Interviews | Zoho Recruit

Interviews: An Overview

In the word of recruitment, the orchestration of interviews often resembles a complex and intricate symphony. Coordinating schedules, communicating with candidates and interviewers, and tracking each interview's progress can be akin to conducting an intricate composition without a seasoned conductor. This is where Zoho Recruit's Interviews module steps in as the virtuoso conductor, bringing order, precision, and harmony to the recruitment process.

The Zoho Recruit Interviews Module is a powerful tool that helps recruiters streamline and improve their hiring process. It provides a single platform to manage and schedule interviews, collaborate with team members, and track candidate progress and feedback. With Zoho Recruit, you can easily conduct phone screenings, in-person interviews, and video interviews, all while gaining valuable insights into your candidate evaluation process.

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the various features and functionalities of the Interviews module in Zoho Recruit, designed to simplify and streamline your interview management process.

Pain Points of the Interview Process 

Before diving into details, let's identify some common pain points that recruiters often face during the interview process, including:
  1. Scheduling: Coordinating interviews with multiple stakeholders, such as hiring managers, team members, and candidates, can be difficult and time-consuming. This can lead to scheduling conflicts and confusion.
  2. Collaboration: Collaborating with team members and interviewers can be challenging, especially if they are in different locations or have different schedules. This can lead to miscommunication and a disjointed candidate evaluation process.
  3. Evaluation : Without a centralized system, it can be time-consuming and error-prone to track candidate progress and feedback. This can make it difficult to make informed hiring decisions.

How Zoho Recruit helps

Zoho Recruit's Interviews module helps recruiters to address the pain points of the interview process by offering a comprehensive set of features, including:
  1. Efficient scheduling: The shared calendar feature makes it easy to schedule interviews with multiple stakeholders, avoiding scheduling conflicts and confusion.
  2. Seamless collaboration: The real-time collaboration tools enable recruiters to share interview details, candidate profiles, and feedback with their team members, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and that data-driven decisions are being made.
  3. Candidate tracking: The centralized candidate tracking system makes it easy to track candidate progress, interview stages, and feedback, helping recruiters to identify top candidates and make informed hiring decisions.

Accessing the Interviews Module

To access the Interviews module in Zoho Recruit, simply navigate to the Interviews module in the top navigation menu.
 

This will take you to the Interviews module overview page, where you can see a list of all scheduled interviews, their statuses, and other related information.

Creating Interviews

To access the Interview Scheduler, click the Interviews module, then click the Create interviews button.


Zoho Recruit supports three types of interviews:
  1. Formal Interviews
  2. Video Interviews
  3. Log an Interview

  Formal Interview

Formal Interviews are typically used to assess a candidate's skills, experience, and fit for the position. They can be scheduled and conducted with candidates, interviewers, recruiters, and contacts.
To create a formal interview:
  1. Go to Interviews module and click the Create Interview icon.
  2. Click  Formal Interview  and enter the following details;
    1. Interview Name
    2. Candidate
    3. Interviewer
    4. Date and Time
    5. Location
    6. Status (Scheduled, In Progress, or Completed).
  3. Click the  Save button. You can then choose to RSVP the candidate & interviewer

Here are some additional tips for creating a formal interview in Zoho Recruit:
  1. Use a descriptive interview name: This will help you to identify the interview in the Zoho Recruit list of interviews easily.
  2. Select the correct interviewer: Make sure that the interviewer is available for the date and time of the interview.
  3. Enter a clear and concise location: If the interview is being held remotely, provide the candidate with the video conferencing link.
  4. Set a realistic interview duration: Formal interviews typically last between 30 and 60 minutes.
  5. Send the candidate an interview invitation email: This email should include all of the important details about the interview, such as the date, time, location, and interviewer name.
  6. Follow up with the candidate after the interview: This is a good opportunity to thank them for their time and to provide them with feedback.

 Video Interview

Video Interviews are a convenient way to interview candidates who are located in different geographic areas or who have scheduling conflicts. They can be recorded or live, and can be scheduled and conducted with candidates, recruiters, and interviewers.

To learn more about video interviews, check out: Scheduling Video Interviews

  Log an Interview

Log an Interview allows you to record information about an interview that has already happened, such as a spontaneous interview at a career fair. You can log the interview with the candidate, interviewers, recruiters, and contacts who were involved.

To log an interview:
  1. Go to the Interviews module and click the  Create Interviews icon.
  2. Select the Log an interview type and choose the assessment accordingly to the interview you would want to log.
  3. Enter the details in the Log Interview pop up.
  4. Fill out the Interview scorecard to complete the process.
  5. Click Submit.
Once you have logged the interview, you can view and edit it at any time by going to the Interviews module and clicking on the interview record.
Note:
  1. The interview scorecard is a feature in Zoho Recruit that allows you to rate and evaluate candidates during an interview. The scorecard is customizable, so you can add or remove questions depending on the specific role you are interviewing for.
  2. The interview scorecard is a helpful tool for evaluating candidates and making hiring decisions. It can also be used to track the candidate's progress throughout the interview process.

Interview Evaluation


Customising Interview Status 

When submitting an interview review in Zoho Recruit, the platform offers default reasons to be selected when rejecting or cancelling a candidate. If the provided default options are not suitable, you can add custom reasons for rejections and cancellations, as well as custom statuses.These custom options will then be listed along with the default options for easier access later.
  1. To add a custom reason, go to Setup > Customization > Modules.
  2. Under the List of Modules, select Interviews and click Layout to open the layout editor.


  1. Under the Evaluation Information section, you will find Interview Status, Reason for Rejection, and Cancellation Reason.
  2. Click Edit Properties next to the preferred field (in this case, 'Interview Status').
  1. Click the + icon to add a custom reason.

  1. Click Done to save your custom reasons.
  2. Alternatively, when you're cancelling or submitting an evaluation for an interview, you can add custom reasons by clicking + Add New Values in the Overall Recommendation list

Key Features of the Interviews Module

Interview Kit (Quick View)

Interview Kit is a condensed overview of a candidate's profile and interview details, all accessible within a single click. It provides you with the most crucial information you need to make an initial assessment.



To access the Interview Kit, navigate to the Interviews module and click the Quick View icon of an interview record. The Quick View panel will appear, giving you instant access to all the relevant information.
  1. Consolidated Information: The Quick View presents key candidate information, including their resume highlights, interview scores, and evaluation summaries, all in one place. This eliminates the need to switch between different tabs or screens, saving you valuable time.
  2. Actionable Insights: Easily access key actions directly from the Quick View. Reschedule/Cancel the interview, submit your interview evaluation, or hire/reject & lock candidates– in just a few clicks.
  3. Improved Clarity: The Quick View's intuitive interface presents information in a clear and concise format, making it easier to scan and understand key details about each candidate.

Components

The Interview Kit helps elevating your interview experience with key information at your fingertips. Let's dive into its essential components:



1. Interview Details

  1. Interviewers: Know who will be conducting the interview and their RSVP status of everyone involved.
  2. Schedule Comments: Refer comments added by the recruiter while scheduling before the interview starts.
  3. Invitation Links: Quickly access the start and join links for live video interviews directly from the Quick View.
  4. Interview Fields: Access all interview record fields for easy reference.
2. Candidate Details
  1. Candidate Fields: Instantly view the candidate's information with a single tab switch.
  2. Resume: Quickly view the associated candidate's resume, saving you precious time.

3. Interview Evaluation

  1. Assessment: Mark the candidate's overall interview score alongside individual scores for each answer, providing a holistic picture of their performance.
  2. Overall Recommendation: Make quick decisions with prominent buttons to move the candidate forward (approve, schedule next stage), put them on hold, or decline them.
  3. Overall Comments: Read concise summaries of interviewer feedback, highlighting strengths, areas for improvement, and overall impressions during the interview evaluation.

Interview Timeline

To view the interview timeline of a specific candidate, go to the Interviews tab and select the interview you want to view.



The Interview Timeline allows you to:
  1. View scheduled interview, along with their date, time, candidate name, interviewer name, and other criteria.
  2. The interview evaluation status with notes from the interviewers and recruiters gives a birds-eye view of the entire journey of a particular candidate.

Integration with Video Conferencing Tools

Zoho Recruit seamlessly integrates with popular video conferencing tools, such as Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. For more in formation about the Integration with Video conferencing tools, refer  Enabling Microsoft Teams and Google Meet .


This integration offers the following benefits:
  1. Simplified video interview setup by providing direct links to virtual meeting rooms.
  2. Enhances the remote interview experience for both interviewers and candidates.

Customizable Interview Workflows

To create custom interview workflows:
  1. Navigate to Set up > Automation > Workflow rules.
  2. Click Create Rule.
Customizable Interview Workflows offer the following capabilities:
  1. Define specific interview stages (e.g., Phone Screening, Technical Interview, Final Interview)
  2. Track candidates as they progress through these customized stages, tailoring your recruitment process.

Mobile Access

Access the Interviews Module on-the-go with the Zoho Recruit mobile app.

Mobile Access allows you to:
  1. Manage interviews from your mobile device, including reviewing candidate profiles
  2. Collaborate with your team even when you're away from your desktop

Reporting and Analytics

To access the Reporting and Analytics: 
  1. Navigate to Analytics > Reports > Interview Reports.
  2. You will have pre-built reports you can use to gain valuable insight on your interview process.
  3. Select Create Reports to generate reports on a variety of metrics that help you make data driven decisions.



The Reporting and Analytics allows you to generate reports on a variety of metrics, including:
  1. Time-to-hire
  2. Offer acceptance rate
  3. Interview stage drop-off rates
  4. Interviewer performance
  5. Candidate performance
You can also create custom reports to meet your specific needs.  

Reschedule

To reschedule an interview,
  1. Click the Interviews tab, then select the interview that you want to reschedule.
  2. Click the Reschedule button, then choose the new date, time, and duration of the interview.
     
  3. If the participants have already been RSVP'd to the interview, Zoho Recruit re-send them an updated invitation.

Interview Notes

To take notes during an interview,
  1. Click the Interviews tab, and select the interview that you are conducting.
  2. Click the Notes tab, then start typing your notes.

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