Purpose

The purpose of this article is to outline the Hold interviewer time functionality and its features.

Audience

The intended audience of this document is the schedulers, coordinators, and recruiters.

Overview

The Hold interviewer time feature is a strategic addition to our interview scheduling system, aiming to improve the overall scheduling process by addressing critical pain points:

• As the scheduler is finding times that work on the interviewer side, (s)he had no mechanism in Eightfold Scheduling to tentatively block them while (s)he is finalizing the availability of other interviewers.
• The scheduler wants to be able to share the schedule with the candidate only when the agenda on the interviewer side is fixed which ensures timely communication of interview availability to candidates.

Functionality

This feature introduces a two-step confirmation process, ensuring seamless coordination between interviewers and schedulers:

1. Scheduling interviews on the interviewer calendar and sending them calendar invites: When one or multiple interview rounds are proposed, the scheduler can initiate the process by sending the calendar invites. Upon receiving the calendar invite, interviewers can confirm their availability, preventing any conflicting appointments.
2. Send confirmation email to the candidate: After the interviewer's availability is confirmed (accepted/declined), schedulers can modify the schedule (if required) and send an official email to the candidate.

Note that the responsibility of completing the scheduling process lies solely with the Scheduler and this feature doesn't support any logic to auto-complete the scheduling.

Limitations

• This feature is not applicable to the Let Candidate Select module and for bulk scheduling.
• This feature is applicable at a meeting level and not at individual slot level.
• The Edit interviewers option is not available in the hold invites feature. Click Resume scheduling to make changes.
• After the candidate invite has been sent, the scheduler can only reschedule the meeting and will not be able to send hold invites only to interviewers.

Talent Acquisition changes

Following UI changes have been made to support this feature:

• A new option Hold interviewer time has been added to the Scheduling wizard (Schedule Interview screen).
  
  Figure 1: Hold interviewer time option on the Scheduling wizard
  
• A new filter Pending invite to candidate has been added to the Scheduling Center to filter the meetings sent with the hold invites.
  
  Figure 2: New status filter “Pending invite to candidate” on Scheduling Center
  

  On opening the meeting details,

  • A new option Resume scheduling has been added (instead of Rescheduling), which takes the scheduler to the interview edit screen, to resolve issues (if any) and send invites to the candidate.
  • The invites accepted by interviewers have an Interviewer accepted tag.
  • In cases where the invite is waiting for the interviewer's confirmation, the quick action Send reminder has been added next to the Pending Interviewer Confirmation tag, for schedulers to send email reminders immediately to the interviewers.
  • For the invites declined by the interviewer, a quick action Resolve has been added next to the Interviewer declined tag. On clicking Resolve, the specific interviewer declined slot opens up for edit.
  • Status of attendees (except optional attendees) will also be shown. Hover over the attendees to see their status like Pending and Confirmed. Additionally, a symbol in their avatar also indicates the RSVP status.
  • In case of multiple interviewers in a slot with different RSVP statuses, the priority order of slot status is: Interviewer declined > Pending confirmation > Accepted.

Scheduling using the hold functionality (happy path approach)

1. Select a candidate and click Schedule > Schedule a Meeting.
2. Enter interview slot (single or multiple) details, like interview title, interviewer name, and time. As soon as the scheduler enters all the required interview details, the Hold interviewer time option is enabled.
   
   Figure 3: Interview Scheduling Window
   
3. Click on the Hold interviewer time option. A confirmation popup window appears.
   
   Figure 4: Hold interviewer time screen popup
   
4. Click Confirm to send the calendar invites to the interviewers. The [HOLD] invites get sent to interviewers. Interviewers can identify these by the [HOLD] in the invitation title.
   
   Figure 5: Interviewer calendar with “[Hold]” invites
   
5. Interviewers can confirm their availability. Once all the invitations are accepted by the interviewers, the schedulers can send the invitation to the candidates from the Scheduling Center.

   Note that the scheduler is not blocked from sending the candidate invite, even if interviewers are pending confirmation or have declined.

6. Go to the Scheduling Center and filter for Pending invite to candidate. Open the meeting details.
   
   Figure 6: Scheduling Center filtered for “Pending invite to candidate”
   
7. Click on Resume scheduling to proceed with sending the invites to the candidate. Click Next Communication, fill in the communications detail, and send the invite.

   Note that the scheduler can again send hold invites if any additional interview rounds or interviewers need to be added (before sending final candidate invites only).

   
   Figure 7: On opening a “Pending invite to candidate” meeting