Our self-schedule interview tool allows you to schedule interviews around your availability while providing the applicant the flexibility to select time slots that best work for them. To set up the full workflow of this tool, you need to connect your Calendar and schedule your availability.
Click HERE to learn more about connecting your calendar.
Once you’ve set up your Calendar and scheduled your availability, you’re all set to schedule an interview!
Schedule Your Interview
1. Navigate to the applicant’s profile you want to schedule an interview with and select Messages > Interview Request. This will populate the Schedule Interview tool.
2. On the Schedule Interview Page, you’ll have two options for scheduling: Pick a specific time or Let your candidate choose the time.
For pick a specific time, you and the applicant will work together on selecting an agreed upon time & date. For more information on this option, please refer to our Send A Meeting Request To An Applicant article.
The let your candidate choose the time option allows the applicant to select from a pool of times & dates built around the availability of the users who will interview the applicant. In order for this feature to be utilized to its fullest potential, you’ll need to make sure that all users who will be conducting interviews have their calendars connected to the system or it may cause a user to have an interview scheduled when they aren’t available. This feature requires at least one of the interviewers to have their calendar connected with the system.
3. Once you’ve selected Let your candidate choose the time you can begin adding in information to each field to schedule the interview.
Hiring Managers - This field is used to assign users to the interview. Users with (connected) next to their name indicate they’ve connected their calendar to the system. Ones who do not have this do not have their calendar connected to the system and may have the interview scheduled on a time they aren’t available. Again, it’s crucial you consult with your users who are conducting interviews to have their calendars connected. If you don’t, they may have an interview scheduled when they aren’t available.
Time Zone - The Time Zone the interview will be scheduled in. This will always default to the account’s time zone.
Minimum Notice - The pool of times and dates the applicant can select from will be impacted by the Minimum Notice dropdown menu selection, as applicants will only be able to pick from times available after that amount of time has passed. For example, if you have 24 hrs selected, then an applicant will only be given dates that occur 24 hours from the current real-time, not the time from when the interview request was sent out.
Duration - This dropdown is set up in scaling intervals and represents approximately how long the interview will last.
Any available time in the next - This dropdown menu allows you to control the amount of dates that appear for the applicant to select from. For example, if you select 7 days, then the applicant will be given a pool of times & dates to select from that happen over the course of the next 7 days.
Customize Your Availability - This feature allows you to control the pool of dates and times the applicant can select from. For instance, you can block off time on three separate dates and the applicant can select only from the dates and the blocked off times for those dates. This allows you to have more control with scheduling while still providing flexibility to the ability. *You can only use this feature on available time slots that will be indicated as white spaces.
So what determines the availability applicants will be able to select from? Another feature of Customize Your Availability is this allows you to see the busy times your Hiring Managers have on their Calendars. The grayed out space are times the applicant will not have an option to select from. Clicking Cancel and Reset will take you out of the menu.
4. Once you’ve selected the fields you’d like to go with, you can scroll down to the email which will create the actual interview.
Location: This is the location of where this interview will be scheduled. If you’re using a digital platform to hold the meeting, you can add the link as the location.
Template: By default, the system will use the Meeting Request Template. This template will pre-populate text in the body of the email which you can customize. If you’re on a plan which allows you to create custom templates or you’d like to update the Meeting Request template, you can do this by navigating My Account>Account Details; scroll down to Templates and select Message Templates.
Subject & Message: This is the actual Subject & Message the applicant will receive. Domains are cracking down harder than ever on spammy emails; because of this you’ll want to make sure the Subject line avoids any type of spammy phrases such as Offer. Most domains are fine with the default subject line and won’t reroute this email to spam.
Upload Files: You have the ability to upload files for an applicant to view and send back prior to the interview.
5. So what happens next? The Applicant will receive the following email with instructions on selecting from a group of times & dates to schedule the interview.
Here is a sample of the e-mail an applicant will receive:
Once the applicant clicks Schedule Your Interview, they’ll be brought to a pool of dates & times available.
Once selected, they’ll receive the following confirmation.
