Biggest Challenge for HR
A mid-size company was looking to fill a Senior Solution Architect role that required a niche skill. They could get to a perfect candidate faster because they could shrink their interview process to 2 days using an automated interview scheduling tool. However, a larger company with a better comp package took 2-3 weeks to have the candidate undergo the interview process. The smaller company made an attractive offer. The candidate accepted the offer because she could not wait for the more attractive company to complete the interview process on time.
Time to Hire
The average time to hire for most organizations is three months. A lengthy hiring cycle will cause the company to lose candidates to competitors, cost the company more money, risks burnout of existing employees.
We are in a candidate-driven market. There are no shortages of jobs, and sometimes many recruiters are reaching out to them simultaneously. If a candidate has to wait for 2-3 weeks to go through 4-5 rounds of interviews, a competitor will move more quickly and offer them a job. Therefore, it is vital to reduce the time for scheduling interviews from days to minutes. Hence, having a technology that speeds up hiring time provides candidates with a world-class experience from the first touch-point.
AI Automated Interview Scheduling
Automated interview scheduling can reduce the time to hire from a three-month cycle to a 2-3 weeks cycle. First, we will show you how to select the best interview scheduling tool. Then, you can try our AI-based automated scheduling tool free for 60 days to get insights that will help you make the right purchasing decision.
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Why Automated Interview Scheduler.
Having technology that speeds up hiring and provides candidates a world-class experience from the first touch-point is a must when hiring qualified candidates. Automated interview scheduler gives the coordinators the tools to succeed.
REDUCED TIME TO FILLCustomers have engaged the top talent faster by shrinking the interview scheduling time by 10X. They have reduced their time to fill from three months to three weeks. In addition, they have scheduled and confirmed interviews by all parties in less than an hour instead of days.
ENHANCED CANDIDATE EXPERIENCECandidates can provide availability with a click of a button on any device, freeing up coordinators’ time for candidate engagement and providing the candidates with a world-class experience.
REDUCED BURDEN ON INTERVIEWERAutomated interview scheduling tools free up the interviewer’s time to do “actual” work. It automatically find availability on interviewers’ calendars. Interviews can confirm their availability with one click on any device.
INCREASED COORDINATOR PRODUCTIVITYALL INTERVIEW INFORMATION IN ONE PLACEInterview Scheduling tools make schedules, video conferencing links, job descriptions, contact information available at their fingertips. The coordinator can see which interview scheduling steps. In addition, they can see all actions and communication with the candidates and interviewers in a timeline view within the scheduling application.
REDUCED NO SHOWSInterview Scheduling Tools reduce no-shows by sending automated reminders to candidates and interviewers
SELF-SERVICE CANCELLATIONS AND RESCHEDULE The coordinator, candidates, or interviewers can reschedule with a click.
VISIBILITY INTO THE SCHEDULING PROCESSThe coordinator can see which interview scheduling steps. In addition, they can see all actions and communication with the candidates and interviewers in a timeline view within the scheduling application.
INTEGRATIONSZoom, Office 365, G-Suite, and SMS integrations to send emails create Zoom, Teams, Google meet invite and send text reminders to candidates
Selecting Interview Scheduling Software.
Easily evaluate the Interview Scheduling Software you’re looking for with our guide. There are several considerations for selecting an Interview Scheduling software. You have to look how each tool fairs in each of these categories.
- Time to Schedule
- Candidate Engagement
- Interviewer Experience
- Coordinator Experience
- Software Cost
- Visibility into Scheduling
- Email Integration
- Calendar Integration
- Video Conferencing Integration
- SMS
We compare two Interview Scheduling tools that stack up very differently in the above criterions. They differ in candidate experience, cost, and time to hire. The method used by the software solution impacts these factors and is a crucial consideration in the selection process. We will take a close look at both these methods and how they compare in the above criterion.
Automated Interview Scheduling Methods
There are two types of interview scheduling software – interviewer initiated and coordinator initiated. In the interviewer-created method (a.k.a. self-service) interviewer starts the scheduling. In the coordinator-created process, the coordinator creates the scheduling. We will compare the two categories of software in depth in-depth.
Interviewer Initiated Scheduling
The interviewer initiates the scheduling of the interview with the candidate. An interviewer could be a hiring manager or a member of their team. With five interviewers, each of them will do their interview scheduling. The interviewer would typically create an event with open slots, and the candidate would select from one of the available slots.
Coordinator Initiated Scheduling
The coordinator initiates the scheduling. The coordinator enters basic information such as candidate, interviewer, job link, and the automated interview scheduler sets up the interview. The scheduling software frees up the coordinator from setting up the interviewer to engage the candidates and provide them with a world-class experience from the first touchpoint.
Coordinator vs Self Service Scheduling Summary
Following is a summary of the comparison. An in-depth comparison follows.
In-Depth Comparison
Zenex Partners
"We reduced our time to schedule interviews from days to minutes freeing up our coordinators 60% to provide our candidates a better experience."
Innovo Commerce
"We were able to get to candidates faster then our competitors reducing the time to hire from 2 months to a month."
Interviewer Initiated - Cost & Value
Anyone in the organization could be an interviewer and would need the software license to schedule an interview. Consider a company with 5,000 employees. Each employee would need a premium subscription at $8/month. The total cost for five thousand employees would be $40,000/month.
There is a relatively low value because the solution places a high burden on the interviewer and will not adopt the resolution.
Why does the free version not work
Software vendors provide a free version. However, the free version has limits. With the free version, the interviewer can set only one interview at a time. For example, consider an interviewer interviewing four candidates. They can schedule only one candidate at a time. Only once the interview for the first candidate is complete they can schedule the next candidate.
Coordinator Initiated - Cost & Value
In the coordinator model, the coordinator initiates the interview schedule. Pricing is per coordinator. A company having 5000 employees could typically have eight coordinators. Software license 750/month per coordinator. The price for software license cost for 5000 Employee companies would be $6000/month which is 15% of the cost of the self-service model.
The scheduling software provides a significant boost in productivity. Coordinators can set up four times the number of interviews. The same number of coordinators would be able to scale to the company’s growth and still have time to provide the candidates a world-class experience from the very first touch-point.
Interviewer Initiated - Candidate Experience
The candidate experience will not be seamless. The candidate will have multiple touchpoints, e.g., receive an email from the interviewer to select a slot and work with the coordinator for interview confirmation. The candidate will not have required information (interviewer information, video conferencing link, job description, coordinator notes, scheduling information) in one place. Cancellations and reschedules would have manual components.
Coordinator Initiated -Candidate experience
Coordinator will be there single point of contact and would provide a world class personalized candidate engagement experience.
Candidates will be able to schedule interviews with a click of a button on any device. Candidates can reschedule with a click.
Interviewer Initiated - Interviewer Experience
Interviewers are busy with strategic work, meetings, and day-to-day work. As is recruiting is already demanding for hiring managers, e.g., as creating requisitions in ATS. Self-service interview scheduling is a significant burden and would add more to their woes.
Coordinator Initiated - Interviewer Experience
Interviewers would have a low-touch for interview scheduling. Unlike self-scheduling interview tools that place an additional burden on interviewers, coordinator-initiated interview scheduling frees up their time to do “actual” work.
Scheduling software automatically finds availability on interviewers’ calendars. All the interviewer has to do is select the most suitable time with a click of a button on any device. Interviewers get automatic reminders to free up time on the calendar and respond to a scheduling request promptly. In addition, video conferencing links, job descriptions, contact information are available at their fingertips.
Interviewer Initiated - Visibility into Scheduling
Neither the coordinator nor the interviewer would have complete visibility of the scheduling process because the interviewer initiates the interview. For example, a coordinator would not know the stage in the scheduling process, e.g., has the candidate selected slot, is the time chosen by the candidate suitable for the interview, has the candidate canceled or rescheduled. This information would be available to the coordinator in various emails and phone conversations.
Coordinator Initiated - Visibility into Scheduling
The interview scheduling software provides detailed visibility into each step of the scheduling process, e.g., did the candidate provide availability, did the interviewer confirm a slot, did the candidate re-confirm. In addition, it chronologically logs all interactions to provide visibility into every scheduling step.
Summary
An automated interview scheduler gives the organization the tools to shorten the time to hire. Automated Interview Scheduling tools differ in candidate experience, cost, and time to hire. The method used by the software solution has an impact on these factors.
Coordinator initiated Scheduling software schedules interviews faster, provides a superior candidate experience, interviewer experience, and coordinator experience, keeps the cost low, and increases the productivity of coordinators several folds.
On the other hand, interviewer-initiated scheduling software increases the time to set up the interviews, provides a fragmented candidate experience, places an extra burden on the interviewer, and is cost-prohibitive.
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About The Author
Deepak Bhargava is the co-founder of talentnow.net, which makes AI-based automated scheduling software for Coordinators. If you have any feedback about the guide, please reach out to deepak@talentnow.net directly.