Basic Qualifications are custom knockout questions that you can ask your candidates when they apply to jobs. In this article, we will go through the process of creating basic qualification, or BQ, questions and answers.
Important Note: Before creating Basic Qualification Questions (BQ) please be advised that once a BQ has been added to a job and candidates have submitted answers, that job’s BQs become locked for editing.
This means:
You cannot add or remove BQs directly on that job.
You cannot edit existing BQs that are already in use on that job.
This restriction ensures data consistency and helps maintain OFCCP compliance, since modifying qualification questions after candidates have applied could alter the evaluation criteria mid-process.
Creating Basic Qualification (BQ) Questions:
To create a BQ question, begin by going to the Settings page, found by clicking your avatar icon in the top right of the ATS page.
From Settings, click on Basic Qualifications.
To create a question:
Click Add in the top right of the BQ page
Enter text in the Question text field
Select your Question Type. Types include:
Multiple Choice
Essay
Show On Portal - If check marked, your BQ question will appear for all jobs your candidates apply to. Leave this unchecked if you want to assign this BQ to jobs individually.
Require Correct Answer: when checked, candidates must choose a correct answer. A candidate who fails a required-correct question may be auto-declined, depending on your company preferences. This option can only be turned on once the question has at least two answers, with at least one marked correct and one not marked correct. Until then, the checkbox is unavailable and a message explains what's missing.
When finished, click Create Question.
Note: BQ's can have a maximum of 1000 characters per question.
Creating Answers:
If the question type of Multiple Choice is selected, another section will appear that asks you to create answers to this question. This is required to have a fully functional BQ question.
Note: on every Multiple Choice question, each answer must be different. A question with two answers that say the same thing can't be saved. Required-correct questions also need at least two answers, with at least one marked correct and one not marked correct.
To add answers to your question:
Click the blue plus symbol in the Answers box
Type your Answer text. This could be as simple as Yes or No
If applicable, mark your answer as Correct. This will internally label this answer as the correct answer when candidates are answering your BQ questions. This is directly related to the Required Correct option covered earlier.
When finished, click Save Answer.
A section will appear with your currently saved answers.
From here, you can Edit and Delete any saved answers.
If a question already has duplicate answers, edit or delete one of them so every answer is different. Then save the question.
To add another answer, click the blue plus symbol and follow the steps above.
When you're finished creating answers for this question, click Save Question and your BQ will be finalized.