed Job Message

    • If Notify Candidates of Closed Jobs is enabled, this is the message displayed to candidates when they attempt to screen for a job that is closed and no longer accepting screenings.

If a candidate attempts to take a screening for a closed job, no screening details (such as Score, Status, Duration, Summary, Experience Rating, or Feedback) will be recorded. However, the attempt will still count as both "Started" and "Completed" in the engagement metrics.

Once everything is configured, click Save. Your Screener Engagement is now ready to be added to an automation!