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To hire smarter, and place more candidates, the recruitment process needs to embrace automation, so it can be faster. Scheduling interviews bridges the gap between candidates and the recruiter. The entire interviewing process starts when the candidates are sourced and shortlisted. Manually scheduling interviews is a mundane task for a recruiter, who must coordinate with multiple stakeholders by working with both the candidate and the hiring managers to find a suitable time and then manually send out calendar invitations, etc.
Today’s interviews are no longer just one-on-one or face-to-face meetings. These sessions now include digital and real-time live video interviews, telephonic interviews, or pre-recorded video interviews, where a candidate can access the interview from any place, at any time, from any device.
Building Automation Through Applicant Tracking Software
There is a growing reliance on Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) by companies that want to attract great talent, manage large databases, and increase placements. ATS’ provides automation throughout the entire talent acquisition cycle. Scheduling interviews does not come cheap. On average, the time and manpower spent on scheduling activities are reduced by almost 80–90% with the use of ATS. With automation, the scope of errors is reduced. Using an ATS, a recruiter can use automation to schedule an interview via several methods including:
- Email templates for all communication processes with candidates
- Integrations with calendars and plugins like Google and Outlook
- Self-scheduling interviews with candidates’ availability
- Automated evaluation and scoring systems built-in units
- Managing and organizing multiple interviews at a time
- Notifications and pop-ups for responses
- Tracking of activities across platforms
- Interactive reports to address pain points
- Feedback submissions from candidates to improve positive experiences
An ATS provides the flexibility to manage all of the hiring requirements in one place. Once an applicant is shortlisted, an automated email is sent to the candidate. The calendars of all the teams are synced and the interviewing tools help to smoothly manage multiple interviews across locations and across sizes of companies.
Creating an Everlasting Candidate Perception
Today’s recruitment industry is candidate-driven. It is their experiences that reflect upon the company’s branding. While scheduling interviews may seem like a mindless task on the surface, it requires strategic planning of candidate touchpoints for communication, using the right interviewing and evaluation tools, and choosing integrations that create the right candidate impressions.
Pro Tip- Don’t leave candidates waiting! Communication is the key to building strong relationships with candidates. Timely responses to candidates help in achieving the hiring goals whether the candidate is hired or rejected.
