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Holiday Hiring in 2024: How to Land Retail Workers Now

Posted on October 23, 2023April 3, 2024 by Jake Link

If the pumpkin iced coffees are upon us, that means so is the holiday hiring season.

Retail talent leaders, this is your sign to push forward with your holiday hiring plan if you haven’t done so already. I know that with a (still) unstable economy and fewer resources to meet hiring goals, talent teams are worried that they’re up against another hard holiday hiring year.

But not to worry — I’ve got your back. I gathered tips from experienced TA leaders and we’re going to spill their secrets and show you how to achieve holiday recruiting success this year.

The truth is, things aren’t going to be easy. Similar to last year, the U.S. labor market remains tight with 1.6 jobs available for every unemployed worker.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The good news is that we’re seeing signs of gradual cooling and a 35% increase in job searches this year compared to last year. With continued inflation, interest-rate hikes, and resumed student loan payments, people may be feeling the pressure to find jobs.

Even so, it’s still the worker’s market in retail. As retail TA leaders continue to face hiring headwinds, how can they set themselves up for a successful holiday hiring season in 2024? Read on to find out what the experts are saying.

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Don’t wait another second to plan for holiday hiring

So yes, the best time to start your holiday hiring strategy was in September, but the second-best time is now.

Talent teams are up against a growing set of unique challenges (from tech advances to an unpredictable economy to shifting candidate expectations). Knowing this, it’s critical to have an adaptable plan in place so you can start attracting job seekers right away.

Speed is the name of the game when it comes to hiring, especially in retail. If you’re slow to offer the job, the store across the street will sweep in and grab your candidates.

To make sure your competition doesn’t strike first, you need to start your hiring strategy early. Elizabeth Konkel, U.S. Department of Commerce economist agrees. “My advice for employers looking for seasonal workers is start now,” she says. “Don’t wait later in the season because you may really feel a big crunch.”

We repeat: don’t wait. Not only will this set you up to hire the right people for the right roles, but you’ll also have more job applicants than if you waited.

“My advice for employers looking for seasonal workers is start now. Don’t wait later in the season because you may really feel a big crunch.”
Elizabeth Konkel, Economist, U.S. Department of Commerce

Vary your recruitment methods during the holiday season

Need to attract seasonal hires, but aren’t sure where to begin? Get creative.

There are a variety of platforms that can be leveraged to spread the word. Of course, first, you’ll want to make sure your basics are covered and that you’re advertising your seasonal jobs on your company website, social media platforms, and online job boards.

Then, think beyond digital ads.

Remember — not all “creative” recruitment methods need to be tech-forward. Sometimes, old-school approaches are the most effective. We spoke with Craig Pyke, currently the Director of Talent Acquisition at Rivian and a hiring leader with nearly 20 years of experience hiring high-volume roles. When we asked him about innovative approaches to hitting hiring goals, he advised going back to basics:

“I actually posted a billboard. In my background, that was like the craziest thing to do. You know, we would source talent on all these different channels, but in volume recruiting, you have to get in front of people, right? And sometimes just doing a simple thing like that — getting back to basics and in front of folks — is one good way to go about it.”

Try a company referral program, attend job fairs and hiring events, or even hand out old-school fliers at your local campus. It may seem outdated, but it’s a great way to get in front of college students who need a bit of work while school is out of session. Even better, include a QR code on your flier that allows students to quickly scan and apply directly from their phones. And speaking of mobilized applications, this brings us to our next point.

Make your seasonal job application process mobile-friendly

Where are you most likely to browse the internet? Is it at your home office on your desktop computer? Or, is it on your phone or tablet while you’re waiting in line at the bank, taking your work lunch break, or riding public transportation?

Most likely, it’s the latter. And when it comes to retail applicants, this especially holds true. ICIMS reports that 70% of retail applicants used a mobile device to apply for a job. This is compared to 53% of other applicants.

To get in front of these quick-paced candidates, retail talent leaders need to make their application process mobile-friendly. While you’re at it, make sure to keep the application process fast and efficient, especially since 73% of applicants abandon the application process if it takes longer than 15 minutes.

Famous Footwear recently implemented text-to-apply and is reaping big benefits — a 50% increase in applicants per job opening to be exact. With that kind of applicant increase, you can’t afford to not mobilize your application process.

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Engage candidates instantly

There’s nothing worse than applying for a job, then waiting…and waiting…and waiting for a response. And a same-day response? That’s almost unheard of according to an Indeed report. Only 4% of job applicants hear back that same day and only a few more (37%) hear back in one week.

So if you’re looking to impress candidates, incorporate texting into your recruitment process. With the right platform, you can upgrade your current ATS to contact candidates directly through SMS and WhatsApp and move them to the next stage of the hiring process — in just seconds. Curious about what it looks like in action? Check out the SMS and WhatsApp featurette from our Product Tour.

When you engage instantly, candidates feel valued. And you get to find the right people, faster.

Text recruitment for holiday hiring: An illustration showing a simplified version of candidate communication in GoodTime — GoodTime enables SMS and WhatsApp messaging and scheduling directly from your ATS or web browser.

Streamline your process as much as possible to reduce time-to-hire

Speed really is the name of the game this year. When I speak to recruitment leaders hiring for high-volume roles, nearly all of them say they’re looking to streamline or even completely eliminate steps from their hiring process.

Brenda Purvis knows high-volume hiring. She’s led recruitment efforts for high-volume roles for 15 years and is currently the Principal Consultant for Enterprise Talent Strategy at Kaiser Permanente. In a recent executive roundtable, she urged TA pros to prioritize them in their hiring process:

“Time is truly the name of the game… time is the element that we can have some control over,” she told us.

“How do we make sure that we’re looking at our recruiting teams and equipping them to really reduce the time in all of those processes? Some of that is technology, and some of that is procedures and efficiency, but it’s also trying out new things. Instead of three or four panel interviews, can we get this done in two? Or, in certain roles where we have a higher volume of roles, and we really do know what it takes to be successful, would a recruiter be able to make some of those hiring decisions?”

“Time is truly the name of the game… time is the element that we can have some control over.”
Brenda Purvis, Principal Consultant for Enterprise Talent Strategy, Kaiser Permanente

Look for transferable skills

A large majority of retail seasonal workers will come from Gen Z. And as newbies in the working world, it’s likely that they may not have all the experience you’re looking for.

But just because they don’t have retail experience doesn’t mean they won’t be a good fit for the job. In fact, 50% of talent teams are no longer considering just experiences and instead, are looking at skills.

So, rather than relying on resume qualifications, consider candidates who show potential. Do they possess essential retail skills, like teamwork or initiative? If so, they’re likely a great fit — even if their resume doesn’t say so.

But how, exactly, do you evaluate skills?

Skills assessment tests are becoming the go-to tool to discover if candidates have the capability to get the job done. These tests can measure everything from technical skills to cognitive abilities and personality traits. They’re truly a game-changer when it comes to matching candidate skills to job requirements.

Invest in high-volume scheduling and interviewing tools

Our retail hiring insights report found that the current average time-to-hire in the industry is around 16 days.

Still, it’s days too slow for holiday recruiters who need help now. To get your best candidates through the process fast, consider automating your interview scheduling and offering virtual interviews. Both work around the candidate’s schedule, making the entire process seamless.

Here’s how it works: Once talent teams have engaged with candidates, they can send pre-built screening questions that will assess who can move to the next stage of the process. Then, with the simple click of a button, the most qualified candidates can schedule their interview right then and there. And with in-person and virtual interview options, the candidate can choose one that aligns best with their schedule.

When done right, this process can cut that 16-day time-to-hire in half.

Getting budget for hiring tools in a tight economy

But how do you choose the right platform for your needs? And how are you supposed to get a budget for a new tool when resources are tighter than ever?

We asked Valeria Stanga, a seasoned retail TA leader who previously served as a TA Partner for Zalando and now works as a Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at HelloFresh. She told us, “You have to start with why. Why are you looking for something? What problem are you trying to solve?” Answering these questions, she says, will not only make it easier to select the right platform, but will also help you set up a case for procuring budget later on.

Then, it becomes about being able to clearly calculate the ROI of a recruitment platform. In Valeria’s case, when she procured GoodTime, they were looking to do 2 specific things:

Improve the speed of scheduling interviews
Reduce rescheduling rates

“Before the implementation of GoodTime, it took me 25 minutes to schedule a final interview with 3 separate interviewers — 1 hour each,” she said. “After, it was just over 3 minutes. It was such a huge change and that was still during the pilot phase!”

Watch the video below for more advice from Valeria on securing a budget for hiring technology.

Think beyond short-term opportunities

In 2022, Vicki Salemi, a career expert at Monster, said in an interview with Human Resource Executive that 36% of applicants wanted to turn a seasonal position into a full-time role. And USA Today reported that 44% of Americans currently work in (or plan to work in) seasonal jobs.

What’s happening here? It’s likely due to an increased cost of living over the last few years. In fact, according to the 2023 Global Workforce Survey, 69% of people say they’re working multiple jobs because they need extra income.

Retail TA leaders, this is your chance to turn your best seasonal workers into full or part-time employees. Admittedly, retail has traditionally gotten a bad rap when it comes to employee turnover. But it’s time to change that narrative.

Investing in your employee experience now (not just your candidate experience!) will pay off long-term. Start by creating an atmosphere that appreciates the hard work employees contribute. If seasonal hires love where they work, the ones interested in long-term work won’t want to leave.

Read more about how to up-level your employer brand.

Raise compensation for holiday hires

The average hourly wage for retail workers sits at just $15 per hour. And many job seekers are no longer okay with trading hard work for subpar pay — especially in today’s economy. Employees are up against high cost of living and a low hourly pay just won’t cut it anymore.

Do you want to attract and land quality candidates? Then check your compensation offers to make sure they’re enticing. A Salary.com report shows that half of employers planned better budget increases in 2023 compared to the previous year. Another report shows as many as 80% of employers upped their compensation in 2023.

So before you start hiring, make sure your pay is competitive. This will likely be a big driving force behind your candidate acceptance rate.

And I get it — you have a limited budget and resources for seasonal hires. You can’t just raise compensation indefinitely. But think about it this way — what is the cost of all the time you and your hiring teams have to put into the process to fill a low-pay role? How much faster would it be to fill a role if the compensation was a little higher? How many of those employees would you be able to retain instead of spending more time addressing turnover? Pretty quickly, pay raises start to make sense budgetarily.

Build a network of seasonal hires

Think about all the connections you’ve made as you’ve interviewed and hired seasonal workers over the years. If you’ve made a good impression, past seasonal hires would likely be open (and even excited!) to come back next year.

This will ensure you have a pool of qualified seasonal candidates every year — cutting hours of recruiting, assessing, and training time.

Once the season is done, create a database of your best seasonal workers. Include details about their skills and past performance. Then, stay in touch.

Take it up a notch and create private social media groups for your seasonal workers, and send regular company updates and newsletters to keep them in the loop. To go a step further, consider hosting alumni events. This maintains healthy relationships and keeps them engaged, even in the off-season.

Make this your best holiday hiring year yet

If there’s one takeaway you get from me today, it should be this: the best seasonal hiring strategy will include a variety of recruitment methods — from newer tech-based platforms to the old in-person standbys.

To reach (and serve) seasonal hires in today’s modern world, consider starting with a comprehensive hiring solution that boosts your team’s productivity so you can hire faster in a competitive market.

Start by checking out GoodTime’s retail recruitment software. It attracts and engages candidates with SMS and WhatsApp — so you can quickly push candidates to the next stage of the process (the interview). It will also automatically send these candidates an interview scheduling link so they can pick the best time for their busy schedules. And yes, it’s all done in a matter of minutes. All you have to do is focus on interviewing and hiring the best possible seasonal candidates.

Even with an unstable economy and leaner resources, you can still meet your hiring goals this year. With the right combination of strategy, processes, and tech, you can make 2024 your best seasonal hiring year yet!

Navigating the Manufacturing Labor Shortage: 5 Ways to Hit Your Recruitment Goals

Posted on October 19, 2023September 3, 2025 by Jake Link

It’s no secret that the manufacturing industry has been through the wringer in recent years. Despite efforts to bounce back after the pandemic, the industry has faced an uphill battle in refilling vacancies. The numbers don’t lie: as of August 2023, a staggering 616,000 manufacturing jobs remained wide open, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Our most recent Manufacturing Hiring Insights Report found that manufacturing companies, on average, are attaining only 44.3% of their hiring goals. If alarms aren’t going off in your head, they should be — these stats paint a concerning picture of the labor shortages and talent acquisition and retention struggles towering over the industry.

But still, not every manufacturing organization is struggling to stay afloat — some talent teams have learned how to navigate the turbulent waters. So, the question remains: what manufacturing recruitment strategies can still drive results?

We sat down with Craig Pyke, Director of Talent Acquisition at Rivian, and Michael Case, Head of Partnerships at Meshd, to shed light on manufacturing’s ongoing labor shortage and discuss adaptive recruitment strategies to power through these difficulties and start hitting your hiring goals again. We leveraged their combined 35+ years of recruitment experience to examine how software plays a pivotal role in addressing the ongoing manufacturing labor shortage.

Let’s dive in.

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Understanding the manufacturing labor shortage

You’re likely all too familiar with “The Great Reshuffle,” where the US labor market saw more than 50 million workers quit their jobs in 2022. Despite this mass exodus, hiring rates have consistently outpaced quit rates since November 2020, indicating that workers are transitioning to new opportunities rather than leaving the workforce altogether.

Stat: Even if every unemployed person with experience in the durable goods manufacturing industry were employed, the industry would fill 65% of the vacant jobs.

In addition to employees transitioning from manufacturing jobs to other careers, young people’s interest in learning trades or manufacturing skills has decreased.

“We’ve been focused on educating a whole generation that college is the answer,” says Michael. “That has come with a certain cost now that we’re trying to bring back manufacturing to the US.”

But that’s not the full story for manufacturing. After losing 1.4 million jobs at the onset of the pandemic, the sector has consistently struggled to attract and retain candidates for these job vacancies, with over 600,000 positions still unfilled.

There’s no straightforward solution. Even if every unemployed person with experience in durable goods manufacturing were employed, the industry would fill just 65% of the vacant jobs. As companies strive to attract skilled workers from the same shallow candidate pool, the talent competition shows no sign of cooling off.

And unfortunately, it’s not the kind of problem that time alone can solve. The National Association of Manufacturers anticipates that as many as 2.1 million manufacturing roles could go unfilled by 2031.

Graphic: Showing the growth in unfilled manufacturing roles — from 600k in 2023 to 2.1 million in 2031.

In this ultra-competitive environment, manufacturing recruitment needs to be faster and more proactive than ever. Recruiting leaders affirm that the teams that operate swiftly and communicate proactively are most likely to secure top candidates.

In response, manufacturing companies are evolving to adapt to the labor crunch. Let’s take a look at some game-changing strategies the experts have adopted to drive effective manufacturing recruiting in the face of labor shortages.

5 ways to improve manufacturing recruiting amid labor shortages

When you’re grappling with a shortage of skilled talent, traditional recruitment methods just won’t cut it. Here are a few strategies that can transform your manufacturing recruiting efforts:

1. Leverage technology to streamline recruitment

As competition for manufacturing talent continues to increase, speed and efficiency are critical in securing top candidates. This is where leveraging technology comes in. High-volume hiring platforms like GoodTime can help speed up the recruitment process by automating interview scheduling, allowing teams to connect with candidates instantly via text, and even scheduling interviews at scale.

The simple truth is that an ATS alone isn’t enough. You need to build from your ATS and supercharge it with additional tech built to solve the unique challenges of the manufacturing industry.

“If we start with the ATS as our most basic tool, there’s an entire tech stack on either side: outreach, sourcing, and interview scheduling platforms like GoodTime.” Says Michael. “There are so many tools. What do I really need, and what is nice to have? That’s what I think about when I design a system end-to-end.”

On-demand session: Manufacturing Recruitment in the Face of Labor Shortages — Click here to watch our full conversation with TA leaders from Rivian and Meshd.

2. Prioritize candidate experience

Providing a positive and engaging candidate experience can set you apart from other companies. This includes clear and timely communication, a smooth application process, and showing respect for the candidate’s time.

Technology can also be a huge asset here — for example, you’ll want to be able to easily send 1:1 messages to candidates via email and SMS, and even bulk message groups of candidates for faster interview scheduling.

So, how do you make the process more fun and engaging for candidates? Craig says it’s all about who’s running the show: “What it comes down to is hiring the right person to do those different recruiting events. And sometimes, they may not have a traditional recruiting resume. People that are really fun and can work a room and bring people together to do different activities are the best fit, even if they don’t have a traditional recruiting profile.”

3. Optimize and streamline your interview process

To improve your time-to-hire, streamline your interview process as much as possible. That might also mean reducing the number of rounds a candidate completes.

Reducing time to hire doesn’t mean you need to eliminate important candidate assessments or rush through the process. It means streamlining or condensing the steps when it makes sense to do so.

“One of the ways to reduce that amount of assessment time is to have candidates do an activity where you can observe some of their behaviors and skills,” says Craig. “If you have them do an activity, oftentimes with other candidates, you can assess their ability to assemble a project, follow instructions, and work as a team. That way, you’ll be evaluating multiple skills at once rather than individually, which can save a ton of time.”

4. Make use of screening tools

To ensure that you’re focusing on the most qualified candidates, make use of basic screening questionnaires and knockout questions as part of your interview process.

For deeper screening, we recommend tools like SmartAssistant and Checkr that can quickly remove unqualified candidates and help you find the right match for each position more efficiently.

Additionally, as more manufacturing jobs are starting to involve robotic technology and utilize computer and coding skills, consider a tool like HackerRank that can assess candidates’ programming skills.

5. Integrate with existing tools and processes

To avoid disrupting your existing workflow, choose technology that integrates with your current processes and systems. GoodTime, for instance, allows you to text candidates directly from your ATS, send messages from any website right from your browser, and sync data back to your ATS or other databases. When considering a new tool, make sure it seamlessly integrates with your existing tech stack so that it actually helps you, rather than causing more headaches.

By adopting these strategies, you can turn the current labor shortage into an opportunity to boost your recruitment process and attract the talent your manufacturing company needs to thrive in 2024 and beyond.

How recruiting tools can revolutionize your manufacturing recruiting strategy

While there are a ton of strategies out there to improve your recruitment process, the biggest opportunity to make progress on your hiring goals is by leveraging the latest recruitment technology. Consider using recruiting and interview scheduling software that’s built specifically for high-volume roles. Look for a solution that provides a comprehensive solution designed to meet the unique needs of the manufacturing sector.

Let’s break down a few features of recruiting technology that can help you ramp up your manufacturing recruiting process:

High-volume recruiting

The key to overcoming labor shortages is making your recruiting process as efficient as possible. Use a platform that enables high-volume recruiting via text and email messaging, allowing you to connect with candidates instantly and schedule interviews faster. Getting in front of in-demand candidates before other companies can make a big difference.

Check out GoodTime’s high-volume recruiting software.

Automated interview scheduling

Automation is the future of recruitment. A great recruiting tool should help you schedule multiple candidates at once with the click of a button, view the current scheduling status of all candidates, and automatically send calendar invites, agendas, and reminders. This streamlines the process, cuts down on paperwork, and ensures a seamless candidate experience.

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Configurable workflow automation

Recruitment tech lets you set up all sorts of automation, from simple to complex, based on various criteria. You can auto-send messages to job seekers and hiring folks, like invites, reminders, and friendly pokes, which makes your hiring process smoother and more personal.

Effective screening

Pre-built screening questionnaires and knockout questions help you quickly screen out unqualified candidates and focus on those who are right for the job. This leads to a more efficient hiring process and better matches between candidates and job roles.

Integration with existing processes

Ideally, any new recruiting technology in your tech stack should integrate seamlessly into your existing processes, allowing you to send messages to candidates from any website, send interview requests, view conversations, and get notifications.

Connection to your ATS

A great platform should bring candidate and job data from out-of-the-box integrations to your ATS when needed. This ensures a smooth flow of data and maintains the integrity of your recruitment process.

See all of this in action: GoodTime’s high-volume hiring features were built specifically with the manufacturing sector in mind. You can see them for yourself in our on-demand product tour.

Looking ahead: A brighter future for manufacturing recruitment in 2024 and beyond

As manufacturing recruiters roll with the punches of the post-pandemic world, it’s clear that the industry’s destiny hinges on how good they are at tackling today’s hurdles. As they continue to grapple with labor shortages, the focus of recruitment leaders in 2024 will be on improving time-to-hire in their interview process. This means a shift towards more efficient and streamlined recruitment strategies.

Innovative recruitment technologies are pivotal players in this transformation. By automating and optimizing the recruitment process, these platforms can help manufacturing companies effectively combat labor shortages and meet their hiring goals. The effective use of technology can provide a crucial competitive edge against companies that are stuck in the past.

The current labor shortage is a chance for manufacturing companies to revamp their recruitment strategies, innovate, and come out stronger on the other side. It’s time to seize this opportunity and revolutionize manufacturing recruitment for the future.

FAQs about recruiting in a manufacturing labor shortage

What tools and strategies can be used to source candidates during a manufacturing labor shortage?

While traditional recruiting platforms are great tools, in an extremely competitive hiring landscape like manufacturing, talent acquisition teams need to think outside the box.

“I actually posted on a billboard recently,” says Craig. You have to get your company and your jobs in front of people, and sometimes just doing a simple thing like getting back to basics and physically getting in front of folks is one good way to go about it.”

Consider what platforms and mediums are going to most widely reach ideal candidates, and make sure your team has a presence there. That might also mean doing in-person presentations to high school students or other groups that are considering career options.

How can you make the hiring process more engaging for candidates?

During the hiring process, it’s important to make candidates feel comfortable and valued. They won’t want to work for your organization if they aren’t excited about potential opportunities. For manufacturing companies, that might look like interactive tours, gamified skill assessments, panel discussions, team assessments, and more.

How will manufacturing hiring change in 2024 compared to 2023?

Both Craig and Michael predict that manufacturing hiring will increase in 2024 compared to 2023. “I think there’s a big push to bring manufacturing back to the United States,” says Michael. “There are US startups that we haven’t even heard of yet that are raising money to build and do more things. And then, you know, sitting here in East Asia, I can guarantee that in Taiwan, in Seoul, in Tokyo, everyone is talking about moving more of their stuff to the US, so I think we’re going to see a lot of that.”

Intake Meetings: 10 Essential Questions for Your Intake Form

Posted on October 18, 2023November 20, 2024 by Jake Link

Bad hires are expensive. Not only do they take up valuable time and resources for companies, but the problems only get worse the more senior-level the hire is. To avoid costly mistakes, it’s essential for recruiters and hiring managers to facilitate an efficient hiring process with clear and open communication. However, many hiring teams overlook a crucial step: the intake meeting.

Outlining expectations between recruiters and hiring managers in an intake meeting is a surefire way to hire the best talent, all while preventing the wasted time, frustrations, and headaches that result from choosing the wrong candidate.

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What is an intake meeting?

An intake meeting is when hiring managers and recruiters align on what the ideal candidate for a position looks like. This meeting takes place at the very beginning of the hiring process and should cover:

Goals for the recruiting process
A profile of the ideal candidate
Job requirements
Job title and salary
Stages of the hiring process and touchpoints
Sourcing strategies

The intake meeting occurs before the role is posted to ensure hiring managers and recruiters have a thorough understanding of how the hiring process should pan out. When done correctly, intake meetings help the interview process run smoothly by minimizing confusion down the road.

How effective intake meetings accelerate recruiting

1. Sharpens your shared understanding of the ideal candidate

The first step to a fast, efficient hiring process is to create an in-depth profile of the ideal candidate for the role. Before any interviews even take place, the entire hiring team should have a clear image of the skills, experiences, and traits they’re looking for.

Intake meetings offer the perfect opportunity for recruiters and hiring managers to carve out these expectations together. After developing an optimal candidate profile, the profile can be used to write a well-defined job description that attracts the applicants the hiring team is looking for.

Armed with a defined image of the best possible candidate, hiring teams can use this plan to easily identify applicants who do not meet the basic requirements discussed in the intake meeting.

2. Strengthens the recruiter-hiring manager relationship

An intake meeting acts as the glue that’s needed to hold the recruiter-hiring manager relationship together. The stability of this relationship heavily dictates whether a hiring process succeeds: studies show that a strong relationship between recruiters and their hiring managers is one of the biggest drivers of talent acquisition performance.

In our recent conversation with TA leaders about tech hiring challenges, Ahryun Moon, Co-Founder and Head of Company Strategy at GoodTime, emphasized the importance of intake meetings for creating a shared understanding with the hiring manager of what a “top performer” actually looks like. Amanda Richardson, Head of People at Coderpad, backed this point up, saying, “Being transparent and clear along the way really goes a long way to align the recruiting team and the business team around what our objectives are.”

Jenny Jongejan, an experienced professional in talent acquisition, presented 4 things she always seeks to hash out clearly in intake meetings:

1. The reason for hiring: Which goal will this position influence?

2. The type of person you’re seeking: Which abilities, past experiences, and behavioral traits are you after?

3. The methodology for candidate assessment: How will you evaluate candidates at each interview stage to determine if they’re a good fit?

4. The benchmarks for evaluation: How do you differentiate between an average response and an outstanding one?

You can see Jenny’s full remarks in the clip below.

Setting aside ample time to meet with one another streamlines the hiring process by ensuring that all parties agree on realistic objectives. In turn, this prevents any future miscommunication or confusion that might prolong the hiring process or result in a costly bad hire.

For instance, rather than facing difficulties down the line with trying to fill a role within too short of a time period, intake meetings allow recruiters to candidly discuss if a hiring manager’s expectations on the hiring process are actually attainable.

The trust, rapport, and mutual support that intake meetings foster between recruiters and hiring managers bolsters the hiring process with a solid foundation for success.

3. Reduces your time-to-hire

Intake meetings play a key role in reducing time-to-hire. Nearly every aspect of an intake meeting — from the way that they eliminate potential roadblocks to the way that they reduce back-and-forth communications between the recruiter and the hiring manager — is engineered to promote a quick hiring process.

In a time when competition for the best talent is more intense than ever before, companies with the most efficient hiring come out on top. Intake meetings boost recruitment efforts with exactly the speed that hiring teams need. While 55% of organizations do not utilize intake meetings, 30% admit that the hiring process takes longer without them.

When recruiters collaborate with hiring managers in intake meetings, they’re able to fine-tune their sourcing and drastically reduce their screening time. Some teams even review LinkedIn profiles that demonstrate who their ideal candidate is to further reduce their time-to-hire and establish how they can identify the best matches for the job.

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10 questions to ask in your intake meeting or recruiting intake form

An intake meeting serves as your compass, helping you map out the journey to successful recruitment. To ensure you’re on the right path, consider these crucial questions to raise during your intake meeting, or include them in the intake form so you can discuss them together with the hiring manager in your meeting:

1. What are your goals?

Let’s start by setting the destination. What are your objectives for this hiring process? Understanding the bigger picture will guide our efforts and ensure we’re all moving in the same direction.

2. Who’s the ideal candidate?

Paint a vivid portrait of the candidate you’re seeking. What skills, experiences, and qualities should they possess? This shared vision will shape our search strategy and ensure we’re all on the same page.

3. What’s non-negotiable?

Let’s identify the must-haves. What are the essential qualifications, certifications, or experiences required for the role? Pinpointing these criteria upfront will help us sift through candidates effectively.

4. What’s the job’s scope and impact?

Understanding the role’s significance is vital. How does it fit into the broader team and company goals? This insight will help us attract candidates who are aligned with the role’s purpose.

5. How does the team collaborate?

Let’s dive into the team dynamic. How does this role interact with other departments or team members? This understanding will help us identify candidates who can seamlessly integrate and contribute.

6. What’s the timetable?

Time is of the essence. What’s the expected timeline for sourcing, interviewing, and onboarding? Aligning expectations here will help us maintain a steady pace and avoid any unnecessary delays.

7. How can we showcase the company in the hiring process?

Candidates are looking for a match beyond just skills. What aspects of the company culture and mission should we highlight to attract the right talent? This insight will help us craft compelling job descriptions.

8. How do you evaluate success?

Defining success is crucial. How will we measure the impact of this hire? Establishing clear recruitment metrics will guide our assessment process and ensure we’re all working towards the same outcome.

9. What’s the interview process going to look like?

Let’s map out the journey for potential candidates. What stages will they go through? Who will be involved in the interviews? Clarity here will streamline the selection process.

10. What can we learn from past hires?

Drawing from experience can be enlightening. What lessons have you learned from previous hires in similar roles? We want to both hire and retain top talent, not just initially get them on board. This wisdom can guide our approach and refine our strategy.

Asking these fundamental questions during your intake meeting can help lay a solid foundation for a streamlined and effective hiring process. Each response acts as a building block, constructing the path toward finding the right candidate for the role.

Don’t skip the recruiting intake meeting

As the recruiting world continues to change, one constant remains: the significance of the intake meeting.

This often underestimated step has the potential to redefine your hiring process. By collaboratively charting the course, clarifying expectations, and fostering a strong recruiter-hiring manager partnership, the intake meeting sets the stage for efficient hiring and a better candidate experience.

And while you’re at it, make sure you’re also regularly holding quality interview debrief meetings with hiring managers as well. This is your chance to examine candidates against the qualities you identified in your intake meeting. So quality intake and debrief meetings really go hand-in-hand.

Ready to learn more about streamlining your recruiting processes? See how GoodTime’s interview scheduling software can help you decrease your time-to-hire.

GoodTime Product Updates: What’s New from September 2023

Posted on September 25, 2023September 25, 2023 by Jake Link

More data, more scheduling power, and more flexibility. We’ve been hard at work taking your GoodTime features wish list and making it a reality.

And we’ve got some pretty exciting updates to share if we do say so ourselves. Catch our full September Product Updates webinar below or scroll on for the main highlights, including:

Turnaround Benchmarking – Now you can not only see how much time is spent in each phase of your interview process, but also compare your performance to that of market-leading companies right within GoodTime.
Cancellation and Reschedule Reasons – Track the reasons for all your cancellations and reschedules, to optimize your hiring process more than ever before!
Interview Day Scheduling -Schedule complex superday and interview day interviews through our new scheduling workflow.
Scheduling Links that sync to ATS – Create static links associated with jobs and stages. Embed or send these links to get interviews scheduled and synced back to your ATS.
For GoodTime Meet – Routing history to gain added clarity on lead assignments, and Insights updates to help you do more with your meeting data.

Let’s dive in!

Watch the September 2023 GoodTime product updates webinar

GoodTime Hire updates

Turnaround Time Report benchmarking and filters

The Turnaround Time Report now supports benchmarking and can be filtered by different jobs and RCs.

Why this is awesome: Now, you can objectively assess how strong your interview scheduling performance is compared to the industry standard and drill it down to specific areas of improvement.

AI-powered Job Categories

We’re proud to announce Job Categories. Through the power of Natural Language Processing, all job titles are now categorized automatically, which allows you to benchmark job performance based on the type of job.

Why this is awesome: Hiring for different jobs varies tremendously based on the type of job, so it’s crucial to be able to sort your reporting accordingly. Over the upcoming weeks, this filter will be applied to all applicable GoodTime reports.

Training tag improvements

The logic for which trainee gets selected when tags are used has been completely optimized to prioritize graduation progress, timezone proximity, and much more.

Why this is awesome: The best talent gets snagged the fastest. That’s why it’s important to interview quickly. The training tag improvements increase your graduation rate and let you interview faster than ever before.

Cancelation and reschedule reasons

Now you can record the reason for each interview cancellation and reschedule.

Why this is awesome: The volume of cancellations and reschedules on their own do not tell the story of why they’re happening. By tracking the reasons, you can actually drill down on how to improve your process.

Pulse Score visualization

The Pulse Report now shows how your Pulse Scores fluctuate over time with an all-new line chart that can be filtered by different job titles. This can be aggregated to daily, weekly, or monthly averages.

Why this is awesome: Now you can see how changes in your operations affect Candidate satisfaction over time and drill down sources of low scoring.

Slack Integration v2

We are upgrading our existing Slack Integration and adding support for creating Slack channels for interviewers.

Why this is awesome: We heard you! Having a Slack channel for your interviewers to collaborate with each other is very helpful. It used to be done manually, but we now automate it for time savings that really add up!

Hire for High Volume updates

Event and superday scheduling

Schedule complex superday and recruitment event interviews through our new scheduling workflow!

Why this is awesome: GoodTime supports interview days to streamline the scheduling process for your coordination teams. No more Excel spreadsheets and manual emails!

Scheduling links that sync to your ATS

Create static links associated with jobs and stages. Embed or send these links to get interviews scheduled and synced back to your ATS. This workflow is perfect for recruiting and sourcing teams!

Why this is awesome: Top-of-the-funnel interviews can now be scheduled, tracked in GoodTime, and synced back to your ATS all through a customized static link.

Even more updates and improvements!

Improved messaging for candidates

Updated interview confirmation link to display to the user the email address and to check their email for interview details
Updated reminders and confirmation messages to be more clear to candidates to check their email for their interview information

Message Blurb and Interview Template search, sort, and filtering

Pre-filter message blurbs to only show created ones by users
Users can now search and archive message blurbs to stay organized

Enhanced stage change automation logic

Now automations execute when merged candidates enter a Job/Stage where automation is present
Now automations execute when newly applied candidates enter a Job/Stage without the ATS seeing the candidate had changed stages

Meet updates

Routing History

Ever wondered why someone was assigned a lead. Wonder no more! With Routing History, a digital paper trail of lead assignments, reassignments, and integration updates makes it easy to see what happened and when.

Why this is awesome: Routing History makes it easy to audit how the Routing automation is working to drive trust in the team and root out any unexpected issues.

Insights Dashboard updates

The GoodTime Insights Dashboard received an upgrade with a high-level categories breakdown, top scheduling links chart, and top companies chart.

Why this is awesome: The new dashboard allows for segmentation of your scheduling data, making it easier to see how your team invests their time.

Take advantage of everything GoodTime has to offer!

We want to help you evolve and take full advantage of the latest upgrades and improvements to our platform. Check out our support center for tutorials and tips to help you stress less and get more done!

Overcoming Hiring Challenges in 2024 and Beyond

Posted on September 7, 2023January 22, 2024 by Jake Link

Many talent teams successfully waded their way through a muck of unpredictability over the last few years — just to be met with more challenges on the other side. But the truth is — hiring will always be a challenge, won’t it?

Talent teams today are leaner and meaner than they’ve had to be in a long time, yet are striving for the same results they got with budgets twice as big. So how do hiring teams tackle the current landscape head-on so they can find the quality talent they so desperately need?

We spoke with the experts who are keeping TA efforts resilient at their companies. In this article, we’ll cover the biggest challenges hiring teams are facing today — plus, expert tips for overcoming these hiring challenges moving forward.

In some industries, there’s still a shortage of talent

Where did all the talent go?

This is a question that hiring leaders across the globe are still grappling with — especially in industries like healthcare, retail, and manufacturing.

In the case of these high-volume industries, there’s simply a shortage of qualified talent. For other industries like tech, we’re not saying quality candidates aren’t out there. They are. However, talent teams are still struggling to attract the right candidates, the right way.

GoodTime recently surveyed over 500 TA leaders in the U.S. and found that 24% of respondents identified a lack of qualified candidates as one of their top hiring challenges. These same survey respondents ranked quality-of-hire as their top focus in hiring metrics — so clearly it’s top of mind.

Source: GoodTime’s 2024 Hiring Insights Report

So why are qualified candidates so hard to find?

For starters, it’s important to understand that candidates have changed. And with that change comes a new set of demands.

The newest generation of job seekers has no desire to work 20 to 30 years in the same position. They’re looking for a place that meets their expectations, and honestly, they’re not willing to settle. So if companies aren’t bringing their A game, talent will say no.

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What can you do?

There’s one thing talent leaders need to understand: using past solutions to fix future problems won’t work. It’s a new world of work and with that comes new hiring strategies.

But to really understand how to fix the lack of quality talent, we must first address the challenges below. Once these common challenges are handled, top talent will not be so hard to come by.

There’s a growing skills mismatch

Skills have become a hot topic in the hiring industry — and rightfully so. With the rapid development and implementation of new technology, we’re seeing a gap between the skills candidates possess and the skills they need to operate and innovate in the modern economy.

But when we talk about skills, it’s more than just technical skills. Soft skills, such as adaptability, problem-solving, and communication, have become equally important in the workforce. With the right skills, workers can adapt and change as quickly as our environment is changing.

To add to the skills gap dilemma, hiring teams are also running into another skills issue — padded resumes. In fact, it’s the top hiring challenge our survey respondents experienced over the last 12 months. One in four companies said that candidates padded their resumes, making it difficult to know who they are really hiring.

With the rise of AI technology, like Chat GPT, candidates may use it to write their resumes and cover letters, or even to aid them live during an interview. The problem is that candidates often fail to fact-check these tools. Whether padded resumes are intentional or not, tightening up how candidates are assessed for skills is critical right now. And that starts with standardization

What can you do?

Define a clear standardized process for selecting and vetting candidates. Then, train your interviewers on how to ask the right questions for certain skills. Additionally, an interviewer selection tool can quickly find the best interviewer based on the skills you need.

We spoke with veteran recruiting consultant Jenny Jongejan about tech hiring challenges and the right way to identify and vet candidates and she emphasized the importance of standardizing the entire process, including the questions your interviewers ask: “Before you even open a role and begin sourcing, it’s so important to know why you’re hiring. What are the business objectives that the role is going to impact? So if this is a software engineer position, is it a backfill, is it a skills gap? Are you up-leveling the team with somebody who has more leadership skills? Or, is it a new product and you need someone with niche skills?”

Jenny went on to share how having that conversation about qualifications up front will inform the questions you ask: “Based on those predetermined skills and behavioral attributes, figure out exactly who on your interview panel is going to be able to evaluate the candidate on those particular focus areas and assign the right focus areas to the right interviewers and even assign them the questions that they will ask every candidate.

I know sounds incredibly prescribed, but, research does show that structured interviews are 81% more accurate in predicting job performance than unstructured ones. So having a set of standard questions that interviewers ask every candidate really ensures that interviewers don’t insert their own biased set of criteria and leads to better hires.”

The last step is making sure that you’re having a productive, clear post-interview debrief with the hiring team.

If you can’t find the right candidates with the right skills, consider upskilling current employees. Training and development is one of the best ways to retain current employees and build a pipeline of skilled workers.

You may also consider looking beyond traditional sources of recruitment and explore other options, such as freelancers or contractors. Not only does this open the doors to a more diverse team, but it’s likely that you’ll find what you’re looking for simply by expanding your search.

Having a set of standard questions that interviewers ask every candidate really ensures that interviewers don’t insert their own biased set of criteria and leads to better hires.
Jenny Jongejan, Senior Recruiting Consultant

Opinions on work flexibility are polarized

In the last few years, there’s been a dynamic shift in where and when we work — largely due to the pandemic. Once things settled, many employers tried to force their employees back to set hours and a set office space while others embraced the change as the new normal.

The reality is that candidates demand flexibility, whether that’s working remotely or just the ability to come and go from the office as they please.

And truthfully, this is no surprise to employers. More than half of the TA leaders we surveyed said flexibility is their biggest selling point when it comes to attracting top talent.

With that in mind, organizations need to adopt and embrace a flexible working model so candidates don’t take their skills elsewhere.

What can you do?

A successful work model is more than simply allowing remote work or flexible office hours.

Employers must first listen to the needs of their employees. Then, build a set of guidelines that give employees greater freedom to decide when, where, and how to work.

There’s not a one-size-fits-all flexible work model. Every industry and every employee is different. What one employee wants may not be what another one wants. A flexible work model that works for your company will likely take some adaptability and experimentation.

However, the best model for workplace flexibility will always balance the needs of employees with the company’s goals — fostering an atmosphere of engagement, productivity, and adaptability.

There’s no question that technology should play a part in this workplace model. With tech, employers can address scheduling, productivity, and communication. And in hiring, tech can help assess the candidate’s ability to be successful in remote, hybrid, or flexible working schedules.

Time-to-hire has increased

We’re a generation that has zero patience for lag time. And with the rise of high-speed technology, this impatience has only compounded.

So it may be a little surprising to hear that it’s actually taking TA teams longer to hire, not shorter. Yes, Josh Bersin’s newest report recently reported 44 days to fill a vacant spot. This is up from 43 days just a year ago.

GoodTime’s survey shows the same results, with 71% of TA leaders saying their time-to-hire has increased in the last year — up from 60% just a year earlier.

If we step back for a minute and take a look at what’s happened over the last few years, we can see a couple of factors play into this.

With the struggle to land quality talent, employers are slowing down and making more calculated decisions — rather than just trying to fill empty seats fast. On the other end of the spectrum, talent is more picky and won’t jump into a job unless it offers perks, like flexibility and upskilling opportunities.

It feels like leaders are put between a rock and a hard place, especially since 49% of job seekers say they’ve turned down a job offer due to a bad hiring experience.

71% of TA leaders reported that their time-to-hire increased in 2022 — up from 60% just a year earlier.
GoodTime’s 2023 Hiring Insights Report

What can you do?

Time-to-hire matters. If you’re not tracking it, you should be. We asked Dallas Frazer, the former Recruitment Operations Lead at Shopify and current Senior Customer Success Manager at GoodTime, about the importance of time-to-hire and how to use it to improve your hiring process.

Here’s what Dallas had to say: “One of the key metrics recruiters will want to track is time-to-hire. If you find your process dragging on for longer than necessary, it’s a clear sign you might be investing too much time and effort in certain stages. It’s also crucial to compare these timings across different roles for context. If time-to-hire is consistently higher for one role type versus another, it’s worth looking into and saying what part of that role’s hiring process isn’t working. What can you learn from other roles with a faster time-to-hire?”

But of course, time-to-hire is only important as a way to ensure you’re securing the right talent for the right role. The more seamless the hiring process, the more appealing your company looks to top candidates.

How do you get that seamless hiring process? Start by using tech to maximize your resources and complete tasks in half the time. A great example of this is automated scheduling. Our survey shows that there was a 5% increase in interview scheduling time over the last year — something that can easily be fixed with the right interview scheduling software.

Automation takes over time-consuming tasks so talent teams can focus on getting top candidates to the final offer much faster. Yes, you can simultaneously focus on hiring speed and quality hire.

Does interview scheduling automation make sense for my team?

ROI is key. This is not a time to invest in software that won’t bring you immediate value. So let’s eliminate the guesswork with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate Your ROI

Technology is constantly evolving

When asked what challenges they expect in the next 12 months, 27% of our survey respondents ranked “limitations in their current hiring technology” as their top concern.

As technology quickly advances, the fear that their current technology won’t keep up is definitely valid. Especially since technology is changing how companies hire — and if you don’t keep up, you’ll lose your talent to those who do.

But with all the options out there, it’s hard to know what your organization needs to excel.

What can you do?

We spoke with Jonathon Wall, a seasoned TA professional with over 20 years of experience leading recruiting teams, about what TA pros can do to keep up with evolving tech. He told us, “If you’re not upskilling, if you’re not preparing yourself for what’s next, you’re probably falling behind. If you’re not ready to really take advantage of the scalability that you get with automation and AI, watch out because somebody is.”

But it wasn’t just a warning. Jonathon is very optimistic about the potential these tools have to improve the lives of recruiters: “We should be leveraging automation and AI to do those things that aren’t fun — the repetitive tasks. Leverage all of those tools so that you can have higher-quality human interactions. And If you’re not leveraging those tools, then you’re really draining all of that life force, the energy that you’re going to share with candidates, and the enthusiasm that you’re gonna bring to your profession.”

You can watch the highlights of our conversation below:

Automation and AI recruiting tools can quickly and efficiently streamline the recruitment process. But every company is different so it’s critical to understand your needs and adopt the tools that will boost your hiring experience.

39% percent of our survey respondents said they worked to improve the overall efficiency of their hiring process in the last year. It’s a great start, but there’s still lots of work to do.

As we look to 2024 and beyond, hiring teams need to be agile and quick to react as the workplace constantly evolves. This means staying on top of the most current technology to speed efficiency and land quality talent.

If you’re not preparing yourself for what’s next, you’re probably falling behind.
Jonathon Wall, Principal, The Cassillon Group, Inc.

Stay adaptable in 2024 and beyond

If you only take one thing away from this article, it should be that the number one determinant of TA success in 2024 will be your ability to adapt to change.

If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to standardize your interview and hiring processes, embrace work flexibility as a key selling point, and address the prolonged time-to-hire issue through technology-driven solutions.

With GoodTime Hire, you can speed up your hiring process and land top talent 50% faster. Our smart scheduling automation streamlines the interview process so talent teams can focus on what they really enjoy — hiring the right people!

Want to know more? See how GoodTime’s interview scheduling software can transform your recruiting process today.

GoodTime Product Updates: What’s New from August 2023

Posted on August 21, 2023September 25, 2023 by Jake Link

More data you can actually use, more automation to make your life easier, and a polish to some of the features you already love. It’s time to check out our last product releases of the summer, including:

Turnaround Time Report – All new report that drills down how much time your team spends in each phase of scheduling an interview, by job and stage!
Candidate Pulse Report – Capture and analyze Candidate Pulse scores to find the highs and lows of your candidate experience
Interview Blocks – You can now set up interview blocks in your calendar and have GoodTime schedule only during those hours
High Volume + Workday – Workday users can now send SMS and WhatsApp messages, and automate tasks like sending interview requests as soon as candidates enter a stage
For Meet, we’ve added built-in To-Do Lists and are introducing an I9 Verification Playbook

Get all the details below!

Watch the August 2023 GoodTime product updates webinar

Check out the full webinar below, or keep scrolling for the top highlights.

GoodTime Hire updates

Introducing the Turnaround Time Report

This all-new report breaks down how much time your team is spending on each phase of scheduling an interview.

Why this is awesome:

For the first time, you can drill down and find your fastest and slowest scheduling flows and use this information to lock down top talent faster than ever.

Built-in benchmarking

Benchmarking allows you to look at any of the new GoodTime reports and compare your company’s performance to other market leaders.

Why this is awesome:

Many times we work in the dark and it’s difficult to assess whether metrics are irregular or not. Benchmarking gives you a clear insight into whether you are on track or if there’s a need to make some improvements.

Candidate Pulse Report

The Candidate Pulse score is the fastest and most unbiased way to track candidate experience through every part of your hiring process. We’re excited to share that the first iteration is now available in GoodTime Hire!

Why this is awesome: There are so many moving parts in the end-to-end hiring process. The Pulse Report will allow you to drill down to a higher granularity than ever and find your highest performers as well as areas for improvement.

Hire for High Volume updates

Our high-volume hiring features keep getting better and better. Here’s our latest round of upgrades:

Workday ATS support

GoodTime texting in and automation in Workday

Use our Workday integration to send SMS and WhatsApp messages and automate activities like sending interview scheduling requests as soon as candidates enter a new stage of your process.

Why this is awesome: Workday ATS customers now can now use high-volume hiring features like texting, WhatsApp, and workflow automation to hire even faster!

Outlook email support

Integrate your Outlook account to send standalone emails and scheduling requests to your candidates in GoodTime with just one click.

Why this is awesome:

You can now communicate and schedule interviews with your candidates however they (and you) prefer!

Bulk cancel interviews

Select candidates from the Job View page to bulk cancel old interviews or if you need to close a requisition and have interviews still scheduled.

Why this is awesome: In a couple of clicks, you can now bulk cancel dozens of interviews and provide a custom cancellation message to your candidates.

Even more updates!

Enhanced Email Design & Functionality

Format emails with bolding, italicizing, numbered orders, etc.
Customize subject lines for interview requests and one-off emails
BCC and CC any email address in your outreach

Email Message Templates

Create specific email templates for formatting, subject lines, and CC and BCC inclusions

New User Onboarding improvements

Save message templates in the current workflow
Apply message templates in the communication to schedule blurbs
Added filter for High Volume templates in the interview templates setting section

Meet updates

We’ve got more features to make meeting scheduling a breeze — no matter the situation.

To-Do Lists

Quickly create To-Dos and reminders to help you get work done directly from your Meet calendar.

Why this is awesome:

No need to bounce between apps! To-Dos is built straight into GoodTime Meet so now you can share availability, book meetings, and create action items all in one place.

Get our I9 verification playbook

If you’re all done with I9 verification, huge kudos to you and your team! Many teams today are rushing to complete I9 verification to meet government-mandated requirements by the August deadline. If you’re still catching up yourself, we’ve put together an I9 verification playbook for you.

Why this is awesome: Quickly and efficiently schedule thousands of mandatory in-person or remote I9 Verification interviews using a few quick Meet scheduling links.

More updates to Meet

Routing – Support for split default actions

After users complete your route, you can now assign different default actions (such as redirects, thank you messages, and pages) depending on whether the user was qualified.

Calendar – invite external guests

You can now quickly invite guests to your calendar events outside of your organization. Simply add their email address.

Calendar – Drag and drop

Drag and drop calendar events to reschedule them and also change their duration.

Enterprise billing page

Company Admins on Enterprise accounts can quickly assign and re-assign licenses to their teammates without having to reach out to support.

Looking to make the most of GoodTime?

We’re always adding new features to help you hit your goals and stress less. Check out our support center for tutorials and tips to help you take advantage of everything GoodTime has to offer!

Tech Hiring Challenges? Steal These Future-Proof Solutions

Posted on August 9, 2023February 25, 2025 by Jake Link

It’s almost becoming a joke — “do more with less.” It’s basically the mantra of the tech world right now, but it’s rare that anyone tells us what it actually means. We do know budgets are tighter. We know teams have been reduced. And we know that making the best possible hire is more important than ever.

So we spoke with the experts to go beyond “do more with less” and reveal real, practical ways that tech hiring teams can hit their goals in the midst of tech hiring challenges. Watch the full conversation below or keep reading for the key takeaways.

Introducing the experts:

Ahryun Moon is Co-Founder & Head of Company Strategy at GoodTime. As the leader of a company that helps teams hire 50% faster by automating interview scheduling, she has deep insight into the importance of digital transformation in recruiting.
Amanda Richardson is the CEO and Head of People at CoderPad. With a background in product management, Amanda’s focus at CoderPad is on enhancing the hiring process for technical roles.
Jenny Jongejan is a Senior Recruiting Consultant. With 17 years of talent acquisition experience, Jenny has worked extensively with Bay Area startups, enabling efficient, standardized processes.

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Shifting priorities in tech recruitment

WeOne of the most significant challenges facing tech recruiting teams is the need to adapt to constantly changing priorities. Just in the past couple of years, tech recruiters have dealt with explosive hiring, then the great reshuffle, then hiring freezes and team reductions. As the economic landscape fluctuates, teams must remain flexible, adapt to leaner budgets and smaller teams, and be prepared for still more changes in the future.

Our latest report on tech hiring trends showed that on average, tech teams are hitting just around half of their hiring goals.

Ahryun Moon summarized the current tech hiring landscape: “With some layoffs and a downturn in the economy recently, the recruiting teams have received a big blow. Team size is getting much smaller than before, but quite a lot of recruiters are still being told to hit pretty lofty recruiting goals. A lot of recruiters are also becoming full cycle recruiters, without RC support, so they’re doing the entire process. That’s why a lot of teams are looking into automation and AI.”

Indeed, layoffs hit tech recruiting teams particularly hard this year. Our Hiring Insights Report found that 44% of companies had cuts that affected 15-19% of their headcount, and 22% reduced over 20% of their company’s total workforce.

tech layoffs: Our Hiring Insights Report found that 44% of companies had cuts that affected 15-19% of their headcount, and 22% reduced over 20% of their company’s total workforce.

Ahyun emphasizes that digital transformation has long been an aspirational talking point for companies, but in the “do more with less” era, it’s become a must-have, where recruiting teams are charged with bringing in crucial technology to fill in new gaps.

Standardization and automation: the dynamic duo to address tech hiring challenges

In the wake of tech’s hiring challenges, standardization and automation have emerged as essential priorities for tech recruiting teams.

Amanda Richardson defines these concepts for us: “Standardization is doing the same thing, having a standardized process. Automation is about making that process more efficient — whether that’s with scheduling or assessments — whatever tooling you can use to do the same repeated tasks more efficiently.”

Having clearly defined and standardized processes in place is crucial before you can effectively automate.

Jenny Jongejan, a seasoned talent acquisition expert, shares her four-step framework for an effective standardized recruitment process. She says when you’re standardizing, it’s important to first become crystal clear on:

Why you’re hiring: What objective is this role going to impact?
Who you’re hiring: What skills and experiences and behavioral attributes do you need?
How you’ll assess the candidate: For each stage in your interview process, how will you determine if the candidate is a fit?
Your evaluation criteria: How will you define what an okay answer looks like versus a great answer?

“I know that sounds prescribed,” Jenny acknowledges, “but research does show that structured interviews are 81% more accurate in predicting job performance than unstructured ones.”

Learn more about behavioral interview techniques and interviewer training.

The role of AI and automation

There’s a reason why recruiting AI and automation are taking the spotlight. Ahryun stresses the importance of leveraging tech recruiting software to optimize the recruitment journey with limited resources: “There’s a lot of different places in the process that we can automate all the way from the top of the recruiting funnel to the middle and bottom. At the top of the funnel, there’s candidate nurturing. Tools like ChatGPT can help you with the content side of that. At the middle of the funnel, definitely interview scheduling. And at the bottom of the funnel, there’s background checks and onboarding.”

Remember: AI won’t replace human recruiters. Rather, leveraging basic AI tools can help with personalization and initial communication with candidates, providing time-saving and efficient solutions for recruiters. Those wishing to cut their middle- and bottom-of-the-funnel efforts in half, without sacrificing the quality of their process, can find immense ROI in AI-based scheduling, assessment, and onboarding tools.

Balancing candidate experience, personalization, and efficiency

In today’s leaner economic environment, tech recruiters often struggle to balance personalization and efficiency in their processes. While automation and standardization offer efficiency gains, personalization remains vital in creating a positive candidate experience.

Jenny emphasizes the significance of personalizing outbound communication: “Knowing your candidate profile and personalizing the message in a way that is going to tug on somebody’s individual heartstrings […] is going to actually get more quality candidates into the top of the funnel.”

The role of candidate experience in a lean market

TA leaders agree with Jenny. In our own poll, 85% of respondents said candidate experience is still a priority in today’s market, with 59% saying it’s actually more important than ever before.

Candiate experience poll: 85% of respondents said candidate experience is still a priority in today’s market, with 59% saying it’s actually more important than ever before.

The experts on our webinar emphasized the importance of transparency throughout the hiring process, starting from the job posting itself. By providing detailed information about compensation, benefits, and the hiring timeline, candidates have a clearer understanding of what to expect, and it starts the process off on the right foot.

Amanda also shares one of our favorite quick tips for improving candidate experience: “I would challenge every recruiter to apply to a job on their website and then apply to a job on their competitor’s website.”

She recommends as you go through both processes, ask yourself:

Is this interesting?
How does it feel?
Is the experience smooth and easy to navigate?
Does it feel like you’re being treated as one in a million or like one in a herd of cattle?

“Just spend the time going through and understand what your process is already and you will immediately find ways to improve your candidate experience,” she says.

A holistic approach to quality of hire

In lean times, hiring decisions become even more crucial. Ahryun emphasizes this point: “With the number of candidates in the market now, every single hire that you make actually becomes even more important.” Standardized processes, personalized engagement, and leveraging AI-driven tools all contribute to enhancing the quality of your hires, but all of these efforts need to work holistically and cohesively together.

Setting clear criteria for tech roles

Defining clear evaluation criteria is crucial to ensure that everyone involved in the hiring process is on the same page.

Ahryun stresses the importance of an intake meeting and highlighted the value of having a shared understanding of the definition of a “top performer” from the very beginning of the hiring process. By collaboratively defining the standards for quality hires, recruiting teams can mitigate the temptation to compromise quality for quantity. Amanda adds, “Being transparent and clear along the way really goes a long way to align the recruiting team and the business team around what our objectives are.”

Jenny emphasizes the significance of standardized, fair questions in accurately evaluating candidates’ fitness for a role: “Implementing an assessment tool that is fair versus asking questions that may be more gotcha questions or have more subjective answers is going to help improve your process significantly.”

Minimizing mis-hires with smart standardization

Mis-hires can be costly and detrimental to a company’s growth. To avoid them, tech recruiting teams must focus on standardized processes and structured interviews.

Amanda doubles down on standardization as a way to prevent mis-hires, saying, “Having a standardized process is incredibly hard. It sounds easy, but really forcing people to ask candidates the same questions in the same order every time is really hard. But that, to me, will actually solve a lot of the mis-hires.”

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Predicting the future of tech hiring

Given the uncertainties of the economic landscape, it’s difficult to speculate on when hiring might regain its momentum. Still, Ahryun makes a data-informed guess on when we might see another hiring boom:

“Hiring will pick back up when we think the economy will pick back up. Unemployment is still low, and inflation has been tamed. We are already actually seeing from our interview data an uptick from a lot of companies, so it seems like that positivity and optimistic feeling about the future is starting to come back.”

Better tech recruitment now and in the future

To successfully address tech hiring challenges now, and into the future, teams must prioritize clarity in their process and value in their tech stack — in that order. Here’s a roundup of the must-knows from our panel discussion:

Standardization and automation work together to streamline processes and enhance hiring efficiency.
Adaptability remains crucial amid changing priorities and economic fluctuations.
Embrace digital transformation and harness AI to bridge resource gaps.
Candidate experience still matters, and can actually be improved through standardization.
Transparent communication (internally and externally) and holistic assessment foster quality hiring.

By integrating these takeaways, tech recruiting teams can chart a course toward success, adeptly managing challenges in an ever-evolving industry.

GoodTime Secures HIPAA Certification to Help Healthcare Hiring Teams Amid Rising Labor Shortage

Posted on August 7, 2023September 3, 2025 by Jake Link

As the U.S. grapples with an escalating shortage of health aides, nurses, and physicians, GoodTime secures HIPAA certification, enabling more health organizations to fill roles quickly with fewer resources.

August 8, 2023, SAN FRANCISCO – GoodTime (goodtime.io), a leading provider of AI-powered scheduling software, proudly announces the achievement of HIPAA/HITECH Type 1 Compliance. With this certification, GoodTime empowers more healthcare organizations to fill roles faster in the face of a healthcare labor shortage by utilizing Hire, the company’s flagship interview scheduling platform.

Addressing the Healthcare Labor Shortage

Amidst a severe shortage of health aides, nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals, GoodTime’s HIPAA certification brings a timely solution to hiring teams in the healthcare industry. Consulting firm Mercer projects a shortage of over 400,000 home health aides and 29,400 nurse practitioners by 2025. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicts a potential shortage of up to 122,000 physicians by 2032. This scarcity of healthcare professionals has intensified the competition for talent, making it crucial to fill open roles quickly to meet the needs of healthcare companies and the patients they serve.

Enhanced Possibilities with GoodTime’s HIPAA Certification

Healthcare organizations are already bound to strict HIPAA guidelines for any systems that directly handle sensitive patient information. As an extra measure of security for all protected health information (PHI), many of these organizations strive to only use HIPAA-compliant systems, even when those systems don’t directly interface with patients.

GoodTime’s certification is a significant milestone that re-affirms the company’s commitment to healthcare organizations and sets them apart as the only interview scheduling provider that is HIPAA-compliant. By adhering to the highest industry standards for data security and privacy, GoodTime helps healthcare talent acquisition teams streamline and automate their hiring workflows, minimize resource requirements, and fill roles faster in the midst of the labor shortage.

Ahryun Moon, GoodTime Co-Founder and CEO, expressed enthusiasm about the recent HIPAA certification, highlighting its importance for healthcare organizations. Moon stated, “We are thrilled to have obtained the HIPAA certification, as it strengthens our dedication to healthcare organizations during this challenging time. With secure, automated, and efficient scheduling, healthcare hiring teams can fill open positions swiftly, without all the manual work, and ultimately deliver exceptional care to patients.”

Purpose-Built Features for High-Volume Healthcare Hiring

GoodTime Hire leverages AI to revolutionize the healthcare hiring process, particularly for high-volume roles in the context of the labor shortage. Healthcare organizations use Hire to significantly reduce time-to-fill and provide a standout candidate experience, even as talent acquisition teams have become leaner. Teams hiring for high-volume healthcare roles benefit from features like:

SMS/WhatsApp messaging: Reach candidates via texting and WhatsApp to increase response rates and schedule faster.
Workflow automation: Auto-trigger messages and reminders to candidates and hiring managers — and automate the entire interview process with an intuitive workflow editor.
Screening and knockout questions: Stay focused on what matters and identify the most qualified talent automatically with screening questionnaires and knock-out questions.

About GoodTime

GoodTime helps people and companies drive better outcomes from their most important meetings by automating coordination, making sure the right people are in the room, and providing actionable meeting insights to hit goals faster.

The company’s flagship product, GoodTime Hire, helps hiring teams go beyond candidate experience and make every interview count. Hire uses AI to automate interview coordination, build better relationships during interviews, and deliver insights to continuously optimize the hiring process. Over 300 companies around the world like Slack, Box, HubSpot, Spotify, Okta, and Pinterest are getting to “yes” up to 70% faster with Hire. Learn more at goodtime.io.

Learn more about how GoodTime can help your organization with healthcare recruiting.

GoodTime Product Updates: What’s New from July 2023

Posted on July 26, 2023October 24, 2023 by Jake Link

Get pumped for some updates that will make your work life a whole lot easier. We’ve been hard at work rolling out some much-anticipated features this month, including:

A new Recruiting Leaderboard to give you performance benchmarks and actionable data at a glance.
Workflow automation for email so you can further automate interview requests, reminders, and even drip campaigns
International language support so all your messages and reminders can be sent in 10 different languages.
For Meet, AI-powered round-robin scheduling and lead routing lets you automatically set meetings with the right person at the right time and balance the meeting load across your teams.

We’re excited to show it all to you, so let’s jump right into it!

Watch the July 2023 GoodTime product updates webinar

Check out the full product update walkthrough below, or keep scrolling for the top highlights.

GoodTime Hire updates

Let’s start with our flagship product — GoodTime hire. You know it and love it, but it’s getting even better every month. Here are this month’s highlights.

A new Recruiting Leaderboard

The all-new Recruiting Leaderboard lets you plot scheduling data on bar charts, for any of the metrics you chose like Schedules, Reschedules, Updates, and Cancellations.

You can also sort by any metric needed and compare your company average with industry averages.

Why you’ll love it:

Easily identify areas of high performance, and areas of need for improvement, as well as understand how your org performs to similar companies in your industry.

Enhanced trainee assignment

Assigning Trainees is now more straightforward with a clearer visual experience. It’s now a breeze to select trainees and see their current progress.

Trainee assignment and progress in GoodTime

Why you’ll love it:

This update makes scheduling training and shadowing sessions much faster and easier to understand.

Hire for High Volume updates

Are you using our high-volume hiring features yet? Because they’re only getting better! Here are this month’s updates.

Workflow automation for email

We now support workflow automation via email, including one-off emails, interview requests, and drip campaigns!

Why you’ll love it: Create the same workflows you have in SMS/WhatsApp, but now through email if that is your preferred communication channel with candidates.

International language support

All system messages such as reminders, confirmations, and reschedule messages are now supported in 10 different languages.

Multi-language support example in German

Why you’ll love it: Companies with a global footprint can now conduct all candidate-facing communication in the candidate’s respective language. It’s a better experience overall and allows you to optimize your hiring process in more geos.

Enhancements to the Quick Menu

You can now insert files, emojis, variables, or message blurbs with one click from the Quick Menu.

Why you’ll love it: Set up Message Blurb templates to contain emojis, variables, and even files quickly and easily from the Quick Menu. This saves you even more time in bulk messaging and automating candidate communications.

More updates

Here are a few smaller, but mighty updates to Hire for High Volume.

Generate WhatsApp Templates inside the application

Create WhatsApp Message templates on the fly and see their approval status without needing to contact GoodTIme.

Mark Messages as Unread

Mark a message as unread with a candidate to remember to follow up at a future date.

Notifications when candidate numbers do not exist

Display and notify users when an SMS or WhatsApp number is not valid and a message could not be sent.

Meet updates

Our product team is on fire with the updates to Meet lately! We’ve got two major releases this month.

AI-Powered Round Robin scheduling

Round Robin links get a serious AI-powered update this month. You can now pick your favorite distribution algorithm, so you decide how to optimize for speed of scheduling versus load balancing.

AI-powered group meeting scheduling in GoodTime Meet

Why you’ll love it: Using AI to balance Round Robin links allows teams to fairly distribute leads or inbound requests while providing the maximum flexibility for guests who are scheduling

Routing updates for Sales teams

We’re continuing to build out and enhance the Routing functionality in GoodTime Meet. This month, we’re introducing Salesforce Owner Sync.

Why you’ll love it: By automatically assigning leads to existing owners in Salesforce, operations teams can automate the process of lead assignment without worrying about double assigning a lead.

Even more updates to Meet

Embedebble GoodTime Meet lead capture forms

Create native embeddable custom forms that you can use to capture and route leads from your website.

Routing: Owner sync back to Salesforce

After routing a lead, the system can now sync the assigned owner back into Salesforce, further automating the lead routing process.

Routing: Deep linking

Deep linking to a route makes it easier for teams to collaborate. You can now share route settings with teammates via the browser URL.

Database Infrastructure Updates

With the increased demand on GoodTime Meet services, we upgraded our databases to better manage the additional traffic.

Still scheduling meetings manually?

You don’t have to do that anymore! See you you can tap into all the features above and a whole lot more.

Here’s how teams are crushing their goals with GoodTime:

TA teams use Hire to automate interview scheduling and hire 50% faster.
Recruiting teams use Hire for High Volume to optimize their high-volume recruiting process, connect with candidates on mobile devices, and hit seasonal and holiday hiring goals.
Sales teams, CS teams, and individuals use Meet for smarter meeting scheduling, including load balancing, lead routing, and more.

GoodTime Product Updates: What’s New From June 2023

Posted on July 12, 2023August 9, 2023 by Rachel Heller

Get excited: our team is always hard at work in making GoodTime the best it can be, and we’re here to share the latest product updates from June 2023. We have a brand new Interviewer Leaderboard, you can now schedule messages in the High Volume product, and more. Buckle up, let’s review!

Watch the full product updates walkthrough

Want the entire scoop on our latest and greatest product updates? Check out June’s product update webinar below. Keep scrolling to read the biggest highlights.

GoodTime Hire updates

We’ve polished the Schedule Now flow, improved the Interviewer Leaderboard, and added to the Request Availability function.

Enhanced Schedule Now flow

We’ve simplified and updated the time and time zone selection for Schedule Now so that you can spend less time updating time zones and clearing up misunderstandings, and more time getting interviews on the books.

GoodTime Hire's Schedule Now interview scheduling functionality.

New Interviewer Leaderboard

The Interviewer Leaderboard just got a facelift. This new leaderboard enables data to be pulled faster for any size organization. You can also slice interviewer data in new ways with dimensions like jobs and tags, all while getting instant graphic representation to share with your organization.

Optional or no interviewers

The Request Availability feature is now fully functional without assigning interviewers, or making them optional while ensuring that potential business hours are respected. Collecting candidate availability before knowing exactly who will interview them is key to moving fast for high-priority hires.

GoodTime Hire's updated Request Availability function.

GoodTime Hire for High Volume updates

Send SMS to candidates from localized country codes, leverage drip campaigns for workflows, and more in our High Volume product.

Localized phone numbers

Global recruiting teams can now use localized country code phone numbers to message candidates.

Global recruiting teams can send SMS candidates from localized country codes.

Drip campaigns for workflows

With workflow automation, you can now set up single or multiple nudges, AKA drip campaigns, to automatically follow up with candidates. Keep unresponsive candidates engaged without lifting a finger.

Hire for High Volume's drip campaigns for reaching out to candidates.

Send later

Working late or on weekends, and don’t want to send messages right away? Schedule your SMS/Email/WhatsApp messages to send out at a future date and time.

Feature that allows recruiters to schedule reach-outs to candidates for a later time.

Other notable updates

Shortened URL links when texting candidates: When sending URLs, we’ve shortened the URLs for candidates to be a gtme.io URL
Round robin & group interview support: Create interview templates that have multiple interviewers (round robin or group interviews)
WhatsApp workflow automation & reminders: Select WhatsApp as a communication channel for sending messages and interview requests

GoodTime Meet updates

A new routing feature, a useful way to collaborate on scheduling links, and more.

Routing

Route leads from your website to the correct people on your team and get them instantly scheduled. This way, once a potential customer or candidate has expressed interest, you can increase your chances of closing them by allowing them to immediately schedule with the right people on your team.

A scheduling feature that routes leads to the correct people

Scheduling link collaboration

Easily collaborate on scheduling links to enable others to quickly update and edit links. Share and delegate the operational load of managing important schedulings and provide visibility into your link settings.

A scheduling feature that lets you collaborate on scheduling links

Virtual team free/busy calendar

Share your free/busy time slots with people outside of your organization to find times when everyone is free.

A calendar scheduling feature that makes coordination more streamlined

Other notable updates

Enterprise account provisioning: Companies can now purchase an enterprise account and assign licenses to teammates
Company meeting categories: Standardize meeting categories at the company level that can be used by all teammates

Not Part of the GoodTime Family Yet?

It’s time to change that. With GoodTime, you can get better outcomes from your company’s most important meetings. For interviews, GoodTime Hire helps you schedule 40% faster, hire 50% more efficiently, and 5x team productivity. (Seriously.) For every other meeting, GoodTime Meet provides beautifully-branded scheduling links to schedule internal and external meetings faster than ever.

Learn more about how Hire can transform your interview scheduling.

Learn more about how Hire for High Volume can revolutionize your high-volume hiring.

Learn more about how Meet can revamp your meeting scheduling.