Why are we talking about scheduling interviews?
In the last several decades, the world has witnessed massive changes in connectivity and technological advancement as age-old processes that would take weeks to finish are now completed in mere seconds. Except for the process of interview scheduling. Despite all the technological development and advancement in different sectors, the process of interview scheduling continues to be age-old. A slow or poorly-organized process of interview scheduler can pose a major problem for recruiting heads/coordinators. Ineffectiveness slows down the entire interviewing procedure and can also leave a feeling of intense frustration/irritation among the candidates.
Sometimes, these things cannot be helped and anything that has to go wrong will go wrong. Things get hectic, schedules may be jam-packed, and unexpected/unprecedented events may crop up. For example, rescheduling an interview for any reason may place a burden on the candidates who have particularly taken time out of their schedules, and in the event, the rescheduling doesn’t work out, it can lead to the running risk of potentially talented candidates dropping out.
Thus, when Murphy’s Law stares you in the face, the only option one has is to dedicate time to ensuring a strong scheduling process. Here are some tips to ensure an efficient and strong interview schedule process for the smooth recruitment of candidates.
How to schedule interviews efficiently
Take a careful look at your process of recruitment.
This includes everything- from candidate sourcing techniques and strategies to social recruitment, interview scheduling, and the abilities of your applicant tracking system. Candidate experience is integral to your brand identity and to attract the best possible candidates, the candidate experience must be impeccable. If there is a rescheduling of an interview five times in order due to a departmental issue, it is not likely to create a good impression in the minds of a candidate.
Use a recruitment platform
Use a recruitment platform with features that support your entire process. Using such a platform will make the process more efficient, smooth, and collaborative and they are also extremely user-friendly. These platforms are often free and can save you and your fellow recruiters a lot of time.
Sync your Calendars
Synchronize the calendar in the recruitment system to your iCalender, Google Calendar, or even your Outlook calendar for efficient working and reminders. Using this method, you will never forget an interview with a candidate. This also leads to the easy viewing of your entire recruiting team and this will eliminate the possibility of any endless back and forth if all calendars are synced on one particular screen which optimizes the process of interview scheduling.
Create a recruitment folder in your system (ATS System)
Do this to collect all information within the folder itself. Email invites to several candidates at once, and pro tip: give the selection committee access to this particular folder to ensure an effective and smooth overview of the interview dates and the candidates respectively.
ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is software that helps companies manage recruitment by automating tasks such as resume screening and tracking. It scans resumes for relevant keywords and can score applications based on how well they match the job requirements. However, it’s not perfect and can sometimes miss qualified candidates. It’s important to optimize resumes for ATS and use human evaluation to ensure the best candidates are not overlooked. You can read more about what are the Factors to Consider when Selecting an Applicant Tracking System.
Use Interview Scheduling Tools
Once the availability is identified, recruiters can send emails to the candidates that cut straight to the chase, instead of engaging in a frustrating back-and-forth that takes weeks to finalize. Interview scheduling software takes the tedious parts of scheduling and works towards streamlining them. By managing logistics effectively, the recruitment team can concentrate on improving the candidate experience. While, humanizing it through methods like tailored scheduling invitations, which can boost employer branding efforts.
Using scheduling tools, recruiters can also take engagement a step further by arranging auto-triggered/automated interview scheduling invitations via email or even text messages to ensure connectivity with the candidate as soon as the determination of the next steps is finalized, to ensure the prompt delivery of relevant updates according to the best interview time slot based on the time zones of the candidates. You can read more about how to pick an interview scheduling tool.
Pro tips: Below are some key points to include with your scheduling link in the email to facilitate better communication with the candidates:
- Thank the candidates for the interest that they have displayed in the particular position that they applied for
- Enlighten them and describe what more they should expect from the interview procedure
- Let them know who exactly is interviewing them
- Request feedback after the interview.
Conclusion
Ensuring a good candidate experience at every stage of the hiring process is integral. To establish an excellent candidate experience during recruiting, it’s critical concentrating on minimizing problems or hassles for the candidate. This requires a change in attitude towards prioritizing the candidate’s experience. Some of the ways to do that include the following bonus points:
- Write clear-cut job descriptions to make it easy for the candidates to apply for your jobs
- Follow up often, and do not leave the candidate in a state of ambiguity
- Communicate clearly with the candidate during every step of the hiring procedure
- Always be open to receiving feedback
BarRaiser works with more than 200 companies around the globe to help them structure their interviews and schedules efficiently. Most of our customers/clients experience problems in the scheduling of interviews which can be easily solved by following the steps mentioned in the article. We are committed to ensuring a smooth process of recruitment.
People also asked
What is the best time to schedule an interview?
Schedule an interview at the time of the day when you are least distracted and very alert. A fatigued mind will tend to miss important signals leading to a bad hire and also wasting candidates’ time. Distractions often make it very difficult for the interviewer to focus on the conversation and the quality of the interview (& eventually hiring) drops. Here’s a good read on the best interview time to schedule a job interview.
How many interviews should you schedule in a day?
Honestly, there is no direct answer. Some people would only schedule interviews on a Wednesday but do about 4 of them in a day, while others think consistently 1 interview a day works better for them. Then there are recruitment drives or events where there are many scheduled interviews in a day. The things to consider are:
- Not to bite more than you can chew
- You are finding time to prepare well for those (if you find you don’t prepare enough, you probably have scheduled too many!)
- Once you have a good plan for interviews, then you should start building up and testing your limits slowly to arrive at the optimal number.
