How to Reduce Recruiter Screening Time: 8 Tips
As a recruiter, your real value lies in your ability to connect with people, understand team dynamics, and make strategic hiring decisions. Yet, how much of your day is actually spent on those high-impact activities? Too often, recruiters are buried under a mountain of administrative tasks like scheduling calls and filtering through hundreds of applications. This repetitive work drains your energy and keeps you from the strategic parts of your role. Learning how to reduce recruiter screening time is about more than just efficiency; it’s about reclaiming your role as a strategic partner and focusing your expertise where it truly matters.
Key Takeaways
Let AI handle the administrative work: Use automation for repetitive tasks like initial screening, scheduling, and sending updates. This frees your team to focus on high-impact work, such as building relationships with qualified candidates.
Create a structured interview plan: Implement a consistent framework with standardized questions and evaluation criteria for each role. This ensures every candidate is assessed fairly, leading to faster, data-driven hiring decisions.
Communicate proactively to prevent drop-off: Keep candidates informed by setting a clear timeline and providing regular status updates. Transparent communication builds trust and ensures your top contenders stay engaged throughout the process.
What's Slowing Down Your Screening Process?
If you feel like you’re constantly playing catch-up, you’re not alone. The pressure to fill roles quickly is immense, but several common bottlenecks can turn the screening process into a slow-moving traffic jam. These delays don’t just frustrate your team; they can cost you top candidates who aren’t willing to wait around. Identifying these roadblocks is the first step toward building a faster, more effective hiring engine. Let's look at the four most common culprits that might be holding you back.
Juggling Schedules Manually
The endless back-and-forth of scheduling interviews is a massive time drain. If you’re manually coordinating between candidates and multiple interviewers, you know how quickly your calendar can fill up with holds, reschedules, and follow-ups. In fact, many recruiters report spending between 30 minutes and two hours just to schedule a single interview. This administrative burden takes you away from what you do best: connecting with people. While you’re stuck in email chains trying to find a 30-minute slot that works for everyone, your top candidates are likely moving forward with companies that have a more streamlined process.
Losing Candidates to Poor Communication
In a competitive market, silence is not golden. Candidates expect clear and consistent updates, and a lack of communication is one of the fastest ways to lose their interest. When you consider that 54% of candidates have withdrawn from a hiring process due to inadequate communication, the stakes become clear. Simple things, like missing a scheduled call or showing up late, can be deal-breakers. Candidates interpret these missteps as a reflection of the company culture, assuming it’s disorganized or doesn’t value their time. This creates a negative experience that can damage your employer brand long-term.
Lacking a Consistent Interview Structure
When every interviewer asks different questions and evaluates candidates on different criteria, making a final decision becomes a challenge. This lack of structure leads to subjective, biased feedback that’s difficult to compare. Your team ends up debating gut feelings instead of making data-driven choices, which slows everything down. A consistent evaluation method not only ensures a fair assessment for every candidate but also makes post-interview debriefs more efficient. Google’s internal research found that just four structured interviews were enough to predict a good hire with 86% accuracy, proving that a standardized approach delivers better, faster results.
Working with Outdated Tech
Are you still relying on spreadsheets and manual email follow-ups to manage your pipeline? If so, your tech stack might be the biggest bottleneck of all. Clinging to outdated systems while your competitors adopt modern tools puts you at a significant disadvantage. Today’s AI-powered recruitment platforms can automate everything from resume screening to interview scheduling, helping teams reduce time-to-hire by 40% or more. By automating repetitive tasks, you free up your team to focus on building relationships with candidates and making strategic hiring decisions, rather than getting bogged down in administrative work.
Use AI to Streamline Your Screening Process
If you feel like you’re constantly playing catch-up, AI tools can give you back valuable time. AI handles the repetitive parts of screening so your team can focus on building relationships with top candidates. By automating key steps, you can create a faster, more consistent, and more engaging experience for everyone involved.
Let Voice AI Handle First-Round Screens
Imagine getting through initial screens without ever scheduling a call. That’s what voice AI can do. An AI interviewer, like Ezra, engages candidates 24/7, asking your specific screening questions and tailoring follow-ups based on their responses. This gives every applicant a fair opportunity on their own time. It also frees your recruiters from repetitive first-round calls, letting them jump straight to engaging with a pre-vetted shortlist of talent.
Automate Interview Scheduling
The back-and-forth of scheduling interviews is a huge time sink and a common point where candidates drop off. Automating this task is a quick win for any recruiting team. AI-powered tools can sync with your team’s calendars, offer candidates available slots, and send confirmations automatically. This simple change eliminates manual work and creates a seamless experience for applicants, showing them you value their time from the start.
Get Instant Candidate Assessments
Sifting through applications to find the best matches can take hours. AI can deliver clear, objective assessments in minutes. By learning your job description and ideal candidate profile, tools like Ezra analyze interview responses against your core requirements. This gives you an instant, data-driven summary of each candidate’s qualifications. You can quickly identify top contenders and move them to the next stage, ensuring you don’t lose great talent to a slow review process.
Integrate with Your ATS
Your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is the heart of your recruiting workflow, so any new tool needs to fit right in. The best AI screening solutions offer seamless ATS integration with platforms like Greenhouse or Ashby. This ensures all interview data, notes, and assessments are automatically logged in the candidate’s profile. With no manual data entry, your team has a single source of truth, keeping your process organized and efficient.
Improve Communication to Prevent Delays
Few things slow down the screening process more than a communication breakdown. When candidates are left in the dark, they get anxious, lose interest, and start accepting other offers. This forces you to chase them down with follow-up emails or, even worse, restart your search from scratch. On the flip side, constantly fielding "just checking in" messages from applicants eats up valuable time you could be spending on sourcing or interviewing. It’s a cycle that drains resources and puts your best candidates at risk of being poached by a faster-moving competitor.
Proactive and transparent communication is the solution. By keeping candidates informed at every stage, you not only create a better experience but also keep the hiring pipeline moving forward. When candidates know what to expect and where they stand, they remain engaged and are more likely to be available when you’re ready for the next step. This doesn't mean you have to spend all day writing emails. Automating parts of this process frees you up to focus on the high-touch, personal interactions that truly matter, turning a potential bottleneck into a source of strength for your recruiting efforts.
Set Clear Expectations from Day One
The best way to prevent confusion and anxiety is to be transparent from the start. Your first interaction with a candidate, whether it’s the job description or an application confirmation email, is your opportunity to outline the hiring process. Let them know how many stages are involved, who they might be speaking with, and a realistic timeline for decisions. This simple act of setting clear expectations shows you respect their time and helps them understand what’s ahead. When candidates aren’t left guessing, they ask fewer follow-up questions and are more likely to stay engaged throughout the process.
Send Automated Status Updates
Manually updating every single applicant is a logistical nightmare, especially when you’re managing a high volume of roles. This is where automation becomes your best friend. Use your applicant tracking system (ATS) or an integrated tool to send automated updates at key milestones. A simple message confirming their application was received or letting them know they’ve moved to the next stage can make a world of difference. These touchpoints show you value their interest and keep them informed without adding to your workload. It’s an easy way to keep candidates updated and maintain a positive employer brand, even with those who aren’t a fit.
Reach Candidates on Multiple Channels
Not everyone lives in their email inbox. To keep the process moving quickly, it’s smart to meet candidates on the channels they use most. While email is great for formal communication, a quick text message might be better for confirming an interview time. A LinkedIn message could be perfect for a less formal check-in. Using a multi-channel approach for your candidate engagement ensures your messages get seen and responded to faster. This flexibility prevents the delays that happen when an important email gets buried, helping you connect with top talent before your competitors do.
Establish a Quick Feedback Loop
The period right after an interview is a critical moment in the hiring process. Candidates are eager to hear how they did, and long silences can be interpreted as a lack of interest. Delays at this stage often cause top applicants to disengage or accept competing offers. To avoid this, establish a system for providing prompt feedback. Even if you don’t have a final decision, a quick note to say, "The team really enjoyed the conversation, and we’ll have a final update for you by Friday," can keep a great candidate interested. A quick feedback loop shows that your team is organized, decisive, and respectful of the candidate’s time.
Structure Your Interviews to Save Time
A scattered interview process is a slow interview process. When every hiring manager has their own style and there’s no clear plan, you waste time repeating questions, comparing subjective feedback, and scheduling unnecessary rounds. Creating a consistent structure is one of the most effective ways to speed things up. A well-defined interview plan ensures every candidate gets a fair and equal opportunity while giving your team a clear framework for making decisions.
This isn’t about creating a rigid, robotic experience. It’s about being intentional. By standardizing your approach, you eliminate the guesswork and ensure every step has a purpose. You can move candidates through the pipeline faster, reduce bias, and give hiring managers the data they need to make confident choices. When everyone on the team knows the goals for each stage, you can focus on what really matters: identifying the best person for the job. This structured approach not only saves your team valuable hours but also creates a more professional and respectful candidate experience.
Combine Screening Steps into One Round
Think about the traditional first steps: a recruiter reviews a resume, then schedules a 15-minute phone screen to ask basic qualifying questions. This back-and-forth scheduling for a short call can take days. Instead, you can combine these initial touchpoints into a single, automated step. Using an AI-powered tool allows you to screen candidates with initial questions as soon as they apply, without a recruiter needing to be present. This way, you can instantly identify top talent and move them forward, while candidates get to make their first impression immediately, creating a much more efficient and engaging start to the process.
Use a Standardized Interview Framework
When interviewers ask different questions to different candidates, you end up comparing apples to oranges. This inconsistency makes it difficult to evaluate candidates fairly and often leads to biased decisions. A standardized interview framework solves this by ensuring every candidate for a specific role answers the same core set of questions. This approach creates a level playing field and provides consistent data for your team to review. In fact, some companies have found that using structured evaluation tools can cut their hiring time in half, making the entire process faster and more equitable for everyone involved.
Integrate Skills-Based Assessments
A polished resume doesn’t always translate to on-the-job skills. Many teams wait until late in the interview process to test a candidate’s technical or practical abilities, only to find they aren’t qualified. By integrating skills-based assessments early on, you can verify that candidates have the necessary competencies before you invest significant time in multiple interview rounds. Placing a short test or work sample exercise right after the initial screen helps you filter for qualified talent from the start. This move respects everyone’s time and ensures your hiring managers only meet with candidates who have already proven they can do the work.
Limit the Number of Interview Rounds
Endless interview rounds are a major cause of candidate drop-off. Top talent won’t wait around for weeks while you schedule five, six, or even seven conversations. A drawn-out process signals indecisiveness and can leave candidates feeling exhausted and undervalued. Aim to keep your interview process concise, ideally with no more than four rounds. Each stage should have a clear and distinct purpose, from the initial screen to the final decision. A shorter, more focused process shows candidates that you are decisive and that you respect their time, which can be a huge competitive advantage in securing the best people.
Which Screening Tasks Can You Automate?
If you feel like you’re spending more time on administrative work than on actual recruiting, you’re not alone. The screening process is packed with repetitive tasks that can quickly fill your day, from sifting through hundreds of resumes to coordinating schedules across different time zones. This is where automation comes in. Think of it not as a replacement for your skills, but as a smart assistant that handles the tedious work, freeing you up to focus on what you do best: connecting with people and making strategic hiring decisions.
By automating the right parts of your screening workflow, you can give every candidate a timely and professional experience without burning yourself out. Modern AI recruiting tools are designed to take over the high-volume, low-touch tasks that create bottlenecks in the hiring process. Instead of manually reviewing every single application or sending dozens of scheduling emails, you can set up systems to do it for you. This allows you to dedicate your energy to interviewing qualified candidates, building relationships with hiring managers, and ensuring a great fit for both the role and the company culture. Let’s look at a few key screening tasks you can confidently hand over to technology.
Filter and Qualify Candidates Automatically
Opening a new role can feel like opening the floodgates. Manually reviewing every resume to find qualified applicants is one of the most time-consuming parts of a recruiter's job. AI-powered tools can instantly scan and parse applications, identifying top candidates based on your specific criteria. These systems go beyond simple keyword matching; they can understand the context of a candidate’s experience and skills to find the best matches for your open role. This means you can start your process with a pre-qualified shortlist, allowing you to spend your time engaging with promising talent instead of searching for them in a mountain of resumes.
Automate Pre-Screening Assessments
Once you have a shortlist, the next step is usually a pre-screening call or assessment. Automating this stage ensures every candidate gets a fair and consistent evaluation. You can use tools to automatically send skills tests or, even better, conduct initial voice interviews. For example, an AI interviewer can ask every applicant the same set of foundational questions, gathering objective insights before you even speak to them. This approach not only saves an incredible amount of time but also helps reduce unconscious bias in the early stages. It’s a key part of Ezra’s unique approach to hiring, ensuring you assess candidates on their qualifications and responses, not on resume details alone.
Schedule Follow-Ups and Reminders
The endless email chain of trying to find a time that works for everyone is a familiar frustration. Automation can eliminate this completely. Scheduling tools can sync with your and your team’s calendars, allowing candidates to book a time that works for them with a single click. These systems can also send automated confirmations, reminders, and follow-up notes, ensuring no one falls through the cracks. This not only saves you hours of administrative work but also creates a seamless and professional candidate experience. When candidates feel respected and informed, they’re more likely to stay engaged throughout the process.
Collect and Score Performance Data
Making objective hiring decisions requires good data, but manually compiling interview notes and assessment scores is inefficient. Automation tools can centralize all this information for you. After an automated screen or assessment, the system can generate a detailed report that scores candidate responses, highlights key skills, and even provides transcripts. This gives you and your hiring managers a consistent framework for comparing applicants. Having this data organized and easily accessible helps your team make faster, more informed decisions. It also provides valuable insights that you can use to refine your recruiting process over time.
Keep Candidates Engaged During Screening
A lengthy screening process can feel like a black hole for candidates. When they don’t hear from you, they assume the worst and start pursuing other opportunities. Keeping them in the loop isn’t just good manners; it’s a crucial strategy for retaining top talent. A positive and communicative screening experience reflects well on your employer brand and ensures your top contenders are still interested when you’re ready to make an offer. The key is to be transparent, communicative, and respectful of their time. By making a few simple adjustments to your communication strategy, you can keep your pipeline warm and prevent your ideal candidates from slipping away.
Share a Clear Timeline
One of the easiest ways to reduce candidate anxiety is to give them a roadmap of your hiring process. From the very first interaction, set clear expectations about what’s coming next. Let them know how many interview rounds there are, who they’ll be meeting with, and the general timeframe for each stage. You don’t need to provide exact dates, but a simple outline shows that you have a structured process and that you value their time. This transparency helps candidates plan their own schedules and mentally prepare for the journey, making them feel more like a partner in the process rather than just another applicant.
Provide Regular Progress Updates
Silence is a top reason candidates drop out of the hiring process. Even if you have no new information to share, a quick update can make all the difference. A simple, automated email letting a candidate know their application is still under review keeps them engaged and shows that they haven’t been forgotten. Regular communication makes candidates feel valued and respected, which is essential for building a positive relationship. According to industry experts, effective and reliable communication is one of the most critical factors in creating a great candidate experience. Set up automated check-in emails to go out every week so no one is left wondering about their status.
Add Personalized Touchpoints
In a sea of automated messages, a little personalization goes a long way. It shows the candidate that you see them as an individual, not just a resume. This doesn’t have to be time-consuming. It can be as simple as referencing a specific project they mentioned in their screening call or a shared interest you discovered. Maintaining these small, human connections is a powerful way to build rapport and keep talent interested in your company. You can even maintain relationships with individuals who were a good fit in the past but weren't hired for a specific role. A quick, personalized note can keep your company top-of-mind for future openings.
Be Available and Responsive
When candidates have questions, they should know how to get answers. Nothing is more frustrating than sending an email into the void and never hearing back. In fact, research shows that over half of candidates have withdrawn from a hiring process because of inadequate communication from the employer. Make sure your job postings and email signatures include clear contact information for your recruiting team. When a candidate reaches out, make it a priority to respond within one business day. Being accessible and responsive builds trust and demonstrates that your company values open communication, which can be a major selling point for top talent.
Avoid These Common Screening Mistakes
Even the most efficient recruiting teams can fall into habits that slow down their screening process. These common mistakes often create friction for candidates and add unnecessary work for your team. The good news is that they are entirely avoidable. By identifying and addressing these pitfalls, you can create a smoother, faster screening experience that keeps top talent engaged from the very first touchpoint.
Overly Long Applications
Think of your application as the front door to your company. If it’s complicated and time-consuming, great candidates will simply walk away. Your goal should be to make applying as easy as possible, especially on mobile devices. Don't ask for information that’s already on their resume or cover letter. Instead, focus on the absolute essentials needed to determine if they are a potential fit. A streamlined, user-friendly application shows that you respect the candidate's time and sets a positive tone for the entire hiring process. Every extra field you require is another chance for a qualified person to drop off.
Inconsistent Decision-Making
When every interviewer uses a different set of questions or evaluation criteria, you introduce bias and inefficiency into your screening process. This lack of structure makes it nearly impossible to compare candidates objectively, leading to longer debates and slower decisions. The solution is to standardize your approach. Develop a consistent set of interview questions and a scorecard for each role. Using tools that provide automated and objective feedback can also cut hiring time significantly. This ensures every candidate gets a fair evaluation based on the same criteria, helping your team make faster, more confident, and data-driven hiring decisions.
The Manual Resume Review Bottleneck
If your team is still sifting through every resume by hand, you’ve found the biggest bottleneck in your screening process. Manual resume screening is where most time-to-hire bloat lives. It’s a repetitive, low-impact task that consumes hours of a recruiter’s day, preventing them from focusing on what really matters: connecting with qualified candidates. Implementing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) with strong filtering capabilities is a great first step. Better yet, you can use AI-powered tools to handle the initial pass, automatically identifying candidates who meet your core requirements. This allows your recruiters to spend their time on a pre-qualified shortlist.
Not Following Through
Leaving candidates in the dark is one of the fastest ways to lose them. In fact, research shows that 54% of candidates have withdrawn from a hiring process due to poor communication from the employer. The dreaded application "black hole" where candidates never hear back damages your employer brand and discourages future applications. Set up automated updates to inform candidates that their application was received and to let them know when they can expect to hear back. Even a simple, automated message shows that you are organized and value their interest. Consistent communication keeps candidates engaged and ensures you don’t lose top talent to a competitor who simply replied faster.
Track These Metrics for Screening Efficiency
You can't improve what you don't measure. If your screening process feels like a black hole where time disappears, it's time to shine a light on it with data. Tracking a few key metrics will show you exactly where the bottlenecks are and help you make smarter decisions to speed things up. This isn’t about adding more work to your plate; it’s about working smarter. By focusing on these numbers, you can pinpoint inefficiencies and see the real impact of the changes you make, whether that’s adopting new tech or refining your interview structure.
Time-to-Screen
This one is straightforward: how long does it take to move a candidate from application to the next stage? A lengthy time-to-screen is a major red flag. Top candidates have options, and they won’t wait around for weeks. Tracking this metric helps you set realistic goals and make data-driven decisions to improve your process. If your time-to-screen is high, it could mean your team is overloaded with manual reviews or scheduling is a mess. By monitoring this number, you can identify the exact point where things slow down and take action to fix it, ensuring you don't lose great talent to a competitor with a faster hiring process.
Candidate Drop-Off Rate
How many candidates apply versus how many actually complete the screening process? If you're losing a lot of people along the way, you need to know why. A high drop-off rate often points to a poor candidate experience. In fact, research shows that 54% of candidates have withdrawn from a hiring process simply due to poor communication. A slow, confusing, or impersonal screening process will send qualified people running. Monitoring this rate helps you spot issues in your communication or workflow, allowing you to create a more engaging and transparent experience that keeps candidates invested from start to finish.
Recruiter Productivity
Your recruiters are your most valuable asset in the hiring process, but how much of their time is spent on high-value work versus repetitive tasks? Recruiter productivity isn't about tracking clicks; it's about understanding how to free up your team to focus on what they do best: building relationships with candidates. AI-powered recruitment tools are a game-changer here, helping organizations reduce time-to-hire significantly. By automating initial screens and scheduling, you empower your team to handle more candidates without sacrificing quality. This allows them to spend their time on strategic work, like engaging top talent and closing offers.
Quality of Hire
Speed is important, but it means nothing if you aren't hiring the right people. Quality of hire is the ultimate measure of your screening process's success. It looks at how well a new employee performs and contributes to the company long-term. A streamlined and consistent screening process directly impacts this metric by ensuring every candidate is evaluated fairly against the right criteria. Interestingly, organizations that track quality of hire report 20% faster ramp times for candidates sourced with AI. This shows that a more efficient, tech-enabled process doesn't just save time; it helps you identify and onboard top performers who make an impact sooner.
Overcome Tech Implementation Hurdles
Adopting new technology is a fantastic step toward a more efficient screening process, but it’s not as simple as flipping a switch. The most common reason new tools fail is a poor implementation plan. A successful rollout requires more than just picking the right software; it involves integrating it into your current systems, training your team, and managing the changes to your daily workflows. By thinking through these steps ahead of time, you can ensure your new tech delivers on its promise to save time and help you hire better candidates, faster.
Plan for System Integration
Your new screening tool shouldn't create more work. To get the most out of it, make sure it integrates smoothly with your existing Applicant Tracking System (ATS). A disconnected system forces your team to jump between platforms and manually transfer data, which defeats the purpose of automation. Look for solutions that offer seamless recruiter-focused integrations to create a single, unified workflow. When your AI screening tool can automatically scan candidates and push interview notes directly into your ATS, your recruiters spend less time on administrative tasks and more time building relationships with top talent.
Create a Team Training Strategy
A new tool is only effective if your team knows how to use it properly. A thorough training strategy is key to getting everyone on board and comfortable with the new technology. Go beyond a single demo and provide ongoing support, like creating internal guides or appointing a go-to expert on the team. When you invest in training, you’re not just teaching people to click buttons. You’re showing them how recruitment automation tools can make their jobs easier, reduce their manual workload, and improve the overall candidate experience. This helps build confidence and encourages widespread adoption.
Address Data Privacy and Compliance
When you use AI in your hiring process, you also take on the responsibility of protecting candidate data. Before committing to a new tool, it’s critical to vet its security features and ensure it complies with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Be transparent with candidates about how their information is being used to build trust from the very first interaction. While AI tools can reduce screening to just a few minutes, you must choose a partner that prioritizes data privacy and compliance. This protects your candidates, safeguards your company’s reputation, and minimizes legal risks.
Manage Workflow Changes
Introducing a new tool will naturally change your team’s daily routines. It’s important to manage this transition carefully to ensure a smooth and positive experience. Start by clearly communicating why the change is happening and what the new screening process will look like. Map out the updated workflow and ask for feedback from your team to address any concerns early on. By managing these workflow adjustments proactively, you can help your recruiters adapt quickly and see the benefits firsthand. This approach turns a potentially disruptive change into a collaborative effort to improve how you hire.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Will automating our screening process make it feel impersonal to candidates? That’s a common concern, but it’s actually the opposite. When you automate repetitive tasks like scheduling or initial resume filtering, you free up your team’s time for more meaningful, high-touch interactions. Automation handles the logistics so your recruiters can focus on building genuine relationships, answering thoughtful questions, and providing personalized updates. The goal isn’t to remove the human element; it’s to direct it where it matters most.
Our screening process is slow, but I'm not sure where to start. What's the first bottleneck I should tackle? Start with the most obvious time drain: manual scheduling. The endless back-and-forth of coordinating calendars for initial phone screens is a huge source of delays and candidate frustration. Implementing a simple scheduling tool or an AI interviewer that lets candidates engage on their own time is a quick win. It immediately removes a major administrative burden and creates a much smoother experience for everyone involved.
We're a small team with a limited budget. Do we really need AI and automation to speed up screening? You don't need a massive tech stack, but even small teams can benefit from smart automation. Many modern tools are scalable and designed for growing companies. Think about the cost of a slow hiring process: top candidates accepting other offers and your team spending hours on administrative work instead of sourcing. Investing in a tool that automates initial screening or communication can have a huge return by helping you hire better people, faster.
If we speed up our screening, won't we sacrifice the quality of our hires? Not at all, as long as you focus on structure and consistency. A faster process doesn't mean a less thorough one. By using a standardized interview framework and skills-based assessments early on, you ensure every candidate is evaluated fairly against the same criteria. This data-driven approach actually reduces bias and helps you make more objective decisions, leading to higher-quality hires who are a better fit for the role.
You mentioned several metrics. If I can only track one to start, which one gives the most insight into our screening efficiency? If you have to pick just one, start with Time-to-Screen. This metric measures the time from when a person applies to when they move to the next stage. It’s a direct indicator of your initial efficiency and the candidate’s first impression of your process. If that number is high, it’s a clear sign that you have a bottleneck right at the start of your pipeline that needs to be addressed.