How to Reduce the Time Needed to Schedule Interviews

You know that old proverb, Time is money. We’ve heard it time and again, and many believe it was first uttered by Benjamin Franklin.

So in other words, we’ve been hearing it awhile!

When it comes to recruiting, though, there is no doubt — time is most definitely money. 

Maybe you’re a staffing and recruiting firm hoping to send the perfect candidate ahead of your competition. Or perhaps you’re an employer with a pressing need to get the right person on the job and working on that project or initiative.

Either way, there’s no denying it: Time = money for recruiters. Finding an edge that saves you some time can make a massive impact in the short and long term. Here on the BrightMove team, we speak with clients every day about their recruiting processes, and where they’re hoping to improve. 

Without a doubt, one key area that can be improved in almost every organization is interviews. Specifically, the time it takes to schedule them. Let’s look at what many would consider a “standard” process for scheduling interviews: 

Step 1: Candidate submits a resume. 

Step 2: ATS sends resume to the recruiter — there’s a match! 

Step 3: ATS automatically responds to the candidate that someone will be in touch.

Step 4: Recruiter waits until there are several potential candidates, and starts leaving voicemails to schedule interviews. 

Step 5: After a few days of phone tag (after all, the candidates are currently employed and aren’t available between 9 and 5), the recruiter has a few interviews set up. 

Step 6: One of the candidates has to reschedule, so more phone tag ensues. 

Step 7: Another candidate has been interviewed and hired at another company, and falls off. 

Step 8: Recruiter holds the interviews and the process moves forward.

Eight steps...seems like a lot, right? In reality, your process could be six steps, or it could be 10 steps. But in a lot of cases, the act of scheduling interviews is a major delay. 

The secret weapon that will increase the speed of your interview scheduling.

Your recruiters are already maxed out. Playing phone tag and sending/responding to emails is par for the course, right? Not anymore! With the right technology, your recruiters can and should be freed to focus on the human interactions that matter most and lead directly to faster, better hiring. 

We talk a lot about the latest recruiting technology and advancements here on the BrightMove blog, and we integrate many of those technological advancements into our platform. We take a great deal of pride in our speed and flexibility. It allows us to constantly improve BrightMove so that our clients are maximizing every minute and dollar of their ATS investment. 

Two of the technological advancements that can be particularly impactful when it comes to scheduling interviews are AI and automation. When implemented carefully within your recruiting technology (as they are in BrightMove), the time needed to schedule interviews can be reduced dramatically. Let’s look at the breakdown:

Step 1: Candidate submits a resume. 

Step 2: ATS determines that the candidate has the skills and experience necessary to warrant an interview. Or, if you prefer, your ATS can send you candidates it believes are a fit, and you manually determine who moves forward in the process.

Step 3: Your ATS automatically sends the candidate an email with proposed dates and times for an interview. The ATS integrates with your calendar, so availability is shown in real-time.

Step 4: The candidate selects a date and time from those available, and it is automatically added to the recruiter’s calendar. 

Half the steps, and potentially a fraction of the time. Plus, it requires significantly less hands-on time from your recruiters. Pretty exciting, right? 

With BrightMove, you can even integrate with a texting platform to send text reminders to candidates and help prevent ghosting. The possibilities are endless!

Ready to save time and increase productivity? 

BrightMove was built by recruiting experts, for recruiters. We are constantly improving our platform to be on the cusp of the latest trends, delivering an exceptional experience for recruiters and candidates alike. 

The old-school method of recruiting is broken and costly. We’re committed to saving you time and money, and ultimately, helping you land more, better talent. We dig more into the soaring cost of recruiting (and how BrightMove can help) in this quick resource.