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What will I get from this article? We’ll go through how to schedule individual interviews, panel interviews, and information sessions to boost your employer branding, save time, and impress your candidates. Plus, you’ll get free recruiting email templates for confirmation, reminders, and follow-up messages. |
Recruiters, you have a lot on your shoulders.
After all, the people make the company. And who finds the right people? You do.
The recruitment stage is often the first opportunity to make a great impression and hire the best talent.
In fact, 78% of candidates say the candidate experience they receive is indicative of how a company values its people.
At the same time, the job search is a nerve-wracking time for candidates.
The searching. The uncertainty. The interviews. The waiting.
One survey found that 73% of job seekers say looking for a new job is one of the most stressful things in life.
It’s hard on you as recruiters, too. From searching and sourcing to scheduling and interviewing, there is a lot you have to keep track of.
So let’s help your candidates out and boost your employer branding and recruitment strategy all at once.
We’ll show you how you can streamline scheduling individual interviews, panel interviews, and informational sessions so that your candidates feel respected, informed, and excited to work for your company.
There’s a lot both you and the candidate have to keep up to speed on during the interview process.
You most likely have a few candidates you are considering for a role and don’t have the time to send back-and-forth emails to each one trying to book a time to meet. And that’s just the beginning.
Follow our steps below to not only keep your candidate happy but save yourself tons of time and energy.
Provide the candidate with a link to interview scheduling software, like YouCanBookMe. This allows an easy candidate interview scheduling, where the candidate can choose a time that works for them without feeling confined to only one or two suggested times.
Once the candidate chooses a time, it will be blocked off automatically in your calendar. Additionally, calendar invites will be sent to both you and the candidate, ensuring everyone is kept up to date.
To seamlessly keep track and manage all the different positions you are recruiting for, you can set a separate booking page for each role. If you are recruiting for a few different companies, you can even set custom branding on each of your booking pages to correspond to each client.
Plus, by linking all your calendars together, you won’t ever be double booked.
Your candidate needs to know when to show up where. To make their lives a bit easier, send each candidate a meeting confirmation. Remember to include:
The job position and company
As the candidate is also likely interviewing with more than one company, it will help them keep note of the specific details of the meeting.
Time and location of the interview
Include an address for an in-person interview or a personalized meeting link for a virtual interview.
Duration and agenda
This will help the candidate properly prepare for the meeting.
Links to resources about the company
Save the candidate some research time by linking to important information.
Your contact info
Show the candidate you are accessible in case of any questions.
With YouCanBookMe, you can automatically send an email confirmation to each candidate you meet with.
You can find an email template that includes all of the tips we just mentioned below.
For all YouCanBookMe users, we’ve included shorthand codes which can be found inside of these brackets { }. These fields will automatically populate with the necessary information, saving you time on manually updating your message.
“Subject: Your interview with {BOOKING-PAGE-TITLE}
Hi {FNAME},
We’re so happy you are interested in the [job position] position at [company name]. Your interview is booked for {START}.
Please choose one of the options below:
It will take place at [address]. OR
It will take place on Google Meet via this link: {GOOGLEMEET} OR
It will take place on Microsoft Teams via this link: {MSTEAMS} OR
It will take place on Zoom via this link: {ZOOM} OR
Passcode: {ZOOM-PASSWORD}
We’re looking forward to chatting with you and hearing more about your experience. The interview will last approximately {DURATION} and will focus on [talking points/agenda].
In the meantime, feel free to learn more about our company by visiting: [company URL].
If you have any additional questions, you can reply to this email or reach me at [phone number].
Best,
[your name]
[your position]
[your company]”
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Pro-tip: feel free to replace {BOOKING-PAGE-TITLE} with your name or with {TEAM-NAME}. For more advanced options, see our article about conditional statements. |
As you could probably tell from the template above, YouCanBookMe integrates with virtual meeting platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.
This means you won’t have to go through the trouble of manually generating links for each of your meetings.
Reminders make for a smoother interview process. It’s as simple as that.
It’s vital to send your candidate a reminder of your interview to give them a helping hand. Additionally, reminders reduce no-shows. With YouCanBookMe, you can set unlimited SMS and email reminders so that your candidate is always kept up to date with the interview.
We recommend sending at least one email reminder. For virtual meetings, send the reminder one hour before. For in-person, send it the morning of or the day before, depending on the time of your meeting.
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Pro-tip: remember to include the time, date, your contact info, and either physical address or link to the virtual meeting in the reminder. This will ensure the candidate has the most essential information at hand. |
After the interview is over, it’s time to reach out to the candidate once again.
It’s important to thank your candidate for their time, let them know how to contact you in case of additional questions, and inform them when they should expect to hear from you.
The latter will ease their uncertainty about when they will hear back from you, which is often a taxing time for candidates.
And…you guessed it! With YouCanBookMe, you can automate follow-ups so that they send automatically after your interview is over.
Didn’t we tell you we could make your life hassle-free?
Sometimes life happens. The candidate may agree to meet at a certain time and then boom - there’s life stopping them.
If you make it difficult for the candidate to reschedule, they could begin to think your company doesn’t have a good work-life balance.
After all, chances are once they are working at your company, things will sometimes pop up that will take precedence overwork.
YouCanBookMe automatically includes two links for the candidate in the confirmation email, one to cancel and one to reschedule. Once they click on “reschedule,” they are brought back to your booking page and can pick a new time.
Your candidates will appreciate how easy it is to reschedule their interview.
It will also be a smooth process for you as the meeting automatically gets rebooked and added to your calendar without any inconvenience.
Our advice for scheduling panel interviews will also be similar to individual ones, except for one very important difference.
Getting two people to agree on a time can be tough. Getting a panel together? That’s some people’s scheduling nightmare.
If we combine multiple people with multiple time zones, things can get even messier.
Well, they don’t have to be.
With YouCanBookMe, you can link multiple people’s calendars into one calendar. That means the booker will only be able to choose meeting slots that are free for everyone on the panel.
Once the booker confirms the meeting, it will automatically be blocked off in each individual’s calendar.
This saves you a significant amount of planning time trying to pinpoint when every person on your panel (plus the candidate) is available to meet.
This simple process will show your candidate how organized your company is and that it doesn’t waste time on menial tasks, such as scheduling or managing meetings.
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Pro-tip: make sure to include the names and positions of all participants in your confirmation email. |
Here is a template you can use:
“Subject: Your interview with [company]
Hi {FNAME},
We’re so happy you are interested in the [job position] position at [company name]. Your interview is booked for {START}.
Please choose one of the options below:
It will take place at [address]. OR
It will take place on Google Meet via this link: {GOOGLEMEET} OR
It will take place on Microsoft Teams via this link: {MSTEAMS} OR
It will take place on Zoom via this link: {ZOOM}
Passcode: {ZOOM-PASSWORD}
You will be speaking with:
[Name], [position]
[Name], [position]
[Name], [position]
Hint: add links to the LinkedIn profile of each interviewer.
We’re looking forward to chatting with you and hearing more about your experience. The interview will last approximately {DURATION} and will focus on [talking points/agenda].
In the meantime, feel free to learn more about our company by visiting: [company URL].
If you have any additional questions, you can reply to this email or reach me at [phone number].
Best,
[your name]
[your position]
[your company]”
As we mentioned before, sometimes unexpected things happen in life that may result in the candidate needing to reschedule.
While manually finding a time for the candidate and the entire panel to meet will most likely give you a headache, it’s important to show the candidate that you understand their situation and can accommodate them.
This is where YouCanBookMe’s group availability comes in handy once again. The candidate can easily choose a new time slot that works for everyone without any hassle.
The first two parts of the article focused on the actual interview itself. Now, let’s dial it back a bit.
What comes before the interview? Hooking the candidate.
You can do this by holding informational sessions. Letting the candidate book through an online scheduling tool is a fantastic way to show potential candidates how smoothly things work at your company.
You can add a QR code right to your job fair stand so that anyone stopping by can book a time that works for them. You can also embed your booking page right on your website.
With YouCanBookMe, you can book up to 50 candidates in one-time slot for an informational session.
By creating team booking pages, you can let visitors choose who they want to book time with. Maybe it’s the IT recruiter, or maybe it’s marketing - let them decide.
Thanks to YCBM’s integration with Zapier, you can also easily keep track of everyone who books a meeting by automatically adding their information into your CRM.
For confirmation emails relating to informational sessions, remember to follow the advice from above but also to include links for all the positions you are currently hiring for. That way anyone interested can access them whenever they need.
Here is an email template you can use:
“Subject: Your informational session with {BOOKING-PAGE-TITLE}
Hi {FNAME},
We’re delighted you are interested in learning more about [company]. Your informational session with [name] is booked for {START}.
Please choose one of the options below:
It will take place at [address]. OR
It will take place on Google Meet via this link: {GOOGLEMEET} OR
It will take place on Microsoft Teams via this link: {MSTEAMS} OR
It will take place on Zoom via this link: {ZOOM}
Passcode: {ZOOM-PASSWORD}
We’re looking forward to telling you a bit about our company as well as getting to know you better. The meeting will last approximately {DURATION} and will focus on [talking points/agenda].
In the meantime, feel free to learn more about our company by visiting: [company URL]
To view positions we are currently hiring for, visit: [link here]
Best,
[your name]
[your position]
[your company]”
Any meeting with a candidate is an opportunity for you to leave a lasting, positive impression. Even if that candidate doesn’t work out, they will most likely tell colleagues in their network about the interview process with your company.
Let’s make it known that your scheduling and interview methods are smooth, seamless, and hassle-free. With YouCanBookMe, you can automate scheduling and emailing to focus on what you do best: recruiting amazing candidates.
"We saw a 50% uplift in bookings."
Create your free booking page today. No credit card required.
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Written by
Gabriela is an (everything bagel) seasoned copywriter who has been banging out copy for brands both big and small since 2016. In her free time, you can find her buying Halloween decorations, reading, and trying to force her cat to love her.
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