Field note
When a screening note becomes the whole decision
Published criteria are what you can show a candidate. Live criteria are what the shortlist actually followed. The gap between them is where most of our screening audits spend their time.
A recurring pattern: the advertisement asks for relevant experience. The notes say “too quiet”, “not from here”, or “manager has someone in mind.” Those phrases are not colour. They are the decision. If they are not written down, they still happened. If they are written down, they are now evidence.
We do not tell you whom to hire. We tell you whether a later reader could match the people who advanced to the bar you set in public. When they cannot, we ask the people who shortlisted to explain the extra rule. Sometimes the extra rule is legitimate and simply unpublished. Sometimes it is a habit that would be hard to read aloud in a complaint meeting.
Fixing it is not a slogan about fairness. It is a shorter advert, a scored first pass, and a manager who can point to the same page the candidate saw.