Interview Scheduling vs. Speed Dating: Strangely Similar?

Do you have your eye on a fantastic job candidate? If you want to win their heart, consider taking inspiration from the speed dating world. (Yes, you read that right.)  

On the surface, speed dating and interview scheduling couldn’t seem more different. Yet these two spheres are strikingly alike, and there’s a lot that they can teach each other. 

Especially amid today’s hot talent market, where there are two jobs for every available worker, recruiters should borrow this crucial lesson from speed dating: success comes from moving fast. 

The faster a recruiter gets their talent team in front of candidates, the better their chances of landing a great new hire before another company secures them. 

The major common denominator in successful speed dating and interview scheduling is speed. How else are recruiters similar to singles looking to mingle—and what can recruiters learn from them? 

Learning #1: Prompt Scheduling Creates a Great First Impression

You’re gazing across the room, and there they are: someone who might be “the one.” You can feel it. You can’t wait until they rotate to your table for a quick one-on-one; you simply can’t leave without speaking with them. 

Time is of the essence when you see that special someone, and the same applies when you’re a recruiter sifting through applications. That’s why talent teams have no time to waste when they come across a compelling job applicant. Getting an interview on the books as soon as possible is the name of the game.

Acting with a sense of urgency gives a great first impression. It lets the other party know that your interest in them is serious. And when your goal is to create a genuine connection, first impressions are everything. 

In fact, a survey found that 48% of candidates are deterred from applying for jobs after poor first impressions. Set the right tone with candidates from the get-go by reaching out for an interview the moment that you realize they’d be a superb new hire.

Learning #2: You’re Not Your Candidate’s Only Admirer

You’re speaking to someone and you’re really hitting it off. You get swept up in the moment…but then the bell rings and it’s time to switch tables. You watch as they move on to talk to another person, and it looks like they’re also hitting it off. Ouch.

There are plenty of fish in the sea, plenty of singles at speed dating events, and plenty of companies in the world (and remote hiring has only increased the number of employers vying for your candidate). In other words, you’re probably not the only one that your candidate has their eyes on.

The average number of applications that job seekers send is 13. With candidates interested in such a variety of roles, talent teams need to differentiate themselves if they want to stand out from the competition.

To get a leg up on other companies, go the extra mile for your candidates. When communicating with them, respond to their concerns in a timely manner. But don’t forget to come prepared for the interview; you need to know your stuff when they ask questions! Fast interview scheduling isn’t impressive if the interview itself is shabby.

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.

Learning #3: The Post-interview Follow-up Is Crucial

You’ve conversed with a few interesting people, yet no real stunners. Then suddenly, you meet the perfect match! But tread lightly: your next few actions are just as important as your first encounter with them. 

After you interview a star candidate, take a page out of the speed dating world’s book and immediately act on the next step: the post-interview follow-up. If you’re really interested in a candidate and want to keep them engaged, you have to show it. 

And if you don’t? They’ll flock to the other options that they have on the table. Nearly one-quarter of workers lose interest in an employer if they don’t hear back from them within one week after the first interview, and 46% lose interest if they don’t receive communication within one-to-two weeks post-interview.

Keep the enthusiasm going by getting the next meeting scheduled as quickly as you can. By minimizing the wait time in between interviews, your company will remain top of mind for candidates, and you’ll reduce your candidate drop-off rate. They’ll be just as engaged in the second interview as they were in the first.

Woo Your Candidates With Agile Interview Scheduling

In the recruiting world, the pressure to impress and win candidates is at an all-time high. If you don’t act fast enough, another employer will sweep them off their feet.

But by scheduling each interview with a healthy dose of speed, you’ll spark a connection with talent and make a lasting impression on them before the competition can even get a word in.

GoodTime Hire’s new Flexible Scheduling intelligently optimizes interviews across teams, tools, and timezones in seconds, saving time and getting you in front of candidates faster with an incredible experience, no matter the complexity.

Learn more about how Hire’s Flexible Scheduling can revolutionize the way you schedule.

10 Recruiting Statistics You Must Know to Succeed in Hiring

Keeping up with the latest hiring trends is the key to success. Lucky for you, we’ve compiled several crucial recruiting statistics that you must know to win candidates and optimize your hiring process.

Our 2022 Hiring Insights Report surveyed 560 HR and talent decision makers to understand the most pressing challenges facing their teams, and what should be done to reel in top talent. Read on for ten of the report’s most revealing recruiting statistics.

1. Less than 35% of companies give candidates office tours and free lunches

One-sided hiring practices are now relics of the past. When asked what they do to build connections with candidates, talent leaders selected “giving a tour of the office” and “free lunch during the interview” the least.

The highest ranked responses were candidate-focused hiring practices, such as “scheduling flexibility,” “demonstration of company culture, mission & values,” and “candidate interview personalization.” Companies recognize that superficial hiring tactics no longer win candidates.

2. 32% of HR leaders say “retaining top talent” will be their No. 1 challenge in the future

When asked which hiring challenges they expect to face in the coming months, the majority of HR leaders ranked “retaining top talent” as the biggest challenge. Tied for second (28%) was “a lack of qualified candidates” and “hybrid work challenges.” 

Considering the Great Resignation’s long-lasting effects in 2021, concerns regarding talent retention come as no surprise. If talent teams want to overcome this challenge, they must know this: retaining talent starts from the first moment that a candidate speaks to a recruiter. Teams must optimize their processes to exceed each candidate’s expectations.

3. 60% of companies saw their time-to-hire increase in 2021

The more efficient your hiring process is, the shorter your time-to-hire will be. However, 60% of companies saw their time-to-hire increase in 2021. Only 8% of companies saw their time-to-hire decrease.

The best candidates disappear from the market in just 10 days. If you don’t hire swiftly and efficiently (while still maintaining a high level of quality), you can bid top candidates good-bye.

4. 36% of HR leaders agree that communication is most valuable to candidates

When asked what is most valuable to candidates, 36% of talent leaders said that delivering “prompt, clear communication” would be most important to the candidate experience. HR leaders ranked “transparency in the interview process” (16%) as the second most valuable element.

Nobody likes being ghosted in the interview process. Sustaining consistent communication with candidates, such as emailing them updates on next steps, conveys a clear message that their time is valued.

5. 46% of HR leaders say that the value of candidate relationships is the No. 1 anticipated hiring change

When looking to the future, talent teams agree that forming genuine connections with candidates will be more important than ever. This is completely true; to win the best talent, investing energy into candidate relationships is non-negotiable.

Candidates are interviewing you as much as you’re interviewing them. Cultivating a connection with them throughout the hiring process maintains their interest amid a variety of other companies and job offers.

6. Three weeks is the average time-to-hire for companies

No matter the size or industry of their organization, all companies from our report experienced the same average time-to-hire: three weeks. 

During a time where the fastest companies often win the best candidates, keeping time-to-hire low is mission-critical. Talent teams should reassess their hiring processes, tools, and people to optimize themselves for speed. 

7. Just 33% of talent teams plan on prioritizing DE&I in the next 12 months

“Making DE&I a measurable priority” was the least-selected answer to the question, “Over the next 12 months, what areas will you look to improve in your hiring process?” Companies aren’t rolling up their sleeves to amplify DE&I, yet they should be.

Diverse teams produce 19% higher revenue. But besides that, focusing on DE&I simply makes sense. Today’s diverse candidates don’t just want to see an emphasis on DE&I in the hiring process—they expect it.

8. 45% of talent teams say that improving efficiency is their biggest focus

Improving DE&I might not be on the minds of talent teams, but improving efficiency certainly is. Boosting overall efficiency is the No. 1 focus area for talent teams in the future. In second place (41%) was “increasing personalization throughout the hiring process.”

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.

This is a good sign. In today’s competitive job market, efficiency is everything and hiring fast is critical. A clunky, slow hiring process is sure to cause candidates to turn down an otherwise desirable job offer. 

9. 59% of hiring leaders communicate employee well-being to candidates

We asked respondents, “Which of the following do you communicate to candidates during the hiring process to attract top talent?” Hiring leaders selected “employee well-being” as the top response, with “company culture” coming in at second place (53%).

Employees innately seek belonging and psychological safety in their workplace; they want to see that their employer takes their well-being into consideration. Likewise, candidates want to feel confident that a potential employer would care for their well-being.

10. 37% of HR teams’ time is spent scheduling interviews

Talent acquisition professionals spend more than one-third of their time scheduling interviews. It’s clear why improving hiring efficiency is a top priority for talent teams. When a hiring process is optimized for efficiency, recruiting coordinators spend less time scheduling and more time on high-value tasks.

Enlisting the help of your HR tech stack (and adding the latest tech tools into the mix) is one surefire way to decrease the amount of time that you have your head stuck in calendars.

Want the Latest Insights? Read the 2023 Hiring Insights Report

One of the best ways to improve your hiring is by using researched insights to inform your process. Want to catch up on the latest hiring trends? Get excited: our 2023 Hiring Insights Report is now available. 500+ HR leaders, 1,000s of real findings, 1 industry-leading report. Read the report today.

Reverse Recruiting: Everything You Need to Know

The world keeps on turning and the recruiting landscape keeps on changing. With new approaches to talent acquisition popping up all the time, it can be difficult to keep pace with the latest trends. Here’s one new approach you should add to your vocabulary: ever heard of reverse recruiting?

What Is Reverse Recruiting?

Reverse recruiting flips the traditional roles of candidates and recruiters. Instead of candidates applying to companies, companies apply to candidates. 

In order for reverse recruiting to work, companies need to provide candidates with more detailed information in their first encounter than they normally would. This information includes compensation and benefits attached to the role.

After candidates sift through their potential job opportunities, they decide which recruiters they’d like to meet for an interview.

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Why Should You Care About Reverse Recruiting?

Reverse recruiting’s advantages are far and wide. If you’re not convinced that reverse recruiting matters, check out its benefits below.

Adapt to the Evolving Hiring Landscape

It’s still a candidate’s market; there are two jobs for every available worker. More likely than not, these candidates have a variety of job opportunities to choose from. To adapt to today’s market, talent teams must evolve their hiring methods. 

Posting job openings on LinkedIn may be a popular approach to finding talent, but with candidates being inundated by opportunities on job boards, it’s not always the best way to stand out. 

By applying to candidates, companies differentiate themselves from other organizations by making their interest in a candidate incredibly apparent.

Better Chance of Winning Coveted Talent

Reverse recruiting proves to be especially useful when recruiting for in-demand roles, such as software engineers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 25% growth in software development jobs from 2021 to 2023.

Directly conveying to a candidate that you’re interested in them effectively captures their attention and increases your chances of filling the in-demand role.

Increase Your Candidate Pool Diversity

If one of your recruitment team’s goals is to boost the diversity among candidates, reverse recruiting is a proactive way to do it. Revere recruiting puts all of the power in your hands to seek out and uplift diverse, underrepresented talent.

Identify Talent With a Perfect Skill Set Match

If you have trouble finding applicants who match the hiring manager’s wish list of skills, reverse recruiting can solve this problem. Applying to talent allows companies to connect with just the candidates who possess the desired skills.

This also eliminates the amount of time spent sifting through applications upon applications that just don’t contain what the hiring manager is looking for.

How To Prepare for Reverse Recruiting

We’ve covered the basics of what reverse recruiting is…but how should recruiters put reverse recruiting into action? Before reaching out to candidates, follow the steps below to guarantee the highest success rate.

Carve Out Your Candidate Profile

The first step of reverse recruiting involves considering your ideal candidate profile. What experience is required? Is a specific skill set or mindset most important for this position? 

This step shouldn’t feel unfamiliar; it’s a pivotal action item for practically all types of recruiting. However, your candidate profile is especially important when reverse recruiting. You’ll leverage it when explaining to a candidate how they would be a great fit for a specific role. 

Establish the “Why”

“What’s in it for me?” That’s one of the first questions a candidate asks themself when approached by a recruiter. It’s important to get clear on the “why” behind your reverse recruiting efforts. Why would a candidate want to work for your company? Why would they enjoy the role? 

Identify the compensation, benefits, and perks of working for your organization so that you can effectively relay them to your candidate.

Refine Your Employer Brand

Your company’s reputation as an employer can be discovered in just a few clicks. Tidying up your employer brand before you reach out to candidates is a must. 

In fact, organizations that invest in their employer brand are three times more likely to hire quality candidates.

There are countless ways to improve your employer brand. From boosting your careers page (and ensuring that you actually follow through on the page’s promises), to nailing down your employee value proposition, to committing to DE&I, the choice is yours.

Supercharge Your Recruiting Methods Today

Whether or not reverse recruiting is ideal for your talent team to employ, there’s one opportunity that your team simply shouldn’t pass up on: leveling up your recruitment tech stack.

GoodTime Hire automates coordination, builds genuine connections with talent, and gathers actionable data to optimize the entire process. (Plus, you’ll save major time and money along the way).

Discover how GoodTime Hire’s interview scheduling software can take your recruiting to the next level.

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5 Things Candidates Wish They Could Tell Your Recruiting Team

Do you ever wonder what’s going on inside a candidate’s head? You should. In today’s hiring landscape, it’s crucial for your recruiting team to put themselves in your candidates’ shoes. 

We’re still in the thick of a candidate’s market; there are two jobs for every available worker. With candidate’s having the upper hand, the smartest talent teams try to channel a candidate’s perspective when evaluating their hiring process. 

Your candidates might start each interview with a beaming smile, but behind that smile, candidates are carefully examining your hiring methods, forming their own brutally honest thoughts on your team and organization.

Here are five things candidates wish they could say to your recruiting team.

1. “My time is precious. Please respect it.”

Don’t expect candidates to move their schedules around to accommodate your interviewers’ calendars. It’s a candidate’s market, remember? Candidates want to schedule interviews at times that best fit their calendar. Ask for their availability upfront.

And don’t even get us started on scheduling all-day interviews. The expectation in the past might’ve been that candidates should block out their full day to speak with your company’s employees, but the past is the past. Now, candidates would much rather interview in chunks across several days. 

Above all, remember: your candidates are most definitely interviewing for roles at other companies. They’re more likely to remember and appreciate your interview process if you schedule their interviews with flexibility and understanding.

Automated interview scheduling at warp speed

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2. “Salary and benefits: be honest upfront.”

Transparency is top of mind for candidates. The Pay Transparency Pulse Report shows that 79% of employees want some form of pay transparency, and 32% want full transparency. To add to that, 68% of respondents said they would switch employers for greater pay transparency, even if compensation was the same. 

It’s common for companies to try to get leverage by waiting until the last moment to disclose the position’s true salary and benefits. This is a practice that recruiting teams need to leave behind.

Displaying transparency not only makes a workplace more appealing to candidates, but is also holistically practical from a recruitment perspective. Waiting until the last minute to learn that a candidate’s expectations don’t match up with a role wastes everyone’s time. Smart hiring teams are transparent from the get-go.

3. “What do you really mean by ‘work-life balance’?”

“A great work-life balance” is a phrase that companies love to throw into the “perks” section of job posts. But what do they really mean when they say work-life balance? That’s a question that an increasing number of candidates have for hiring teams.

Does offering a great work-life balance mean that a company allows employees to set their own hours? Does it mean that the position is remote or hybrid? Job seekers care about the specifics. Candidates ranked work-life balance as more important than compensation, culture, and benefits. 

Interviewers should clearly describe how their company provides employees with the flexibility that creates a healthy work-life balance. In doing so, interviewers will open the door for a greater diversity of candidates, such as working parents, who cannot compromise on a lack of a work-life balance.

4. “Your company celebrates DE&I? These interviews don’t show it.”

Candidates from underrepresented groups want to be interviewed by a diverse array of interviewers with whom they share similar traits. Seeing employees that are similar to them makes candidates feel represented by their potential employer. Candidates will notice if a panel lacks diversity—trust us.

Besides creating diverse interview panels, another way that your recruiting team can uplift DE&I is by having all interviewers undergo bias training. Everyone relies on unconscious bias from time to time. But with the proper interviewer training, it’s entirely possible to reduce bias and create an objective interview process.

All in all, conveying a commitment to DE&I in hiring not only attracts candidates, but also benefits your bottom line. Diverse teams produce 19% higher revenue. Focusing on DE&I just makes sense.

5. “I’m not just a job candidate—I’m human, too.”

Candidates don’t want to be viewed as just a number. They want to be seen for who they really are: a human above all else. Within this, candidates want to feel a genuine, personal connection to your recruiting team. 

Take time to nurture your relationships with candidates. Here’s an insight to jump off of: 62% of employees say that well-being support is their top priority in the job hunt. Offering yourself as a resource if candidates have any concerns is a great way to show that you care about their well-being, and improve your relationship with them.

Make the connection between you and your candidates as mutual as possible. Find out what candidates want in a role—not just what they can offer your organization. After all, you want new hires to feel engaged in their jobs. 

Supercharge Your Recruitment Process Today

Now that you’ve gotten a glimpse into what candidates wish they could say to you, it’s time to put these insights into action and level up your recruitment process. 

If you want to stand out among other companies, you need recruitment tech that truly prioritizes candidates. Look no further than GoodTime Hire.

GoodTime Hire harnesses Candidate Relationship Intelligence to automate coordination, build relationships during interviews, and provide actionable insights to continuously improve your hiring process.


If you want to take your recruitment process to the next level, learn more about Hire today.

Hiring More Recruiting Coordinators? Buy Recruitment Tech Instead.

Picture this: you’re struggling to secure quality candidates for your team’s open reqs, and getting candidates to a “yes” takes too long. You’re contemplating hiring more recruiting coordinators to optimize your talent acquisition process— because that’s the logical fix, right? Not so fast. Consider investing in recruitment tech instead.

You can hire all the recruiting coordinators that you want, but if you’re bogged down by inefficient operations and processes, your problems are sure to persist.

Instead of funneling more employees into a broken system, get to the root of the problem and patch up the holes in your hiring process. Establishing the right recruitment tech is the solution.

Why Recruitment Tech Is a Worthwhile Investment

1. Modern-day Hiring Requires Automation

Think you can succeed in hiring without the help of automation? Think again. Automation is an absolute necessity in the fast-paced hiring landscape. The competition for quality candidates isn’t going anywhere. That means that companies must act quickly to secure the best talent. 

But repetitive tasks like interview scheduling can lengthen a hiring process—and cause teams to miss out on candidates. That’s why using tech to automate interview scheduling is the way to go.

Automation accelerates the time it takes to schedule, choose interviewers, and communicate with candidates. Combine all of these advantages, and you have a decreasing time-to-hire. 

Automated interview scheduling at warp speed

Lean team? Sky-high goals? No sweat. Secure top talent 50% faster with smart scheduling automation that handles even the trickiest interviews.

2. Enhance Recruiting Coordinators’ Candidate Relationships 

We’re still in the middle of a candidate’s market. There are two jobs for every available worker—a number that’s in the range of historic highs. Since candidates have the upper hand, talent teams must deliver a hiring experience that exceeds expectations. 

One of the best ways to stand out from other companies is by prioritizing candidate relationships. If a candidate doesn’t feel a bond with your team and your brand, it’ll be difficult to get an offer acceptance. That’s where recruitment tech comes in. 

Tech unlocks a multitude of ways to create personal candidate relationships. From identifying the most convenient interview time for a candidate’s schedule, to adding personalization to automated messages, a tech platform’s functionalities can do wonders in enhancing your bonds.

3. Data-driven Hiring Processes Succeed

The best talent acquisition teams keep tabs on their hiring data. Without a sense of your past and present metrics, it’s difficult to effectively optimize your process and spot issues.

Data-driven recruiting is viewed as an approach to recruiting, but here’s the truth: all recruiting should be data-driven. Luckily, many talent acquisition teams already know this. Our 2022 Hiring Insights Report shows that 35% of TA professionals reference their hiring data on a weekly basis, and 32% reference their data monthly.

How are they accessing this stream of data? More likely than not, they’re leveraging their tech stack. Robust HR tech can help you keep tabs on the number of RC schedules, interviewer declines, and the time that it takes to interview for a role.

4. Free Up Bandwidth for Recruiting Coordinators

No matter the industry or company size, recruiting coordinators know the pain of manual interview scheduling. When you have your head stuck in calendars, it’s difficult to make time for high-value projects that will make real improvements to your process.

That’s the beauty of recruitment tech. It takes care of the tedious tasks—like finding calendar availability and selecting interviewers—so that RC’s can focus on what really matters. With this newfound bandwidth, recruiting coordinators can connect with candidates, dive into their data, and give DEIB initiatives a facelift. 

And No, Tech Can’t Replace Recruiting Coordinators

Don’t worry, we’re not advocating for robots to replace recruiting coordinators (that’d be a bit jarring to say the least). There are many elements that recruiting coordinators can deliver that technology can’t—like empathy and trust, which are both so important to candidates. 

Talent teams need a marriage between technology and recruiting coordinators so that they can reap the benefits of both. Without skilled RC’s, a hiring process feels robotic and impersonal. Yet without technology, tasks become tedious and a hiring process becomes inefficient.

The way forward is clear: leverage technology and equip your recruiting coordinators with the knowledge that they need to use it to its full potential. Then, watch the quality of your hiring process soar.

Amp Up Your Recruitment Tech Stack Today

Continuously increasing your talent team’s headcount isn’t a sustainable way to fix your problems. The right tech stack can enhance your process and enable a talent team of five to operate like a team of 50. So, you’re probably wondering: “Which recruitment tech is right for me?”

For starters, you need an ATS in your arsenal. The ATS that you choose depends on the needs and size of your talent team and company. If you find it difficult to decide on one, we recommend the following: Greenhouse, iCIMS, Jobvite, SmartRecruiters, Workday, and Lever. 

But while an ATS is essential, an ATS just can’t deliver on all of the features that you need for success. GoodTime Hire fills those gaps.

Hire automates coordination, improves your relationships with candidates, and provides actionable insights to continuously optimize the entire hiring process.

Learn more about how GoodTime Hire’s interview scheduling software can transform your talent acquisition process

Internal Mobility: Your Secret Weapon During a Hiring Slowdown

“Do more with less.” You’re sure to hear this phrase whenever uncertain economic conditions arise. Amid the current economic and hiring downturn, there’s a growing pressure in the talent community to maximize resources. However, the one opportunity that far too many talent teams brush aside is optimizing internal mobility.

The majority of employers (38%) say that they don’t market job opportunities to their own employees. It’s time to change that. Internal recruiting leverages existing talent to mold your hiring team into an agile unit, able to withstand anything that the landscape throws at them. It’s the epitome of “doing more with less.”

Better yet, with the lower cost of internal candidates, hiring from within allows you to fill crucial talent gaps when economic conditions make external recruiting less feasible. 

Here are six ways to enhance your internal mobility strategy and stay afloat while recruiting in a potential recession.

1. Get Leadership on Board

Uplifting internal mobility is an undertaking that talent acquisition can’t do alone. Getting firm buy-in from leadership is crucial to an internal mobility strategy’s success. This buy-in allows for a culture of mobility to truly flourish throughout an organization.

When presenting this strategy to leadership, remember that leadership speaks in dollar signs and metrics. Ensure that you’re armed with solid statistics on why hiring internal candidates is a smart move for the company’s bottom line—especially considering current economic and hiring conditions.

Once you secure their endorsement, it’s time for leadership to lay the groundwork for your new mobility culture. They should inform employees that they are welcome to search for new career opportunities internally, and encourage managers to vocalize this same sentiment to their direct reports. 

2. Emphasize Learning and Development

Don’t expect for employees to apply to internal positions right out the gate. You need to do a bit of extra work to prepare employees for potential internal moves, and that means uplifting learning and development (L&D).

Making L&D accessible to employees allows them to gain the training and skills that are needed for specific internal roles that they desire. L&D can take a wide variety of forms, but mentorships and job shadowing are both great ways to prepare employees for any role changes.

3. Support Your Organization’s Managers

Seventy percent of talent acquisition professionals say that the biggest obstacle to internal recruiting is a manager who doesn’t want to let go of talent. We get it; it’s logical to not want to lose your best employees. 

However, an employee switching roles shouldn’t be viewed as a loss for a manager, but a win for a company. It’s crucial to educate managers on the value of internal mobility, such as improved cross-department collaboration and higher retention. 

Not all managers are resistant to internal mobility; some managers simply don’t know how to contribute to such an initiative. That’s why managers need sufficient support and training so that they know how to uplift their direct reports and prepare them for career changes.

4. Help Define Career Paths for Employees

So, you have employees who are interested in making internal moves, but they’re not sure which options are available to them—or how to move internally to begin with. That’s where the importance of defining career paths comes in.

Fostering transparency surrounding career paths makes internal mobility all the more accessible. To kick-start the process of defining career paths, empower managers to work alongside their direct reports and carve out custom paths and goals.

5. Shed Light on Lateral Mobility

A common misconception of internal mobility is that it always means climbing up the career ladder. However, that’s just not the case. Internal mobility encompasses both vertical and lateral moves. It’s important to clarify career opportunities for both.

Lateral mobility is commonly referred to as “role-to-role mobility,” where an employee moves to a new internal position with little (if any) changes to their compensation or career level. 

There’s just as much value in lateral mobility as there is in vertical mobility. Encouraging lateral moves enhances collaboration across departments and keeps employees continuously engaged in your organization’s opportunities.

6. Elevate Internal Mobility With Tech

No matter if you’re hiring internally or externally, candidates should experience an efficient and meaningful hiring process. The best way to live up to a candidate’s expectations and deliver a noteworthy hiring experience is by enlisting the help of your tech stack. Ever heard of GoodTime Hire?

Hire harnesses Candidate Relationship Intelligence to automate coordination, build relationships during interviews, and provide actionable insights to continuously improve your connections with candidates.


Schedule a demo to learn more about how Hire can transform your talent acquisition process.

5 Easy Ways Recruiters Can Improve Candidate Well-Being

Let’s cut to the chase: many hiring teams struggle to prioritize candidate well-being (and we have the data to back this up).

Even though teams recognize the importance of employee well-being, most neglect to focus on the well-being of future employees—AKA, candidates. Our Hiring Insights Report makes this fact as clear as day. 

Fifty-nine percent of HR and talent leaders from our report consider “employee well-being” to be the top enticement for attracting candidates. However, when asked what they do to build relationships with candidates during the recruiting process, “interest in candidate’s well-being” came in as the third least selected response.

The way that candidates are treated in the hiring process alludes to how they’d be treated as employees. If a hiring team tells talent that they support their employees’ well-being, yet they don’t show the same support to candidates, then candidates likely won’t believe them.

Actions speak louder than words. It’s cliché, but oh so true. So, to help recruiters actively improve candidate well-being, we’ve put together this handy list of ways to make the well-being of candidates a top priority.

1. Never Leave a Candidate Hanging

Sometimes candidates ghost recruiters, and other times recruiters ghost candidates. We get it; getting caught up in balancing schedules and chasing down interviewers can cause things to slip through the cracks.

But still, you have to maintain consistent communication with candidates. Interviewing can be a high-stress ordeal for candidates, and dropping contact with them out of nowhere can kick their stress into overdrive. And yes, you guessed it; ghosting candidates significantly hinders their well-being.

If locking down interviewers to set up a second interview takes you longer than expected, give candidates a quick status update to show that you haven’t forgotten about them. Not only will this prove that you value their time, but it’ll also dissuade them from brushing your company aside and looking for opportunities elsewhere.

2. Remember: DE&I Is Part of Candidate Well-being

Promoting candidate well-being means uplifting it for all candidates, and that means candidates from underrepresented groups. A hiring team isn’t truly considering the well-being of diverse candidates if their commitment to DE&I is last in line.

Proving your commitment to DE&I doesn’t have to mean enacting time-consuming, costly initiatives. It can be as simple as ensuring that diverse individuals make up your interview panels. If a candidate sees themselves represented in an interview panel, they’re more likely to feel that they’d be represented and cared for at a company.

3. Collect Candidate Feedback to Squash Any Misconduct

Imagine having one of your interviewers treat a candidate unfairly. Terrible, right? It can be hard to sniff out instances of misconduct against candidates without asking the candidates themselves.

So…why not do exactly that? Collecting candidate feedback through surveys helps guarantee that candidates are treated the way that they deserve. Better yet, surveys also allow you to continuously reengineer your hiring process to meet the expectations of talent.

And if you need any more convincing, consider this: 68% of candidates would like to provide feedback after an interview. However, 75% report rarely or never being asked for their opinion. Pass the mic to your candidates!

4. Train, Train, Train Your Interviewers

Interviewers can make or break a candidate’s experience with your company. Well-trained interviewers ensure that candidates feel valued, heard, and appropriately challenged. When you add all of that up, you get an interviewing experience that’ll leave candidates smiling.  Why wouldn’t you train your interviewers?

The best way to learn is through experience, which is why we recommend establishing a process where new interviewers shadow seasoned interviewers. During the shadowing stage, new interviewers should learn the best questions to ask and the most impactful ways to connect with candidates.

5. Don’t Underestimate the Value of Small Talk

Small talk gets a bad rap, but there’s actually science behind its positive effects on mood. When interviewing candidates, engaging in small talk is the way to go. Diving head-first into your interview questions without a bit of light chitchat can make the interviewing experience feel robotic and impersonal. Small talk does wonders in easing a candidate’s stress.

And believe us—there’s likely at least an ounce of stress on the candidate’s side. No matter how many interviews a candidate’s sat through, interviewing is a holistically nerve-wracking experience. By starting off with some light small talk, you’ll not only alleviate any anxiety, but will also help candidates feel confident that your company cares about them as a human—not just a potential new hire.

Upgrade your candidate experience without sacrificing your time

The number one way to improve your candidate experience is by respecting their time, moving quickly, and automatically collecting insights to understand and improve your processes. GoodTime makes all of that a cinch!

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Then, Now, and Beyond: What Matters Most in Talent Acquisition

In a fast-paced field like talent acquisition, the name of the game is simple: evolve or die. Talent teams can either keep pace with the ever-changing rules for hiring, or get left in the dust. 

The worldwide events from the past few years (COVID-19, anyone?) have revolutionized the ways that companies snag top talent. But here’s the question of the hour: amid all of the commotion in the talent acquisition industry, what really matters right now? And what will matter for talent teams in the future? 

We sat down with our Head of People Strategy, Jenn Oswald, to hear her thoughts on how we found ourselves at this current moment in the industry, where talent teams should focus their attention, and where the future of talent acquisition is heading.

Then: How Talent Teams Reached This Moment

Before we dive into the current state of the talent acquisition industry, let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? 

The Pre-COVID Hiring Era

Jenn recounts how before the pandemic, the well-known, large companies typically had a major leg up on the talent competition, garnering a plethora of applicants. The vast majority of these organizations conducted company-driven hiring processes. 

“Their focus on talent was, ‘We’re going to put you through these processes, and we’re going to decide if you deserve to be here,’” Jenn said. “Candidates were at the whim of these processes; processes tended to take much longer.”

Research shows that getting hired in the U.S. took twice as long in 2014 as it did in 2010. The length of hiring processes—and their complexities—continued to increase from there.

However, as time went on, companies started to change their tune. Employers recognized their difficulties with filling certain roles and resolved to clean up their drawn-out, company-centric processes.

COVID’s Impact on Talent Acquisition

Bam. COVID hit, and hiring screeched to a halt. Fast-forward a bit, and companies slowly revved up their hiring processes again—except things were far from business as usual. Remote work surged in popularity, and soon hiring surged as well.

But beyond the rapid changes happening on the employer side, the mindsets of candidates began to evolve as well. 

“There was definitely a mental shift of people examining what’s really important to them,” Jenn said. “Companies had to drastically start looking at things that they never thought of before, like their hiring philosophy. And, ‘Do we follow our values? How do we talk about our values?’”

Company-driven hiring processes were out, and candidate-driven hiring processes were in. And with a shortage of candidates and an abundance of open roles, companies raced to hire the best talent in the fastest time. 

Now: What Matters in Talent Acquisition

Here we are in the present day—and things are a bit shaky. Companies have started to break into a cold sweat, worrying that they’ve overhired and overpaid what the market can bear (queue the layoffs and hiring freezes). 

Now that we’ve entered this new phase, where should talent teams concentrate their efforts so that they can rise to the top and snag the best talent? 

What matters most right now?

Balance Quality and Speed

With hiring slowdowns and freezes popping up left and right, now is the perfect time to get serious about optimization. Delivering a high-quality hiring process as fast as possible is key to standing out among the talent competition. 

But, before teams optimize their operations for speed and quality, Jenn recommends for them to do some inspecting.

“What matters most is first understanding what your current state is,” she said. “Analyze your data, look at your current process, map out where things work and where things maybe don’t work.” 

Then, once teams understand their process, they can double down on eliminating any bottlenecks that wreck the interviewing experience. 

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.

Convey Mission & Vision

“People want to work for a company that is mission and vision-based,” Jenn remarked. “Make sure that your company walks the talk.”

The number’s don’t lie: a survey found that 79% of adults would consider a company’s mission and purpose before applying. 

In many cases, culture—another important element for job hunters—goes hand in hand with mission and vision. Candidates seek out companies with a culture of practicing what they preach in their mission/vision statements.

Emphasize Flexibility

For candidates, flexibility is top of mind—and that’s not changing anytime soon. Yes, this can mean offering remote work arrangements, but that’s not the only way to emphasize organizational flexibility.

Many candidates simply want their future employer to promote work-life integration. They want the freedom to coordinate their schedules in and out of the office to best fit their lives.

Jenn hopes that we’ll see more companies adopt flexible results-driven environments. These types of workplaces possess a strong focus on each employee’s outcomes, rather than just the number of hours that they clock in.

Demonstrate DE&I

“Candidates are asking companies to be more transparent about their DE&I numbers and achievements,” Jenn said. 

She adds that this can be a particularly difficult task for startups, since it takes a while to gather meaningful DE&I-based statistics.

Nevertheless, there’s a multitude of ways for companies to prove that their commitment to DE&I isn’t just lip service. Ensuring that their interviewer panels are diverse and inclusive is a great start.

Beyond: What Will Matter in the Future of the Industry

Now, it’s time to peer into our crystal ball and see what’s on the horizon for the talent acquisition industry. It can be difficult to predict what will matter in the future, but lucky for us, Jenn has some thoughts.

Establish the Core Purpose

From a macro level, Jenn says that establishing the purpose behind the hiring process—from both the candidate’s perspective and the hiring team’s perspective—will likely be of utmost importance.

“If you don’t have the core purpose of why you’re hiring, and if the candidate doesn’t have the core purpose of why they’re talking to you, then without those two things, it’s really not an interview,” Jenn said. 

Then, Weave Key Elements Into the Hiring Process

Once the hiring team’s purpose and the candidate’s purpose unite, teams can shift their energy towards building up the important micro pieces of their operations.

These pieces include several elements that hold significance in the current talent landscape: DE&I, the candidate relationship, interviewer training, and employer branding, to name a few.

But yet again, if hiring teams neglect to align with their candidate’s purpose, then no supplemental elements can truly give their interviews substance.

Optimize Your Hiring for Whatever the Future Holds

Leveraging the right talent acquisition technology is essential when preparing for whatever the industry has in store.

And the key to building a robust tech stack? Adding GoodTime Hire into the mix.

Hire automates coordination, improves your relationships with candidates, and provides actionable insights to continuously optimize the entire hiring process. 


Learn more about how Hire can supercharge your talent acquisition team to win top talent.

Time To Walk the Walk: Data Shows HR Has Good Intentions, Bad Execution

HR teams have their hearts in the right place—no doubt about it. They’re dead set on improving their hiring processes by uplifting the components that candidates truly care about. But their execution…? That’s a different story.

Our 2022 Hiring Insights Report surveyed 560 HR and talent decision makers to understand the most pressing challenges facing their teams, and what should be done to reel in top talent. 

We found one striking pattern: many productive conversations surrounding what matters most in hiring, yet not as much action.

These conversations include the importance of emphasizing well-being, DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, & belonging), candidate relationships, and company culture within the hiring process.

And as a result? Talent teams are missing their goals. In fact, teams fell 50% short of their hiring goals last year. They need to start walking the walk.

Let’s dig into the data.

Candidate Well-being Takes a Back Seat

Shock of the century: candidates want to work at companies that value their well-being. Who woulda thought?

Hiring teams are certainly aware of that fact. Fifty-nine percent of respondents from our report said “employee well-being” was the top enticement for attracting talent. Happy candidates tend to become happy employees, so it’s only logical that teams would see prioritizing well-being as a great way to reel in talent.

But…are teams actually prioritizing well-being when handling candidates? The data isn’t hopeful.

When asked what their organization does to build relationships with candidates during the recruiting process, “interest in candidate’s well-being” was the third least selected response (35%).

The way that candidates are treated in the hiring process clues them in on how they’d be treated as new hires. If a hiring team vocalizes that they support their employees’ well-being, yet they don’t show the same support to candidates, they cannot expect candidates to believe their claims. 

Little Action Taken on DEIB

We hear you: for companies with limited resources and people to get the job done, emphasizing DEIB can turn into a big undertaking. 

Even so, there’s a variety of low-lift DEIB strategies that teams can take action on. Above all, neglecting DEIB deters diverse talent. Many BIPOC candidates need to see that DEIB is prioritized before they can envision themselves at a company.

At first, it seems that hiring teams understand the importance of having a DEIB-centric process. Companies from our report said that “diversity of candidates” is the second most important hiring metric to measure.

But the positives stop there. Only 31% of respondents made DEIB a measurable priority in the past 12 months. In the coming months, just 33% of respondents plan to focus on DEIB.

When teams leave DEIB on the back burner, they not only deflect diverse talent, but also tarnish their business. Diverse teams produce 19% higher revenue. Actioning on DEIB just makes sense. 

Candidate Relationships Fall to the Wayside

To snag the best talent, investing energy into candidate relationships is non-negotiable. Building an authentic connection with talent throughout the hiring process maintains their interest amid a sea of other offers.

On the bright side, 46% of respondents said that forming genuine connections with candidates is more important than ever. 

Yet despite this consensus, just 36% of respondents looked to build better candidate relationships in the past 12 months, and the same percentage plan on improving these relationships in the future. Once again: good intentions, not-so-good execution.

Candidates are interviewing you as much as you’re interviewing them. They expect their recruiters to put in the work to form a connection.

Company Culture Remains Unexpressed

In any hiring process, there’s a very high chance that candidates will ask the classic question, “How would you describe your company culture?” 

With 72% of candidates rejecting job offers because they don’t feel connected to the company culture, this is of utmost importance to talent.

It’s not lost on TA teams that job seekers deeply care about culture. Nearly all (90%) companies from our report said they designed their interview process to reflect their culture.

The problem? Just 53% communicate their company culture to candidates in the hiring process. In a nutshell, 47% of companies don’t convey an element that is crucial to candidates—and risk losing out on applicants due to this disregard.

Candidates want to know whether a company’s mission, values, and culture align with their own beliefs. They’re quick to turn down an offer if they don’t see this alignment.

Want the Latest Insights? Read the 2023 Hiring Insights Report

Good intentions, bad execution doesn’t bode well for teams’ hiring goals. But all hope is not lost. The first step in winning top talent is recognizing the most high-value elements that attract candidates. Hiring teams know what these are, so they’ve already done half the work.

The talent leaders from our survey possess the right mindset to succeed in today’s industry. Now, they must turn their intentions into actions.

Want to catch up on the latest hiring trends? Get excited: our 2023 Hiring Insights Report is now available. 500+ HR leaders, 1,000s of real findings, 1 industry-leading report. Read the report today.

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.

5 Mistakes Recruiting Coordinators Make (And How To Avoid Them)

Recruiting coordinators make the talent world go ‘round. As the unsung heroes of the hiring process, recruiting coordinators act as a candidate’s first impression of a company. RC’s juggle multiple tasks at once to keep this impression pristine and move the hiring process along. Yep, it’s a pretty big role.

However, as with any job—especially ones that involve a high workload (and stress)—mistakes happen. No matter if you slip up when emailing candidates, or stumble when coordinating interviews, the most important thing you can do is evaluate what went wrong and steer clear of it in the future.

Here are five common mistakes recruiting coordinators make, and how to avoid them to create an extraordinary hiring experience.

1. Sending Candidates Lackluster Communications

When sending message after message to candidates, it can be easy to go on autopilot and phone it in. We get it—coordinating interviews isn’t the most exciting task. 

But truth be told, the communication between RC’s and candidates plays a pivotal role in the hiring process. The last thing you want to do is send a robotic email riddled with errors. Even quick text exchanges with candidates should be scrutinized for high quality.

These messages inform candidates of your company’s tone of voice and can either increase or decrease their excitement for their upcoming interview.

How Recruiting Coordinators Can Avoid This

Whether you’re sending a message to gather a candidate’s availability or to confirm their upcoming interview, there’s several steps you should take to refine this communication.

To add a layer of empathy to your communications, direct candidates to an email and/or phone number to reach out to if they have any questions. You never know what’s going on inside a candidate’s head.

Above all, always review your responses for the ABC’s of communication: accuracy, brevity, and clarity. That way, your messages will contain the most important information, will be an appropriate length, and will be abundantly easy to digest. Now, your response is ready to be sent out into the world.

2. Failing to Give Candidates Scheduling Flexibility

Flexibility is a growing priority for those in the world of work. In fact, 96% of US professionals say they require flexibility. 

Asking candidates to adapt to your hiring team’s schedule, or to make themselves available within a narrow time frame, conveys that flexibility is not a priority for your organization.

How Recruiting Coordinators Can Avoid This

Make your hiring process flexibility-focused by putting candidates in the driver’s seat. Instead of expecting candidates to move their schedules around for your company, ask for their availability. Show that you respect their time by letting them schedule their interviews for whenever works best for them.  

At the end of the day, your candidates are likely chatting with multiple other companies. They’re more likely to remember and value your interview process—and you as an RC—if you act with flexibility and understanding.

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.

3. Coordinating Interviews Manually

If you’re still manually scheduling and coordinating interviews, you’re doing something wrong. (Too harsh?) Daily recruiting coordinator tasks become highly tedious and inefficient when they’re done without the help of technology. And when your head is stuck in calendars and spreadsheets, you have even less time to spend on high-value tasks that will actually move the needle.

Today’s candidates have little patience for clunky hiring processes that rely on manual operations. An inefficient process does nothing but degrade the candidate experience and weigh down your hiring metrics.

How Recruiting Coordinators Can Avoid This

The best way to keep up with candidate expectations and remain competitive in the talent landscape is by leveraging a tech solution that offers recruitment automation. Speed is crucial to a hiring process; automation gives you an edge by allowing you to coordinate in minutes, not hours. (Plus, your team will save major time and money.)

Leveraging an automated hiring solution creates a quick and easy hiring experience. This sends the message that you value your candidate’s time. With less bandwidth spent on scheduling and coordination, you’ll have more bandwidth to focus on what matters: better connecting with candidates.

4. Treating Candidate Relationships as Transactional

RC’s who have a transactional mindset interact with candidates with the sole purpose of turning them into new hires to fill open reqs and boost their hiring stats. Too many recruiting coordinators operate this way, and it’s a problem. 

Candidates don’t want to be viewed as just a number. They want to form a genuine connection with your recruitment team built on trust, transparency, and flexibility. Navigating with this transactional mindset is sure to push them away.

How Recruiting Coordinators Can Avoid This

Nurture the recruiting coordinator-candidate relationship. Spend some time learning what candidates look for when interacting with a hiring team, and apply those insights to your daily RC involvements.

Here’s an insight to start off with: 62% of employees cite well-being support as their top priority in their job hunt. Checking up on candidates and offering yourself as a resource if they have any concerns are both excellent, low-effort ways to show that you care about their well-being. 

You could also block off time to brainstorm what’s missing from the hiring process that could boost your team’s candidate relationships. For instance, if you don’t collect feedback from candidates, now is the time to do so. Let candidates speak their minds and remind them that you value their opinions.

5. Neglecting to Prioritize Upskilling

The life of a recruiting coordinator is sometimes downright overwhelming. With all of the tasks on your plate, making time to progress your skills and learnings can seem practically impossible. Or, you might even feel guilty at the thought of putting aside the tasks on your to-do list to focus on your own career development.

How Recruiting Coordinators Can Avoid This

If any of this resonates with you, know this: you must always fill your own cup. A hiring team that truly supports the success of their teammates understands that it’s crucial for everyone to invest in their own skills and knowledge once in a while.

Block off time on your calendar, notify your team that you’ll be heads-down and focused on upskilling, and ask your teammates if they could help out with any urgent tasks while you work on career development, if necessary.

There’s a variety of online classes and certifications for recruiting coordinators. Some of the popular ones include LinkedIn Learning, The Recruitment Education Institute, Alison, and Recruiting Toolbox.

Hey, RCs—Ready To Elevate Your Hiring Process?

Hundreds of companies have leveled up their recruitment process to stand out in the talent landscape. Patreon reduced their time-to-hire by 50%, Box reduced their time spent scheduling by 40%, and Deliveroo hired 700+ employees.

How’d these talent acquisition teams do it? Simple: they used GoodTime. And you can, too.

GoodTime Hire automates interview scheduling, builds relationships during interviews, and provides actionable insights to continuously improve your hiring process. 


If you want to take your recruitment process to the next level, learn more about Hire’s advanced interview scheduling software.