Candidate screening on WhatsApp and email
The moment a candidate is shortlisted, Sivett asks them what a resume never answers reliably: current and expected CTC, notice period, location and work mode, plus any questions the role itself needs, such as hands-on experience with a niche tool. It asks on WhatsApp or by email form, checks every answer against the position, and brings only the conflicts to a recruiter. Close to three in four candidates reply on WhatsApp.
A screening conversation, start to interview link
Why screening data goes stale
A resume tells you what somebody has done. It doesn’t reliably tell you what they earn, when they could start, where they live now, or whether they would move, and in IT services those facts decide the shortlist before skills are weighed.
What a candidate told you for last year’s position may no longer hold. Sivett asks again every time someone reaches a shortlist, so nobody is shortlisted on old numbers.
What gets asked
| Question | Answer | Asked |
|---|---|---|
| What is your current CTC? | Number, in LPA | Always |
| What is your expected CTC? | Number, in LPA | Always |
| What is your notice period? | Number, in days | Always |
| What is your current location? | Text | Always |
| Are you willing to relocate to your city? | Yes / No | When the position has a location |
| Are you willing to work in this mode? | Yes / No | When the position has a work mode |
Reword or remove any of these. Leave a position’s location or work mode empty and those questions are never asked, which is right for a fully remote role.
Questions only this role needs
Every position can carry its own screening questions, next to the standard ones. Ask what the resume can’t confirm but the role depends on:
- A niche tool. “Have you worked hands-on with Informatica PowerCenter?” or “How many years have you used SAP IS-U?”
- A certification. “Do you hold a current AWS Solutions Architect certification?”
- The client’s conditions. “Can you work from the client site in Pune three days a week?” or “Are you open to US shift hours?”
Each question takes a text, number or yes/no answer and can be required or optional, up to ten questions per position in all. The answers come back on the candidate record next to the CTC and notice period, so the recruiter sees everything the role needs in one place. When one candidate needs a question nobody else does, add it to their request alone.
Sent the moment someone is shortlisted
Nobody types messages or works a call list. When a candidate’s match score clears your threshold, the screening request goes out on its own, to everyone who clears it, as they clear it.
WhatsApp or email
| Email form | ||
|---|---|---|
| What the candidate gets | A conversation, one question at a time | A link to one page with every question |
| Reply rate | Higher: close to three in four | Lower: email gets ignored |
| Best for | Volume hiring and fast turnarounds | Senior roles and longer question sets |
Each position uses WhatsApp, email or both. Published benchmarks for cold recruiter outreach are far lower than WhatsApp’s reply rate: about 17% for LinkedIn InMail and about 5–6% per email (HeroHunt, citing Pin’s dataset). Those measure cold outreach to people who hadn’t applied, so the comparison isn’t like-for-like, but the gap is too large for that alone to explain.
Flags, not rejections
Answers are checked against the position as they arrive. A candidate whose answers fit moves straight on to the AI interview. A conflict raises a flag and brings them to a recruiter, with the numbers in front of them.
| Flag | Raised when | Near miss (soft) |
|---|---|---|
| CTC over budget | Expected CTC is above the position’s ceiling | Up to 20% over |
| Notice too long | Notice period is longer than the position allows | Up to 30 days over |
| Location mismatch | Not in the role’s city and not willing to relocate | No location given |
Someone willing to relocate is never flagged for location, and a misspelt city is still matched. A flag is a prompt, never a decision: only a recruiter can reject.
Answers given outside Sivett
When a candidate answers on a call, the recruiter enters it on the record and it is marked as recruiter-entered, so nobody later mistakes a note of a phone call for the candidate’s own words. Every edit is kept in the candidate’s history.
Results
“My team used to spend the week chasing candidates. They spend it choosing now.”
Head of Talent, Algoleap Technologies
Algoleap Technologies is an AI-native and product engineering services firm with 30+ recruiters. No recruiter time was spent on first-round screening. Every position Algoleap’s recruiters open runs through Sivett.
Candidate screening: questions.
Does this use the official WhatsApp Business API?
Yes. WhatsApp screening runs through your organisation’s WhatsApp Business setup using pre-approved message templates, not a recruiter’s personal number.
What happens if a candidate doesn’t reply?
They stay at Outreach sent, visible on the position’s pipeline, so a recruiter can see at a glance who has gone quiet and follow up. Sivett doesn’t reject anyone for not replying.
Can a candidate answer by email or on a call instead?
Yes. A position can send screening by email form, WhatsApp or both. Answers given on a call are entered by the recruiter and marked as recruiter-entered, so the record shows where each answer came from.
Which questions can we ask?
Current and expected CTC, notice period and current location are asked by default, plus relocation and work mode when the position sets them. You can reword or remove any of them and add your own for the role, such as hands-on experience with a niche tool, a certification or client-site availability, up to ten in total, or add one extra question for a single candidate.
Does Sivett reject candidates based on their answers?
No. An answer that conflicts with the position raises a flag and brings the candidate to a recruiter. Only a recruiter can reject.
Month one is on us.
Setup, JD tuning, and your first positions running live. We’d rather not bill you while we’re still configuring.
12-month term · 90-day exit · every recruiter included