Automating Interview Scheduling with Scheduling Automation

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to configure scheduling preferences, including calendar integration, available time slots, automation preferences, and daily interview limits.

Scheduling Automation

Scheduling Automation is a feature designed to streamline the interview scheduling process. It automates key steps, allowing candidates to select available time slots that align with the interviewer’s availability. This reduces the manual effort involved in coordinating schedules and eliminates the back-and-forth communication often associated with traditional scheduling methods.

The system uses predefined interview templates and considers interviewer’s availability to find suitable matches.

Scheduling Automation Initiation:

There are two primary ways to initiate Scheduling Automation:

  1. Workflow Setup by Admins: Administrators can configure an auto self-schedule rule within hiring process workflows. By setting conditions, the system automatically schedules interviews based on factors like interviewer availability and predefined interview templates. This method is particularly useful for high-volume or high speed hiring scenarios where efficiency is critical.
  2. User-Initiated Scheduling: Users with the necessary permissions can manually trigger automated scheduling directly from the applicant list or applicant profile. This provides flexibility for individual cases where automated scheduling is preferred.

Set Up Auto Self-Scheduling

The Auto Self-Scheduling feature allows candidates to book interview times directly with interviewers using templates defined by administrators.

This feature can be rolled out in phases, starting with admin-only access and gradually expanding to hiring teams.

Note

It is recommended to roll this out carefully, with close attention to change management around interviewers' calendar accuracy.

To set up Auto Self-Scheduling:

Steps

  1. Start with Sandbox: Auto Self-Scheduling is enabled by default in Sandbox environments. Use this environment to test and validate your setup before enabling it in production.

  2. Restrict Feature in Production system - Set the feature to admin-only initially in the Production environment. This prevents hiring teams from accessing it until the configuration is finalized and tested.:

  3. Select User Menu→Settings.

  4. Go to Configuration section→Hiring Process.

  5. Select Manage Interview templates in the row of the Hiring Process you want to edit.

  6. Select Only Admins are able to configure the feature to start with in the Hiring team permissions section.

  7. Prepare Interview Templates and Hiring Processes on Sandbox:

    • Configure interview templates with the correct structure, including roles, formats, and durations.
    • Assign templates to the appropriate hiring steps within your hiring processes.
    • Use different hiring processes to customize the logic for each department or brand.
    • Ensure hiring steps are marked as interview-relevant for automation to function correctly.
    • Test End-to-End in Sandbox (Optional): Use internal test jobs and candidate profiles to simulat the interview flow, trigger Auto Self-Scheduling, and ensure the interviewer assignments and reminders work as expected.

  8. Prepare Interview Templates and Hiring on Production environment. Replicate the successful configuration from the Sandbox environment in the production environment.

    Enable the Feature for Hiring Teams on Production: Once you are satisfied with the setup, allow hiring teams to use Auto Self-Scheduling.

    Note

    If you allow hiring teams to be able to coordinate interviews with automation, the client has to be confident enough in their Talent Acquisition process and team‘s readiness to use this feature

  9. Propagate Your Changes to Existing Jobs: Use the Overwrite modified jobs action to apply updated interview settings to jobs that were previously edited and may not reflect your latest configuration. Only jobs there were edited after creation are impacted by the Overwrite modified jobs settings. It is advised to make small changes on the jobs that were not edited so they are added to the scope of Overwrite modified jobs.

Scheduling Preferences

Scheduling Preferences allow hiring team members to tailor their interview scheduling settings to align with their personal preferences. This enhances efficiency and minimizes scheduling conflicts. Functionality can be accessed through Settings→My Account Section→Scheduling Preferences.

Key Benefits of Scheduling Preferences

  • Enhanced Control: Tailor your scheduling settings to suit your personal needs and avoid conflicts.
  • Improved Efficiency: Automate interview scheduling while ensuring compatibility with your calendar.
  • Flexibility: Adjust settings anytime to accommodate changes in your availability or workload.

Key Configuration Options

  • Calendar Integration: Integrate your work calendar to allow the system to check your availability. Supported calendar providers can be connected seamlessly.
  • Available Time Slots: Define specific time slots during which you are available for interviews. This ensures interviews are scheduled only when convenient for you. For example, Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

  • Automation Preferences: Customize advanced scheduling parameters to refine how interviews are scheduled:

    • Advance Time: Specify the minimum notice period for interviews (for example, at least 48 hours).
    • Buffer Time: Add buffer times between interviews to allow for breaks (for example, 15 minutes).
  • Daily Interview Limit: Set a maximum number of interviews you can handle in a single day to avoid overload. For example, a maximum of 4 interviews per day.

Out-of-Office Periods

You can specify Out-of-Office (OOO) periods within your Scheduling Preferences. These periods automatically override any calendar availability, ensuring that you are not scheduled for interviews when you are unavailable. You can define up to 10 separate OOO periods. Out of Office can be configured in Scheduling Preferences in Settings section.

No Interview Slots Notification

Interviewers and job creators will receive an email notification when a candidate attempts to self-schedule but finds no available time slots. This prompts interviewers to update their scheduling preferences and job creators to manage interviewers.

When a candidate clicks the scheduling link and no slots are available within the system’s rolling 14-day window, a one-time email notification will be triggered. This notification will not be resent unless new availability is detected and then fully booked again.

The scheduling page updates daily, meaning if no slots are available today, the system will continue checking for open time slots over the next 14 days. If the candidate has not yet scheduled, they will see newly available slots in future updates. Upon receiving a notification, interviewers are prompted to update their scheduling preferences, and job creators receive a link to manage interviewers.

Summary

  • Scheduling Automation: streamlines the interview process by automating scheduling and allowing candidates to self-schedule.
  • There are two methods for triggering automation: admin-configured workflows and user-initiated scheduling.
  • You can configure scheduling preferences, including calendar integration, available time slots, automation preferences, and out-of-office periods.

Learning

SAP FacebookSAP YoutubeSAP LinkedIn