How TIMIFY Uses TIMIFY for the Recruiting Process

At TIMIFY, we're not just the creators of an innovative scheduling tool but also active users of our product. Both roles keep us deeply connected to the challenges businesses face when scheduling appointments and meetings, particularly when it comes to the complex process of Enterprise-level recruiting.

We’ve used TIMIFY to streamline our own recruiting process, allowing us to find availability slots for multi-participant interviews faster than ever and manage recruitment across various offices, locations and time zones. 

Using TIMIFY this way has reduced the time spent on various recruitment prcesses by 40% and undeniably improved the candidate experience.

Below we detail how our software ensures a smooth onboarding process for new employees and helps them feel integrated from the very beginning.

Why We Need TIMIFY for Recruiting

As a company with a hybrid work policy operating across multiple offices in different time zones, we've encountered our fair share of challenges in the recruitment process. Coordinating interviews to fit the availability of candidates, hiring managers, team members, and meeting rooms in various locations can be daunting.

With TIMIFY, we've been able to address these challenges head-on, improving the experience for our candidates and increasing the efficiency of the hiring process.

​​​​​​​We interviewed our HR Manager, Lukas, to explain how he manages the recruiting process at TIMIFY and to share which features make his job easier.

Q. How does TIMIFY streamlines interview scheduling across different time zones?

The process can be done via the Booking Links app, which allows for the creation of personalised booking links by adding all the required employees who need to participate in the interview, as well as setting the correct interview type (e.g. initial interview, second round, etc.) for this candidate.

The candidate will only see available time slots when everyone is available, eliminating the need for back-and-forth emails or unnecessary calls to coordinate availability. Once the candidate books, the appointment automatically appears on everybody's calendar.

Another option is to manually create the bookings in the calendar. No matter which method I use, they automatically appear in the correct time zone depending on the location.

By having an overview of everyone’s calendar, I can easily set up bookings that consider the availability of all parties involved, regardless of their location. That has significantly reduced the back-and-forth typically associated with finding a suitable time. 

Q. What are the best ways to manage interview availability?

To schedule the first call with recruiters we use the Booking Links app. A link to the recruiters’ calendar gets sent out to applicants via the ATS (Applications Tracking System). With the availability of our hiring teams already pre-defined, applicants can simply self-book an appointment without investing a lot into the process. This autonomy not only speeds up the scheduling process but also enhances the candidate experience. The service is linked to MS Teams, so a virtual meeting room is automatically created.

What’s great about TIMIFY is that we have both alternatives: Booking Links and the option to schedule manually. If I can't invest a lot of resources and need to be quick (in terms of time that I invest into scheduling an Interview), I'm using Booking Links.

However, if we have to meet deadlines, the positions are very urgent, or if I know that the hiring Managers are working with blockers in their calendars, which means I have to speak with them and reshuffle things around to schedule the interview sooner, I create the bookings manually and send out the invitations via e-mail.

Meanwhile, calendar syncing allows both recruiters and applicants to sync their TIMIFY calendar with Office 365 or Google Calendar if they wish to. This greatly reduces the risk of double bookings or missed appointments.

Q. How do we manage the process of one-on-one interviews and interviews with multiple participants?

Our recruitment process includes both one-on-one interviews and sessions with multiple participants. To customize the scheduling process to fit our specific needs, the following features are incredibly useful:

• Buffer times- automatically include short time slots (e.g. 5 minutes) pre- or post-meeting to ensure tasks such as admin, room changes or personnel changeovers don’t cause one meeting to run over into the next
• Split bookings - split one longer meeting into sections, allowing different human and non-human resources to be booked only for the short time they are needed (e.g. for a candidate having consecutive 30 min meetings with different interviewers, you can book each interviewer only for the 30 min slot they are required)
• Resource dependency - automatically pre-set meeting types and their dependent resources. For example, if a second interview always includes the HR Manager and Managing Director, these resources will be auto-booked whenever a second interview is scheduled

TIMIFY enables me to manage these two interview types effortlessly, ensuring that resources, whether people or meeting rooms are allocated correctly. 

I create one service type for one-on-one interviews. Applicants can self-book this interview type, and any resources or buffer times I have pre-set will be auto-included. Likewise, a separate service created for a multi-participant interview for the marketing team will, when booked, auto-book the marketing managers always involved in this interview type.

While creating services with pre-set conditions for frequently recurring interview processes is incredibly useful, for other interviews with a unique set-up, participants or urgent deadlines, I also have the flexibility to book manually. I can use the TIMIFY shared calendar to manually view individual availability and set up meetings accordingly.

In a situation like this, our Fast Booking Widget comes in very handy. It lets me quickly view the available time slots for multiple team members in a specified period, which saves me a huge amount of time.

Q. How does TIMIFY make in-person and virtual interviews better?

The platform supports integration with video conferencing tools for virtual interviews and allows us to book physical spaces for in-person meetings. This versatility has been invaluable in maintaining the momentum of our hiring process, regardless of external circumstances.

Q. What are the most apparent benefits that you see when using TIMIFY for recruiting?

• Enhance Efficiency: With TIMIFY streamlining appointment scheduling and customer communication, including confirmations and reminders, I now have more time to dedicate to the interview process rather than getting bogged down by manual, time-consuming tasks
• Clear Scheduling Availability: By accessing real-time availability of TIMIFY participants through our shared calendar, I eliminate the need for endless emails or phone calls to coordinate a mutually convenient time.
• Elevate Candidate Experience: Candidates appreciate the simplicity and ease of our interview process. They can effortlessly reschedule or cancel appointments, granting them greater autonomy and a positive experience.
• Data Security Assurance: Our 100% GDPR compliance ensures candidates that their data is securely handled, with no transmission to third-party tools, instilling confidence and trust in our process.
• Seamless Integration: TIMIFY seamlessly integrates with other ATS systems and calendars, ensuring that booking information remains updated across all platforms, facilitating a smooth and cohesive process.
• Time Saving: The Booking Links app and all the automations you can predefine, like dependencies, time buffers, etc., save me a lot of time. I create a service once and use it on repeat without having to worry about setting it up every time.

The view from the applicant’s side

We also asked Angela, who is a part of our QA Team and one of the recent additions to the company, to share her experience from the applicant’s perspective of her TIMIFY interview.

Q. Can TIMIFY also help with employee onboarding?

Beyond recruitment, we've found TIMIFY to be incredibly useful for onboarding new employees and organising training sessions or group events.

For onboardings, we created several general appointments that the HR Manager books for each new employee and the relevant stakeholders, or they can be just Blockers (e.g. to watch Onboarding Videos). This way, we ensure that nothing gets missed and the new employee has a structured start.

In my opinion, the best thing is that with the timeline of the onboarding process visible in an individual’s calendar, they feel welcomed and taken care of. The new employee can see and appreciate how much effort their new team has put into their onboarding.

To sum it up, these are the main advantages I see from using TIMIFY for onboarding:

• Transparency: Once the new employee is created as a resource, everybody in the team will see their onboarding appointments and can plan accordingly.
• Structure/Clear overview: Joining a new company is a big challenge, connected with a lot of uncertainty and fragility. If you can see from day one that there is a plan for you, it is incredibly valuable.
• Time-saving: By having everything in one place, it inevitably saves time. With the example of blockers for onboarding videos, I can't think of a smoother and easier solution for all involved.

Conclusion

By using TIMIFY in our recruiting process, we've observed numerous benefits. The most notable include:

• significant time savings
• a clearer overview of the scheduling process
• an enhanced experience for both candidates and hiring teams 

The platform has allowed us to optimize our recruitment workflow, enabling us to focus more on the quality of our hires rather than the logistics of scheduling interviews.

TIMIFY has proven to be an indispensable tool for our recruiting process, offering the flexibility, efficiency, and scalability we need to meet the challenges of today's dynamic work environment. By sharing our experience, we hope to inspire you to explore how TIMIFY can transform your scheduling processes, whether for recruitment or any other aspect of your operations.