Save Time and Win the War on Talent with Real-Time Scheduling
Sending an email only takes a few minutes, but these minutes add up when hiring managers have dozens of candidates to invite to interviews. If a hiring manager has twelve candidates to interview and spends five minutes on each initial email, that’s an hour just inviting candidates to interview.
Save Time and Win the War on Talent with Real-Time Scheduling
Jeremy Bourhis
Sending an email only takes a few minutes, but these minutes add up when hiring managers have dozens of candidates to invite to interviews.
If a hiring manager has twelve candidates to interview and spends five minutes on each initial email, that’s an hour just inviting candidates to interview.
Sending confirmation emails, informing interview panels, and arranging meeting rooms adds more time, and it’s not long before small tasks like these add up to days and weeks spent doing simple administrative tasks.
Real-Time Scheduling, Cronofy’s smart scheduling plugin, saves hiring managers hours each week by automating this process.
With this plugin, hiring managers can create a specific scheduling link for each vacancy they need to fill.
That link can then be emailed to every candidate, regardless of the number of interviewees. Candidates can then choose the interview time they want, based on the real-time availability of the interview panel.
Once a candidate has picked their interview slot, the appointment is automatically added to the interview panel’s calendar.
The candidate can also add the interview to their calendar, even if they use a different calendar service.
This prevents double-bookings and reduces the chances of a candidate turning up late.
Automating this process saves hiring managers huge amounts of time and stress.
It allows them to spend time on tasks that create a better candidate experience, improve their employer brand image, and encourage employee engagement.
Here are some of the tasks that help employers to achieve all of the above and more:
Preparing for interviews
When hiring managers save time organizing interviews, they can use this time to prepare for the interview instead.
Rather than asking candidates generic interview questions, interviewers can tailor interview questions to candidates based on their CV, social media, or previous experience.
Tailoring questions in this way allows interviewers to get more information about a candidate and their suitability for the role than they would from generic interview questions.
Not preparing fully for an interview beforehand can leave interviewers unprepared for the interview itself. This can lead to an unsuccessful hire and having to repeat the hiring process again a few months later.
The more time the hiring manager spends preparing for an interview, the better they can get to know a candidate before they meet. Any issues they find can then be addressed in the interview, making employers more likely to find someone who’s a perfect fit for the role the first time around.
Creating better relationships with future employees
First impressions matter. The recruitment process is the first contact future employees have with their future employer. It’s therefore important to make sure that this process is pleasant for every candidate.
Candidates who are part of a positive, engaged hiring experience are made to feel like they’d be a welcome addition to the team.
This means that they’re more likely to accept a role should they be offered one.
Some of the ways that a better relationship can be formed include: tailoring emails to prospective employees, asking tailored interview questions (see point above about preparing for interviews), and offering candidates feedback on their interview.
All of this is possible because HR teams have more time to spend on creating these personalized interactions – they get to spend less time scheduling and more time interacting.
Responding to unsuccessful candidates
Responding to unsuccessful candidates is often seen as an unimportant part of the hiring process.
Most job applications include a caveat saying that due to the high number of applications, unsuccessful candidates will not hear back.
However, this time-consuming process is worth doing.
When an unsuccessful candidate receives feedback, they’re more likely to have a positive view of the company despite not being offered the job.
This makes them more likely to apply for future roles within the company and even speak highly of the company to friends and family.
Even if a candidate is unsuccessful in getting the job, they’re still a potential customer. Virgin Media discovered this the hard way – they lost out on £4.4m of revenue because of a negative hiring approach. Don’t fall into this trap!
Winning the war on talent
Employers are finding it increasingly difficult to hire the right people for the job, with 50% of companies saying that there’s not enough talent, according to a 2016 MRINetwork study.
In order to get the best candidate for the role, employers need to be one step ahead of their competition.
The time hiring managers spend filtering CVs, interacting with candidates, and preparing for interviews helps a company’s long-term growth and ensures the right person is hired for the job every time.
Try Real-Time Scheduling for yourself
If you want to find out how you can improve your hiring process and engage better with candidates, book your Real-Time Scheduling demo now.
