Cronofy and JobAdder Interview Scheduling Survey 2019 Results

At Cronofy, we aim to help companies simplify the hiring process for everyone. We wanted a way to understand the pain points companies deal with when hiring so that we can better help them now and in the future. That's why we chose to work with JobAdder – one of the first customers to use our calendar sync API – by surveying 272 of their external recruiters about their experiences. JobAdder is a software company with the goal of making recruitment more accessible and intuitive. They seemed like the perfect partner for what we planned to do.

Time to schedule an interview

Over two-thirds of respondents indicated that they spend more than a day scheduling an interview, while 10% take more than a full week! This raises the question: are candidates dropping off along the way? The longer the hiring process takes, the more frustrating it gets for the candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters involved. Candidates may have to take multiple times out of their working day to answer the phone or respond to emails, which can make it more obvious to current employers that they’re job hunting – something most people don’t want their current employers to know. Hiring managers’ days, meanwhile, are disrupted when they have to respond to emails or phone calls. If they wait to respond at a time that’s convenient, or if they only check their emails at certain times of the day, this can further hold up the hiring process for candidates and recruiters. This can mean that it takes almost 24 hours just to get a response to an email. Emails are also more likely to get lost in a sea of other emails, while voicemails aren’t always listened to. This isn't an ideal situation for anyone involved.

Communication channels and time to hire

Both of these results show why the interview scheduling process takes so long: recruiters have to send too many emails and make too many phone calls. The more people that are involved, the longer it takes. Candidates and employees don’t always see the emails right away, which can delay the process even further. Candidates are also traditionally offered only a handful of times to choose from. If they can’t make any of these times, the recruiter has to go back to the interview or interviewers to find alternatives. This can drag out the interview scheduling process further. It’s a convoluted process that schedules interviews around interviewers, not candidates. Candidates that are applying for multiple vacancies will be more likely to choose the company that creates as frictionless a hiring process as possible. They’ll see this as a reflection of their company values and what life is like as an employee there. The more candidates that go through this process, the more likely the company is to receive negative reviews on sites like Glassdoor and suffer damage to their employer brand. Future hiring processes will then struggle with fewer applicants, further increasing their time and cost to hire.

Needing to take time out of their day to respond to emails or answer phone calls also interrupts interviewers’ days. If they spend 15 minutes on the phone or writing an email response, and they send three emails, that’s 45 minutes lost to interview scheduling for one person involved in the process to interview one person. If they interview five people for the role, they lose 225 minutes for every role they fill. If the interview panel contains more than one person – which our survey shows most interviews do – that’s 450 minutes lost to fill one role. This goes up the more candidates that are interviewed and the more interviews that are required.

If they spend 15 minutes on the phone or writing an email response, and they send three emails, that's 45 minutes lost to interview scheduling for one person.

This interrupts the interviewer’s day and makes it harder for them to get back to their everyday tasks. When we’re interrupted, it can take us an average of 25 minutes to focus again, which means that for the 45 minutes an interviewer spends responding to emails, they lose at least 65 minutes of productive time on top of the time they spend writing the email. This is a huge loss to businesses, particularly smaller ones that are short on team members and can’t afford to stretch their already thin resources any further.

Number of interview panelists

The survey shows that almost two thirds of companies have at least two people on an interview panel. While this can be a useful way to filter candidates and test their knowledge, the more people that are involved in the interview, the more complicated it becomes to schedule. They each have to take time out of their day to suggest times that they’re available to speak with candidates, and if none of these are compatible with their colleagues’ schedules, they have to check their schedules again. This might cause rescheduling issues for multiple parties.

Almost two thirds of companies have at least two people on an interview panel.

Calendar sync means that interviewers don’t need to check their schedules and suggest times – their recruitment software can suggest times for them.If the software uses Availability Rules, they can even specify the times that they’d like to be available for interview so that interviews only occur during those hours.With 20% of candidates leaving within the first 45 days, ensuring that the right person is offered the role is pivotal. Not doing so can mean that the company has to repeat the hiring process less than two months after having offered the role. This doubles their cost to hire, takes more time out of the hiring manager’s days, and can eat into employees’ time as they have to fill in for the vacant role.

Candidate no-shows

For every 10 interviews that are held, 20% of companies deal with a no-show rate of 20% or higher. This wastes both recruiters’ and interviewers’ times. Recruiters – and the companies they work with – need to get better at reminding candidates of when their interview is, whether that’s using a Smart Invite, email, or text message reminder.

20% of companies suffer from a no-show rate of 20% or higher.

If it’s complicated to cancel an interview, candidates are less likely to cancel. Recruiters therefore need to make it as easy as possible for candidates to cancel or reschedule their interview. This reduces the time wasted for recruiters and interviewers, giving them more time to work on finding the right person instead of wasting it waiting around for no one to show up. Fewer no-shows mean a faster time to hire and is a sign of a strong employer brand.

Conclusion

Recruiters have to spend too much time on basic admin tasks. They then have less time to help companies find the right person, while companies and candidates have to wait longer for responses. Improving the interview scheduling experience leads to a better experience for candidates, interviewers, and recruiters. When recruiters can share their availability with candidates and let them book an interview in seconds, it saves everyone time. These tools mean that they don’t have to take time out of their day to find times to meet with candidates; they don’t have to disrupt their day to schedule an interview at all. Over the course of a working year, this can save them days’ – or even weeks' – worth of time.

Companies like JobAdder help recruiters save time so that they can spend more of it fostering relationships with companies and finding the perfect fit for their roles. Hiring managers, meanwhile, don’t need to worry about responding to emails imminently so that they don’t miss out on candidates, nor do they lose hours of time to scheduling interviews for every position they need to fill. Recruiters and interviewers have more time to spend on other tasks such as interview preparation. This means they’re more prepared when it’s time to interview, and so they’re more likely to ask the right qualifying questions to candidates. These can make a huge difference to if they get the answers they need from someone to decide if they’re the right fit for the role. Recruiters have more time to work with more candidates and businesses that are hiring, giving them the chance to earn more commission and help more candidates to find their dream role. Candidates, meanwhile, don’t have to wait by the phone or constantly refresh their emails. They can schedule their interview in their own time. This provides them with a better reflection of the company, making them more likely to accept the role if they’re offered it. Candidates that aren’t successful are more likely to have a positive view of the company, making them more likely to leave a positive review on sites like Glassdoor and reapply for future positions. It’s never been easier to add interview scheduling to your HR software. Cronofy provides all the tools you need. It works with all major calendar services, too, meaning that you don’t need to worry about any of your clients missing out from the benefits of interview scheduling.

To find out more about how your customers could benefit from interview scheduling in your software, contact us today.