5 Best Candidate Screening Software for Every Use

In 2020, 94% of recruiters reported that recruitment software had positively impacted their hiring process. It turns out that cutting down tedious recruitment tasks with software allows teams to focus on hiring better candidates, faster.

Interested in benefits like this? You’re in the right place. 

In this guide, we’ll introduce you to five of the best candidate screening tools on the market. From async interview tools like Willo to resume screening tools like Lever, there’s something here for everyone.

Let’s dive in.

What Is Candidate Screening Software?

Candidate screening software is a broad category of tools designed to simplify, streamline, or organize some aspect of the candidate screening process.

With any candidate screening software, the goal is simple—to help companies zero in on the best candidates faster. To achieve this goal, these tools assist recruiting teams with a wide range of tasks, including:

• Evaluating job applications
• Scanning resumes
• Conducting screening interviews
• Selecting suitable candidates

Why Is Candidate Screening Software Important?

Casting a wide net is the best way to land top talent. 

But in casting wide nets, recruiting teams sometimes bite off more than they can chew—60% of recruiters say they often lose candidates before scheduling an interview.

Candidate screening software allows even the most minor recruitment teams to process large applicant pools with less time and effort. For example, Willo’s async interviews helped Endava save 100 hours throughout a hiring campaign that included 400 interviews and, eventually, 60 hires.

On top of this main benefit, candidate screening software offers benefits like:

• Integrations with other recruiting tools
• Support for diversity and inclusion initiatives
• Standardization for the hiring process
• Fewer mistakes due to human error

Criteria to Consider When Choosing Candidate Screening Software

Understand the type of screening you want

Candidate screening tools can vary in scope quite a bit.

Some focus on very specific types of candidate screening tasks, while others focus on the screening process as a whole. That means pinning down the type of screening you want to do is an essential first step.

To give a quick example, Teamtailor is an applicant tracking system (ATS) with wide-ranging tools for communicating with talent, screening applications, and making hires. In contrast, Arctic Shores is solely focused on helping companies conduct task-based assessments.

Look for key integrations

The recruitment process is easier when data flows seamlessly from one tool to another.

Before you pick a candidate screening tool, think about how it’ll mesh with your tech stack through native and third-party integrations (or, if you have the technical know-how, APIs).

At Willo, integrations are a top priority. We have native integrations for key tools like Slack, Workday, Lever, Workable, Greenhouse, Teamtailor, and 5,000+ third-party integrations through Zapier and Integrately.

Make sure it’s cost-effective

Last but not least, you need to consider how cost-effective a tool is. This doesn’t just mean looking at your budget compared to upfront pricing. 

You also need to think about:

• Scaling: Can your screening solution scale with you (in a cost-effective way)?
• ROI: Will the tool provide you with enough efficiency, time savings, or capacity increase to justify the cost?

For example, every Willo offers unlimited user seats, jobs, and all core features. Pricing is based on responses, meaning you can easily find a plan that meets your hiring needs now (and in the future) without worrying about paying more for a certain feature or number of users.

5 Best Candidate Screening Software for Every Use

In a rush? Here’s an overview of the tools we’ll be covering:

1. Willo: For asynchronous interviewing
2. Lever: For resume screening
3. Arctic Shores: For comprehensive psychometric assessment screening
4. Teamtailor: For smart automation
5. Greenhouse: For engaging onboarding

Want to learn why these tools made the cut? Read on.

1. Willo

For asynchronous interviewing

Willo is an async interviewing tool that makes it easy to screen candidates at scale.

With Willo, the candidate screening process is simple. All you need to do is write or generate interview questions, share the invite link with candidates, and review the video responses as they come in.

Since Willo is entirely browser-based, candidates can record their responses on (almost) any device they want—no app installs or downloads necessary. And when it’s time to review, Willo’s Showcase™ feature makes it easy to share interviews and collect stakeholder feedback.

Key features

• Async interviews: Create one interview and use it to screen hundreds (or thousands) of candidates by sharing the invite link—no manual scheduling required.
• Question flexibility: Write or generate questions and field video, audio, text, or file upload responses. Set time limits and retake limits to see how applicants think on the fly.
• Showcase™: Share promising candidates with anyone who needs to be in the loop and collect feedback without leaving the app.
• Easy scheduling: Record candidate availability to simplify follow-up conversations.
• Integrations: Willo fits nicely within any recruitment tech stack thanks to native integrations with tools like Lever, Workable, Greenhouse, and Teamtailor (and 5,000+ more third-party integrations through Zapier and Integrately).

Pricing

Willo has a free-forever plan that allows freelancers and small businesses to create a job and field 10 responses from candidates.

Starter ($56.25/mo) allows unlimited users to field 200 responses monthly. Growth ($225/mo) raises that limit to 2,000 monthly responses. Finally, Scale ($850+/month) allows you to build a custom plan around your requirements.

All plans allow for unlimited jobs and your own branding.

Pros & cons

Pros

• Unlimited user seats on all plans
• Simple invite links
• Asynchronous interviews
• Four question-types
• 5,000+ integrations
• Easy collaboration features

Cons

• API access is an add-on
• Need to integrate into your ATS or CRM

2. Lever

For resume screening

Lever is a talent relationship management (TRM) tool that combines the features of an ATS and a CRM into a powerful, unified recruiting tool.

Among Lever’s powerful tools for building, evaluating, and managing talent pools are several features that simplify the screening process—including Fast Resume Review. 

This feature consolidates every step of the resume screening process into a single screen to eliminate distractions and time sinks. Your team can read resumes, add notes, sort candidates, view stats, and even message candidates without switching tabs once.

Key features

• Fast candidate review dashboard: Give recruitment teams a dashboard for all their screening tasks and win hours back.
• Analytics: Build a data-driven recruitment strategy with deep insights into channel performance, pipeline status, and more.
• DEI insights: Prioritize diversity and inclusion with data on your talent pool and tools for overcoming unconscious hiring bias.

Pricing

Lever doesn’t offer public pricing. Instead, you’ll need to request a free quote.

Pros & cons gathered from G2

Pros

• Powerful analytics and reports
• Lots of time-saving features
• Great integrations

Cons

• Steep learning curve

3. Arctic Shores

For comprehensive assessment screening

Arctic Shores is a gamified assessment tool that helps companies understand applicants' behavior on a deeper, more authentic level.

Arctic Shores is fairly simple to understand. Companies start by choosing the success criteria (i.e., responsibilities) that a candidate will have if successful—things like “encouraging”, “exploring”, and “interacting”.

Applicants then run through a series of gamified assessments designed to see how they measure up to those success criteria. Results are scored on standardized scales to make comparisons simple.

Key features

• Business Psychology as a Service: Arctic Shores uses 12,000+ data points on personality, workplace performance, and business outcomes to score candidates.
• Reporting: See and compare results with clear reports and easily digestible scores and metrics.
• Interview guides: Systematize your interview process with science-backed guidelines, questions, evaluation criteria, and more.

Pricing

Arctic Shores don’t publish their pricing information. You’ll need to reach out to sales for a quote.

Pros & cons

Pros

• Science-backed assessments
• Clear reports and easy comparisons
• Flexible campaign setup

Cons

• No publically available pricing

4. Teamtailor

For smart automation

Teamtailor is an ATS that streamlines the candidate screening process with smart automation and simple bulk actions.

Smart Triggers are easily programmable automation that recruitment teams can use to eliminate tedious tasks like moving candidates, booking interviews, sending messages, and adding notes, to-dos, or tags to applicant profiles.

Tasks that still require human intervention, like sending messages, are made simpler with bulk actions and templates—perfect for small teams working with large applicant pools.

Key features

• Smart triggers: Build custom automation that reduces tedious busy work when certain triggers occur. 
• Bulk actions: Send mass messages and emails, add notes to multiple candidates, and move candidates to lists quickly with bulk actions.
• Keyword search: Find everything quickly with a unified search that includes candidate data, notes, and more.

Pricing

Teamtailor offers customizable plans for all kinds of businesses—from startups to enterprises. You’ll need to fill out a pricing request form to get a quote.

Pros & cons gathered from G2

Pros

• Powerful, no-code automation
• Universal search
• Clean, modern UI

Cons

• Some users report lag

5. Greenhouse

For engaging onboarding

Greenhouse is an ATS with a range of features for finding top candidates and onboarding them when you’re satisfied they’re a good fit.

On the candidate screening front, Greenhouse supports easy collaboration with a unified inbox and an equitable hiring process with customizable attribute scorecards and interview guidelines for recruiters to follow.

And when you’ve found the perfect fit? Greenhouse can help you create an engaging, impactful onboarding process with role-based onboarding checklists, automatic reminders, and analytics.

Key features

• Recruiting: Optimize job listings across 1,000+ large and niche job boards, collect candidate info, and easily collaborate with team members.
• Onboarding: Create task lists based on role or department, remind candidates when assignments are due, track their progress, and collect onboarding feedback,
• Integrations: Integrate with other recruitment tools (like Willo!) for a tech stack that allows for an easy flow of data.

Pricing

Greenhouse’s pricing is based on the size of your company. You’ll need to request a demo for access to up-to-date pricing information.

Pros & cons gathered from G2

Pros

• Supports recruitment and onboarding
• Reports of diversity and inclusion
• Allows for custom workflows

Cons

• Customer support is not highly rated

Simplify Candidate Screening With the Right Tool

Candidate screening is one of the more tedious aspects of recruiting. With the right tool, you can move through the screening stage faster and more effectively.

At Willo, we streamline the candidate screening process by giving recruiters all the tools they need to create interviews, invite candidates at scale, review the results, and schedule the next steps.

Sign up for a free account or book a demo to see Willo in action!