How long does NHS shortlisting take?

Shortlisting refers to the process of scoring all applications that have been received for a job, and choosing which of the highest-scoring applications will be taken through to the interview stage of the recruitment.

With the rise of AI making it much faster to write supporting statements, application volumes for NHS jobs have rapidly increased in recent years. It is not uncommon for NHS jobs to receive well in excess of 100 applications, with some examples of single jobs receiving more than 300 applications.

The shortlisting process is completely manual, requiring each application to be carefully reviewed. Given the length of the application, even an experienced shortlister is likely to take at least 5 minutes per application for scoring. At a rate of 5 minutes per application, 100 applications would take more than a full day of work to score – without considering the “day job” that the hiring manager and other shortlisters will also be juggling.

With this in mind, it is unusual for shortlisting to take less than a week from the advert closing for applications – although some NHS organisations do allow shortlisting to take place while the advert is still live, which can speed up the process. On average, a wait of 1-2 weeks for shortlisting to be completed is normal. Entry-level jobs (which receive higher application volumes) may take even longer.

Who scores NHS job applications?

Shortlisting is almost always completed by a panel of two people. Usually, this will be the recruiting manager and one of their colleagues (e.g. someone else from the same team). Occasionally, it will be an HR representative, although our experience is that this is quite rare except for entry-level, non-specialist roles.

The shortlisting panel will review the applications separately, with each panel member scoring each application. Once both panel members have completed their scoring, the applicant tracking system will allow them to see their combined scores. The shortlisting panel will then use these scores to help decide how many people to take through to the interview process.

How does NHS shortlisting scoring work?

Shortlisting varies slightly between organisations. Normally, the shortlisting panel will be scoring applications against a selection of elements of the person specification. Scoring for each element tends to be between 0 (no evidence of meeting the criteria) and 3 (exceptional).