4 Ways to Efficiently Schedule Candidate Interviews
Scheduling an interview time that works best for you and your candidate is kind of like playing a not-so-fun game of tennis. You lob a time over to them, they lob a time back over to you, and so on until you come to a mutual agreement.
In the current candidate-driven job market, competition for the market’s top talent has increased. Ineffective scheduling can slow the interviewing process down, which can leave the most qualified candidates feeling frustrated and disengaged — which makes it easier for your competitors to snap them up.
To help you avoid a frustratingly slow interviewing process, we sourced the following tips on how to schedule interviews more efficiently:
1. Time of Day Matters
As much as the candidate is trying to sell themselves to you during an interview, you should be trying to sell the company to them as well. For this reason, it’s a good idea to schedule interviews during the time of day when you are most on your A-game.
If you have an interview lined up before an important meeting or presentation, chances are that your mind will be much more focused on the next meeting than the person in the chair across from you.
2. Budget Too Much Time, Rather Than Too Little
When you have an ever-growing list of to-do’s, it’s tempting to keep a tight interviewing schedule. However, you will quickly learn that this is where things go wrong.
It’s hard to control the length of an interview, and while the average interview is 40 minutes long, you never know what may come up during the interview. Allocate ample amounts of time to every candidate so that you can fully focus on the interview, rather than the clock.
3. Value the Candidate’s Time as Much as Your Own
When you fail to promptly email candidates about interview schedules, you send the candidates a dangerous message : I don’t think your time is as valuable as mine.
Like you, candidates have busy schedules. When a candidate sends you a couple of times to interview, they will likely hold off on filling those times until you respond. It’s important to promptly respond to candidates’ emails, not only to keep them engaged in the hiring process, but also to show them that you value the time they are taking to interview with you.
4. Use Scheduling Tools
A recruiters can sync their RIVS Schedulers with their Outlook, Google Calendar, and/or iCalendar accounts, or they can manually list their interviewing availability through the scheduler. Candidates can then choose time slots that work for them directly from the recruiter’s calendar. This process allows recruiters and candidates to drastically reduce the amount of time they spend emailing back and forth about possible interview times.
Effective scheduling is a key factor for speedy hiring processes. It gives you, as a recruiter, the opportunity to open positive lines of communication with candidates and leave them enthusiastic about their interviews.