Several recruiters that I have interacted with, share a common frustration: scheduling phone screens. The sheer number of candidates that you need to reach out to and schedule phone screens with, often ends up taking the most time and energy out of the entire recruitment cycle. Some recruiters even end up narrowing the candidate pool too much based on the resume screening, just to avoid having to go through the email back and forth to schedule the phone screen.
At FreeBusy, we realized that if your goal as a recruiter was to spend 15 minutes per candidate during the phone screening stage, you should not have to spend any more than 30 seconds to schedule the phone screen itself. And if a tool like FreeBusy can help you schedule phone screens that quickly, it can significantly shorten the recruitment cycle.
So how to schedule phone screens in less than 30 seconds?
FreeBusy is a tool that helps you eliminate the back and forth of emails using automated scheduling. Once you connect all your calendars with FreeBusy, it creates a booking page for your phone screening calls which is available as a link. You can share the link with all the potential candidates through email or on a platform like LinkedIn Recruiter.
When the candidate opens the link, FreeBusy pulls in combined availability from all your connected calendars, and allows candidate to only pick from time slots when you are available. Candidates can check their schedule and book a time that works best for them. You never have to worry about being double booked.
How to plan your phone screens to make the most out of your day?
As recruiters, you do not want to keep conducting phone screens through out the day as there are a number of other things that you want to get done in a day. A lot of recruiters I have interacted with have shared that blocking off two 2-hour windows during the day works the best as it gives you half the day to focus on all your other responsibilities.
FreeBusy allows you to restrict your availability for the phone screening calls to ensure that candidates can only pick a time from the 2-hour windows that work for you. Additionally, FreeBusy also allows you to add a limit such that candidate only has options to pick a time from the next 3-5 days making sure you complete the phone screening stage without stretching the recruitment cycle any longer than you need.
In summary, here is how to automate scheduling of phone screens:
- Sign up to FreeBusy and connect all the calendars you use
- Set your availability for the booking page for phone screening calls
- Share the link with the candidates
FreeBusy does the rest and when the candidate books a slot, FreeBusy can even automatically add it to your calendar and send the invite to the candidate with any instructions that you need to share.