Poorly-designed or unstructured applications of online screening tools can have dangerous consequences, especially when these tools are the key elements for an employer’s recruiting processes, says management consultant Evan Sinar, Manager for Assessment and Selection Analytics, DDI, in a recent article for Recruiting Trends.

According to Sinar, users must recognize and avoid several common misuses of online screening tools: using tools of questionable accuracy to screen out all candidates other than the very low proportion meeting a narrowly-defined profile of skills and experiences, with only this group remaining eligible for hire; using the “least accurate” tools to screen candidates; codifying a “narrow route” to job success; generating legal risk through “haphazard” screening; and factoring a candidate’s past skills, experiences, knowledge, and other “trainables” too prominently into the selection process in general, and within online screening tools in particular.