Quick Takeaway

If Augusta is showing that your qualification rate is below average, it does not automatically mean something is wrong.

A lower qualification rate can be healthy if your qualification criteria are intentionally strict and your team is still meeting enough strong candidates to hit your hiring goals.

However, if you are not getting enough qualified applicants to interview, there are usually two areas to review:

• Who your recruiting efforts are attracting
• How your Augusta Qualification Rules are screening them

Note: This dashboard insight is calculated using your 50 most recent completed applications. After making changes, it may take a few weeks for your updated qualification rate to be reflected as new applications come in.

In This Article

• Review why applicants are not qualifying
• Make sure your recruiting channels are reaching the right candidates
• Review your Qualification Rules & Settings
• Focus on creating more conversations with potentially hireable applicants
• Use your Augusta reports to guide where you recruit

Start With the Top Reasons Applicants Aren’t Qualifying

When you hover over your qualification-rate insight in Augusta, you can see the top reasons applicants are being marked Further Review or Disqualified.

Start there.

Ask yourself:

• Are these truly requirements we cannot work around?
• Are we screening people out because of temporary client needs?
• Are we consistently seeing poor-fit applicants from one recruiting source?
• Are geography, availability, certifications, or transportation causing most of the drop-off?

Your qualification rate is most useful when you understand why candidates are not qualifying—not just the percentage itself.

1. Make Sure You're Reaching the Right Candidates

Your recruiting channels have a major impact on the quality of applicants entering Augusta.

If you're trying to hire one type of caregiver but your marketing is consistently reaching a different audience, tightening your screening rules won't solve the underlying problem.

Review:

• Where you're advertising
• Your job titles and descriptions
• Pay and benefits
• Locations you're targeting
• Whether you're relying too heavily on one recruiting source

If one source consistently generates applicants who aren't becoming hires, consider improving that campaign or expanding into other channels.

Augusta can support recruiting through sources such as:

• Indeed
• Your website and Google for Jobs
• Facebook and Facebook Groups
• Craigslist
• ZipRecruiter
• Community recruiting and flyers
• Hiring events
• Referral programs

The goal isn't simply to generate more applications. It's to understand which channels consistently generate people you can actually hire.

Use Your Hire Data by Source Report

Your Augusta Reports can help you compare recruiting sources based on actual hiring outcomes.

For example:

One source may generate a high volume of applicants but very few hires.

Another may produce fewer applicants but a much stronger applicant-to-hire rate.

That second channel may deserve more of your time and recruiting investment.

👉 Learn how to use Reports in your Augusta Dashboard.

2. Review Your Qualification Rules

If you're attracting the right candidates but your qualification rate is still very low, review your Augusta Qualification Rules & Settings.

The most important question is:

Are we disqualifying people who truly cannot be hired—or people who simply don't match today's perfect client case?

Augusta separates qualification criteria into:

• Required Qualifications
• Flexible Qualifications
• Geo Qualification Rules

Required Qualifications

These should represent true non-negotiables.

Examples may include:

• Work authorization
• Required licensing or certifications
• Legal age requirements
• Mandatory driving requirements
• Other requirements with no realistic short-term workaround

Use Disqualified when there is genuinely no path to hire the applicant now or in the near future.

Flexible Qualifications

These represent preferences or needs that may change.

Examples include:

• Weekend availability
• Desired hours
• Overnight availability
• Experience level
• Current client-specific scheduling needs

These applicants are often better suited for Further Review rather than being automatically screened out.

A candidate who does not fit today's opening may still be a great hire for another client next week.

👉 Learn how to edit your Augusta Qualification Rules & Settings.

Prioritize More Conversations, Not More Disqualifications

Your qualification rules should help your recruiters focus their attention—not eliminate every candidate who isn't a perfect match on paper.

Some of the strongest hiring pipelines are built by:

• Automatically filtering true non-negotiables
• Sending promising candidates to Further Review
• Giving recruiters room to clarify flexible requirements
• Building a Candidate Pool for future opportunities

The goal is to create more conversations with people who could realistically become successful caregivers.

At the same time, don't loosen your criteria simply to improve the percentage shown in your dashboard.

Your qualification rate should reflect who is realistically hireable for your agency, not an arbitrary target.

In Summary

A low qualification rate is worth investigating, but the percentage itself is only the starting point.

If you need more qualified applicants:

1. Review the top reasons candidates are not qualifying.
2. Make sure your recruiting channels are reaching the people you actually want to hire.
3. Use your Augusta hiring reports to identify which sources produce the strongest hires.
4. Review your Qualification Rules to make sure Disqualified is reserved for true non-negotiables.
5. Use Further Review to create conversations with applicants who may still be hireable.

The goal isn't to maximize your qualification rate.

It's to make sure your recruiting and screening process consistently gives your team enough strong, potentially hireable caregivers to meet your hiring goals.