See how Ontario Native Women’s Association, a platform empowering the voices of Indigenous women, transformed the efficiency of their hiring coordination to schedule interviews in clicks, all from within BambooHR.

The problem:

Losing against your calendar: crushed under the admin burden of manual scheduling

As the sole Human Resources Coordinator at ONWA, Tanya Towner juggles a lot of hats when it comes to hiring, onboarding, and employee benefits. We speak with Tanya to hear about how swapping out back-and-forth emailing and calls for Cronofy’s interview scheduling automation not only lets candidates book interviews in seconds, but also enables her to focus on higher level priorities and upskill within her organization.

Accounting for the fluctuation in hiring activity throughout the year was at the top of the agenda. “I was looking to streamline our previous process, because we’re either dormant or we have thirty interviews to book.” The manual interview scheduling process was tedious and time-consuming, requiring recruiters to step outside of BambooHR to disconnected tools like email or phone to get candidates booked in. “Before Cronofy’s scheduler, it was picking up the phone, calling people, sending email follow-ups, understanding if they were interested or not,” Tanya recalled.

It might have taken me a week to book thirty interviews, and that's a good week. This was just not working for us.

ONWA understood that getting the most in-demand candidates scheduled for interviews before competitors will give them the edge they need, and this means having to move with speed.

We know how aggressive the job market is. We want everything done in two weeks—interview done, hired, and onboarding kicked off. This is our ideal goal, because you’re going to lose quality candidates if you take any longer.

More personally, the sheer volume of manual work was difficult to manage for a small HR team that was tasked with far more than just recruitment coordination. “It was setting me back so far,” Tanya shares. "It was a struggle to get through emails, and onboarding tasks start to build up. Making time to reach out to people was such a challenge, especially when you have to chase people or respond to interview requests. There was no breathing space. It was a huge ordeal."

The solution:

A scheduling tool for 365 days of the year, that charges fairly for active interviewers, not empty seats

As a not-for-profit organization, it was important for ONWA to choose an interview scheduling tool with fair pricing. Cronofy’s active user billing model charges for active users, rather than empty seats. This means that you only pay for a user when they are added to a calendar event in that month, becoming especially valuable during periods of low hiring activity.

When making the choice for the right tool, they broke down the true costs of manual scheduling. While free on the surface, the sheer amount of time and inefficiency was having a significant impact on the team’s capacity. “This means the cost and the time that goes into scheduling the interviews previously, how much time it took me, how long it took us to get the interview, and the approval for hire. All of these things mattered to us, and they were taking longer than we wanted,” explains Tanya.

We realized that automating this would save time for everybody, not just myself.

Cronofy took the guesswork out of availability for both candidates and hiring managers, and minimized the need to switch between tools. “Cronofy in BambooHR streamlines scheduling—it’s a one-stop shop. It’s an easy, quick, and understandable process to the candidate. It’s so straightforward. I send you an invitation and you accept it.”

Scheduling interviews now happens without needing to make time for it.

This has given Tanya back control of her diary, and allowed her to organize her working day better. “When you have no time, it’s much harder to give things the attention that they deserve,” she shares. "When you’re scheduling manually, you’re not winning."

This is how automating their interview scheduling enabled the organization to take on so much more.

The result:

More than just scheduling: Taking back time to upskill and empower employees throughout the organization

The day that I got to use Cronofy for the first time, I had the realization that scheduling will be so easy, and I will not be so overwhelmed.

Tanya recalls previous periods of high growth that required her to schedule manually at scale, leaving little time for anything else. “This was the answer to what I was experiencing. I would not have moved past the previous manual process.”

Rescheduling interviews has also never been easier.

There was recently an interview that got rescheduled, because one of the panel members was ill. Instead of having to pick up the phone and interrupt everything I was doing in my workflow, I was able to just re-send other times to reschedule to the interviewee. It was so streamlined, it didn’t even interrupt my day.

By eliminating thankless manual scheduling gruntwork with well-placed automation, ONWA is now left with more time to focus on work empowering the community they serve. After getting back hours per week during peak hiring periods, Tanya has even had the chance to upskill and complete a college course.

“Getting Cronofy has enabled me to amplify my skill set, because my time was freed up. Beforehand, there would have been no way for this to happen—I’d be too stressed and too tired. Now, I was able to take a college course to add more potential to myself,” she explains, reflecting on her continued drive to improve, despite an already busy schedule. “The more I get to learn, the more valuable I become.” Now, ONWA can dedicate more resources to assembling their dream team to support the Association in their mission of providing a voice for Indigenous women’s issues in Ontario.

So, what does winning look like to ONWA? “Scheduling without the hiccups, chasing, or chaos,” puts Tanya simply.

The organization now seamlessly schedules interviews without having to leave BambooHR. Users can take advantage of scheduling for a variety of scenarios, including screening calls, panel interviews, and 1:1 interviews with hiring managers.

To make things even smoother, Cronofy users can perform a directory sync to connect the organization’s calendars for availability, eliminating any need for internal back-and-forths. This removes any barriers to scheduling meetings on behalf of someone else, or adding them as an attendee. Users also have the ability to book meetings into blocked spaces if required, avoiding potential conflicts or delays to getting interviews over the line.

Ready to upgrade your BambooHR interview scheduling experience? New users can get a 90-day trial and try Cronofy in BambooHR for themselves—just click below and activate your offer today.