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HR agent

Candidate screening

Every applicant read against the criteria your hiring manager wrote, with a short summary and the evidence for each, so your recruiter decides faster and nobody gets skipped.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Candidate screening: four items, three done, and one (Needs a look) waiting for the recruiter, who is asked: The required safety certification isn’t on the application. Ask the candidate?
How it works

Applicant 1 and applicant 212 get the same careful read.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Candidate screening, in 5 steps. It starts with “Applications come in” and ends with “A list ready to decide on”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Candidate screeningA typical run
Starts withApplications come inA site supervisor role goes live, and 212 people apply through applicant tracking.
The agent: Reads what the hiring manager wrote and drafts four criteria: crew experience, working on site, start date and the safety certification.
Your team: Checks the four criteria, marks which ones are must-haves and signs them off before any application is read.
~4h/mo

Step 1 of 5Set the criteria

  • The agent

    Reads what the hiring manager wrote and drafts four criteria: crew experience, working on site, start date and the safety certification.

    Hiring managers write “someone who’s run real crews”. That has to become a line every application can be read against.

  • Your team

    Checks the four criteria, marks which ones are must-haves and signs them off before any application is read.

    What the role requires is the hiring manager’s call. Once agreed, the same criteria apply to everyone.

Reads
  • Applicant tracking
Writes
  • Applicant tracking

~4 hours a month back

Where teams differHiring managers range from one true must-have to every criterion marked required.

Automation: Collects each résumé, cover letter and screening answer from applicant tracking as it arrives.
The agent: Finds six years running crews of 10 to 20 in Ben Hale’s résumé. His answers say he can work on site and start within a month.
~70h/mo

Step 2 of 5Read each application

  • Automation

    Collects each résumé, cover letter and screening answer from applicant tracking as it arrives.

    Fetching files is the same for the first applicant and the two hundredth.

  • The agent

    Finds six years running crews of 10 to 20 in Ben Hale’s résumé. His answers say he can work on site and start within a month.

    Nobody writes “crew size” in a box. It’s buried in a line like “led framing teams across three sites”.

Reads
  • Applicant tracking
Writes
  • Applicant tracking

~70 hours a month back

The agent: Writes a short summary per applicant with the line it came from quoted beside each criterion, so it can be checked in seconds.
~30h/mo

Step 3 of 5Write the summary

  • The agent

    Writes a short summary per applicant with the line it came from quoted beside each criterion, so it can be checked in seconds.

    A bare score asks to be trusted. Quoting the résumé lets the recruiter see the evidence for themselves.

Reads
  • Applicant tracking
Writes
  • Applicant tracking

~30 hours a month back

Automation: Anyone without clear evidence for a must-have goes to the recruiter marked unclear. Nobody is dropped.
IfYour team: Decides whether to write to Ben about the missing safety certification. The call and the reason go on the record.
~8h/mo

Step 4 of 5Flag what’s unclear

  • Automation

    Anyone without clear evidence for a must-have goes to the recruiter marked unclear. Nobody is dropped.

    The must-haves were agreed with the hiring manager in step one. Holding on a gap just applies them.

  • Your teamIf a must-have is unclear

    Decides whether to write to Ben about the missing safety certification. The call and the reason go on the record.

    Missing on paper is not the same as missing. Whether to ask is a judgment about a real person.

Reads
  • Applicant tracking
Writes
  • Applicant tracking

~8 hours a month back

Where teams differA few firms ask the candidate for anything missing straight away. Most want the recruiter to decide first.

Automation: Posts each summary to applicant tracking and sends the recruiter the full list, the unclear ones marked for a look.
~6h/mo

Step 5 of 5Hand over the list

  • Automation

    Posts each summary to applicant tracking and sends the recruiter the full list, the unclear ones marked for a look.

    Posting summaries is filing. Who moves forward is decided on the recruiter’s screen, not here.

Reads
  • Applicant tracking
Writes
  • Applicant tracking
  • Email

~6 hours a month back

Ends withA list ready to decide onEvery applicant summed up with evidence for each criterion, and each decision the recruiter’s, on the record.
Total~118h/mo

What changes

Every applicant gets the same careful read, however many apply. Recruiters spend their time deciding, with the evidence already pulled out of each application.

  • 3steps automated
  • 3steps for the agent
  • 2calls kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~118 hours a month back

$70,800 a year in time

For a company filling about 8 roles a month, with 100 to 200 applicants each, at $50 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Never rejects or advances a candidate on its own

  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentApplications from your applicant tracking system, summaries back on each candidate.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentThe criteria each hiring manager writes, and which ones are must-haves.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe recruiter for every decision, the hiring manager for the shortlist.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentYour applicant tracking system, and email or Slack to the recruiter.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentA summary for every applicant, with the evidence for each criterion.

Scheduling interviews and onboarding the new hire are their own agents in this catalog. Who moves forward stays with your team.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your recruiters and hiring managers.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past applicants, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real applicants.
The number we agree

Days from a role opening to a shortlist. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, your job criteria and a few recent hiring rounds, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and your job criteria and a few recent hiring rounds.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past applicants.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

Does it decide who gets hired?
No. It reads and sums up. Your recruiters decide who moves forward, and every decision is theirs, on the record.
What about the rules on AI in hiring?
Some states and cities now have them, and they keep changing. We set it up to your counsel’s requirements, such as telling candidates, applying the same criteria to everyone and supporting a bias audit where one is required. A person makes every decision.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the days from a role opening to a shortlist. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

Want every applicant read against the same criteria?

Tell us how your team handles applicants today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

Let’s build your agentBack to HR
New to Switchboard Agents? How it works, what’s included, and what it costs.
  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
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Switchboard Agents$12,500 fixed · live in 3 to 6 weeks How it works Let’s build your agent