---
id: I-011
type: intervention
title: "Screening Note Bound to Observations and Disposition Codes"
lang: en
registry: 2026.08.2
canonical: https://hoba.work/interventions/I-011
json: https://hoba.work/api/v1/interventions/I-011.json
---

# Screening Note Bound to Observations and Disposition Codes

Restrict the screening note to the requirement, what the record shows and the surface opened, and close it with a fixed disposition code — including a referral to levelling for profiles above the graded band.

> **On the canonical path** — [Read by a person, inside the stated window](https://hoba.work/process#WF-003-human-read)
>
> Every application that clears the mechanical stage is read by someone, and read before the window the posting promised runs out.
>
> This entry is one of the things that holds that commitment up.

## At a glance

- Actor: recruiter process
- Scope: organizational
- Cost: medium
- Evidence: supported

## What it looks like

Composite excerpts, written to be typical rather than copied. No particular message, company or person is quoted here.

**The screening note, under the template** — *reconstruction*

```
Subject: Screen — Senior Payments Engineer, requisition R-2214

  requirement  Payments domain, service ownership. Graded L4, scoped 4–6 years.
  record shows  Twelve years; three payment systems owned end to end. Above the graded band.
> surface opened  Profile page linked in the CV — three pinned forks. Artifact link from the application form — 40 commits to an upstream storage layer under another organisation, candidate named as owner of the rewrite.
> disposition  above_grid — referred to levelling 2 April. Not closed at screen.
  fields not present  The template has no field for expected tenure, likely boredom or salary expectation.
```

*What to notice* Two fields carry it. The surface actually opened is written next to the note written from it, and a profile above the band leaves a routing code rather than a pass.

## From each side

The same entry from inside each position that meets it: what reaches them, what it means from there, and what happens next given what they control.

### Recruiter

- **What reaches them:** A screening note with three fields — the requirement, what the record shows, the surface opened — and a fixed list of disposition codes to close it with.
- **What it means from there:** The wording stays theirs; what may go into the note does not. A forecast about tenure has no field, and a profile above the band closes as a referral rather than as a pass.
- **What happens next:** Records the surface actually opened next to the note written from it, and sends an above-band profile to levelling instead of closing it at the screen.

### Candidate

- **What reaches them:** Two fields on the application form: the link where the work sits, and what their part in it is.
- **What it means from there:** Which surface a screener opens is set on the form rather than discovered, so a profile page that does not show the work is no longer the only surface available.
- **What happens next:** Links the commits and the repository rather than the account, and states the ownership in the field instead of leaving it in a CV line.

### Employer policy

- **What reaches them:** A referral route from screening into the levelling committee, and the volume that arrives on it once above-band stops being a pass.
- **What it means from there:** The grid itself is unchanged; what changes is that the applications it excludes now reach the layer that maintains it.
- **What happens next:** Sets the cadence the committee runs at and what it may decide, or does not — and where it does not, the referral is a code with nothing behind it.

## Expected effects

- The forecast M-017 is recorded as has no field to sit in: the note takes the requirement, what the record shows, and a disposition code
- M-023 becomes checkable: the surface that was opened is recorded next to the note written from it, and the application form asks which surface that should be
- A profile above the graded band leaves B-003 with a routing code rather than a pass at screen

## What to measure

- `screening_note_field_completeness`
- `above_grid_referral_rate`
- `artifact_surface_recorded_rate`

## Related entries

- targets — [B-003](https://hoba.work/barriers/B-003) — Inbound Screening & Triage
- targets — [M-017](https://hoba.work/mechanisms/M-017) — Experience-Age Grading Mismatch
- targets — [M-023](https://hoba.work/mechanisms/M-023) — Portfolio / Work Artifact Misinterpretation

---

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