Most employers do not choose a screening method so much as inherit one: the filters that came with the applicant tracking system, a recruiter's skim, or a chatbot someone started using. Each of those is a selection procedure, and California now treats software that helps make hiring decisions as an automated-decision system. The Civil Rights Council's regulations define one as "A computational process that makes a decision or facilitates human decision making regarding an employment benefit," and list "Screening resumes for particular terms or patterns" as an example.

This page sets out the questions we think any employer should ask of any screening method, including ours. The comparison pages that follow apply the same questions to common alternatives, using only what each vendor publishes about itself.

The Eight Questions

  1. What the tool reads. Does it read the full resume and the job description, or match keywords and knockout answers?
  2. How it scores. Does it explain each result, so a reviewer can see why a candidate scored as they did?
  3. Who decides. Does a person make the decision, and does the vendor say so in writing?
  4. Bias testing. Is there a published, independent bias audit, and how recent is it?
  5. Audit trail. Can you produce a record of what the tool did for each candidate, and keep it for four years as California requires?
  6. California readiness. Does the tool support the Civil Rights Council and CCPA automated decision rules, including notices and access requests?
  7. Veteran handling. Can it read military experience and translate it into civilian skills?
  8. Price. Is pricing public, and how is it charged?

Why These Questions Matter in California

Under the Civil Rights Council regulations, effective October 1, 2025, evidence of anti-bias testing, or the lack of it, is relevant to a discrimination claim, including "the quality, efficacy, recency, and scope of such effort, the results of such testing or other effort, and the response to the results." The same regulations require employers to keep records, including automated-decision system data, for four years.

Under the California Privacy Protection Agency's rules, a business that uses automated decision-making technology for a significant decision such as hiring must comply with the notice and access requirements no later than January 1, 2027. A tool that cannot explain its output makes those answers harder to give.

The Comparisons

Whatever tool you use, review its filters with our ATS filter audit checklist and keep the California compliance calendar handy.

Many of these products are complete applicant tracking or interview platforms. TrueScan HR is a screening tool that reads a resume against a job, so it can sit alongside an applicant tracking system rather than replace it.

This page is general information, not legal advice, and TrueScan HR is not a law firm. Statements about other products come from each vendor's public pages as of October 19, 2026, and may have changed since. Product names are trademarks of their owners.

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