At the stage of interview scheduling, you are close to one of the most important steps during the hiring procedure. However, your interview scheduling email is always the first impression on candidates, so neglecting meticulousness when scheduling interviews via emails never sounds like a great idea. Inevitably, mistakes will easily slip in at some point and mess up the whole effort you have put into your work as recruiters. In this blog, Rakuna will share with you the top common mistakes that you can steer clear of them and leverage your interview process.
Why is an Interview Scheduling Email Important in a Hiring Process?
In general, an interview scheduling email serves to provide candidates with relevant information so that they can be well-prepared for the interview process. It is a helpful tool for recruiters as well to improve candidate experience as a sign of respecting boundaries and avoiding bothering candidates with untimely interruptions. When writing an interview scheduling email, you can also support candidates by sparing them some time to deal with their business in general and their current jobs in particular. All in all, you are able to keep everyone on the same page with formal writing communication.
What Should be Included in an Interview Scheduling Email?
A standard interview scheduling email normally includes the following points:
- The title position
- The name of your company
- Interview format: in-person, on phone calls or through video – conference, and individual or group interview
- Options of time periods and days to choose or a certain time and date
- Location of the interview site: address, building, floor and room number; and even a map to guide them towards the right place
- The name and position of interviewers
- Items candidates need to bring
- The approximate duration of the interview
- Other notes/ guidelines You can make your preferred adjustments until you see fit. Check out the Interview Invitation Email compiled by Rakuna here.
3. What Mistakes May You Make When Writing an Interview Scheduling Email and How to Avoid Them?
Lack of Opening:
Jumping straight into the topic will catch applicants off guard as to where this email is heading towards and divert them from the important information. Sensibly, you can get started by appreciating their efforts to apply for the job opening in your company. Then, you inform them of the interview stage by either stating that you have reviewed their materials you ran into or congratulating them on passing previous application rounds and would like to invite them to a meeting. One example would be “Congratulations on passing “The previous round name!” We would like to invite you to an interview with us!”
Subject Line Mistakes:
- No subject lines: The absence of a subject line outright asks applicants to “ignore this email”. They will deem your invitation to the interview as trivial and move past it.
- Vague phrases: An email with a subject line full of ambiguity will confuse job seekers and distract them from the main topics.
- Excess of punctuation: Your email will most likely get filtered as spam contents if there are too many marks and symbols in its subject line. In lieu, write a direct subject line to expressly mention that this email is an interview invitation to capture their attentions and prevent it from being inadvertently missed and increase open rate. For example, “Invitation to Interview at “Your company’s name” will suffice.
Get Facts Wrong:
Sending candidates an email containing false information can confuse them as they will get unsure whether or not they are the right receivers. This is an indication that recruiters have not thoroughly kept track of their candidates’ data, which speaks evidently of unprofessionalism. You will not only waste time on back-and-forth correction emails but also discourage candidates from opening mails or leave them with an impression of a chaotic and ill-prepared company. It is advisable to use either a spell checker program like Grammarly or a second party go through the draft before you send it. They will pick up what you might have left behind like misspellings in the candidate’s name and incomplete sentences in your draft and point them out for you before you can deliver your final email to its destination.
Tone Problems:
As regards your tone in an interview scheduling email, you should be neither overly formal nor too familiar when addressing your candidates. General sounding greetings such as “Dear Candidate” and “To whom it may concern” may sound impersonal and detached from candidates’ viewpoints. On the other hand, too personal phrases, namely nicknames and confidential information you may have accidentally come across, give off a feeling that you are intruding in their privacy. Though the recommended tone represents your corporate culture, it also sounds friendly but polite and professional. Whether you want to write something casual or formal, do not ever overlook the need to personalize your emails. Refer to “Hi / Hello, Title + Candidate’s Last name” or “Dear, Title + Candidate’s Full name” when formal and “Hi / Hello, Candidate’s name” or “Dear, Candidate’s name” as you are being informal.
Lack of Closing:
Similarly to lack of opening, the lack of farewell is comparable to abruptly shutting the door to the face of your visitors after going into details with them. They stand no chance of reaching out if they have anything to ask. In fact, you do not have to necessarily lengthen a sentence of goodbye as phrases like “We look / are looking forward to hearing from / seeing you” would be courteous enough.
Forget Your Email Signature:
Remember to identify yourself with potential talents by giving at least your full name and job title in the signature section. Compared to an email from a nameless source, hearing from a specified sender increases both credibility and engagement. You can include other relevant information like links to social media pages, and online profiles as official sources they can refer to if need be. To look more impressive, you can highlight a short summary of the company or quote a value that your company strives towards. Likewise, never make it too long with excessive information. Keep it short and concise to allow applicants to have a brief idea of who you stand for and do their research.
4. Technology to Help You Minimize These Mistakes:
Here in Rakuna, we would like to offer recruiters options of interview scheduling software with automated messaging with personalization capabilities. With these interview scheduling solutions in your hands, you can both optimize your productivity levels and enhance candidate experience with appealing benefits such as cost-free services and features integration. Your emails will come out to your liking with little to no changes afterwards.
Wrapping Up
Even when your recruitment mission nears its end, trouble-inducing mistakes while you arrange interviews by emails will still occur at a troubling rate. Hopefully, you can take full advantage of this list to maximize the efficiency of this stage and save both parties’ time.
This blog post is originally appear on Rakuna’s blog