Screening Templates: Three Ways to Build Your Questions

Screening templates define the questions candidates answer in the two-stage screening gate — the non-negotiables asked first, and the weighted questions the AI scores afterwards. There are three ways to build one: start from a system template, let the AI generate questions for a specific role, or build your own from scratch.

Path 1: System Templates

PlacementFlow ships with three read-only starter templates, created automatically the first time you open the screening feature:

Template	Best for
Generic / Universal	Any role — notice period, salary, right to work, location, motivation, availability, key achievement
IT / Technology	Technical roles — adds stack, experience, certifications, engagement type
Recruitment Consultant (Rec2Rec)	Placing recruiters — adds billing, vertical, desk type

System templates can't be edited directly — view one to understand the structure, then create your own based on it. Best when: you're new and want a proven baseline in two clicks.

Path 2: AI-Generated From the Role

From a role's screening section, open the AI Questionnaire Builder:

1. Answer a few short prompts about the role
2. Click Generate questions — the AI drafts role-specific questions with suggested types, weights, and hard disqualifiers
3. Review and edit every question — reword, delete, change types, adjust weights
4. Mark your must-haves with Ask before review (they become non-negotiables, asked first)
5. Name it and save to activate

Best when: you want questions tuned to a specific brief without writing them yourself. You always review before anything goes live.

Path 3: Manual Builder

Go to Settings → Screening Templates and click New template to build from a blank slate: add questions one by one, choose types, set weights, configure disqualifiers and non-negotiables. Best when: you have a proven question set from your desk and just want it in the system, reusable across roles.

Question Types

Type	Use for
Text	Open-ended answers (motivation, achievements) — these get AI push-back if vague
Yes/No	Binary qualifiers (right to work, relocation)
Single select	One from a list (notice period, work pattern)
Multi select	Several from a list (locations, skills)
Number	Numeric values (salary, years of experience)
Date	Availability dates

Weights, Disqualifiers, and Non-Negotiables

Three levers control how a question behaves:

• Weight — how much the question moves the 0–100 score. Reserve high weights for the few questions that genuinely predict fit.
• Hard disqualifier — define acceptable answers; anything else (including a skipped answer) disqualifies automatically, fails closed, and logs which question fired.
• Ask before review (non-negotiable) — the question is asked first on every channel, before deep screening and before you review the lead. See Set Non-Negotiables in the Question Builder.

What the AI Does Here

• Drafts role-specific questions, weights, and disqualifier suggestions in the AI builder
• Demotes any generated disqualifier that lacks a usable pass condition to a regular question — it never ships a gate that can't be evaluated fairly
• Nothing activates without you: every generated question is yours to edit, and you click save

Good to Know

• Active questionnaires snapshot their questions at creation — editing a template later never changes a screening that's already in flight.
• Questionnaires plug into the full two-stage gate: non-negotiables first, recruiter review, then the scored deep screen. Read How the Two-Stage Screening Gate Works for the complete flow.

Related Articles

• How the Two-Stage Screening Gate Works
• Set Non-Negotiables in the Question Builder
• Reading Screening Results and Scores