Automatically Replace Declined Interviewers & Trainees

TL;DR:

A key component of GoodTime's meeting optimization engine is the ability to auto-replace declined interviewers.  When an interviewer is unable to attend a scheduled interview, and you have provided alternates via an OR Relationship or Tags representing a pool of interviewers, GoodTime will select a replacement instantly, and let the coordinator know a substitution has occurred.

The 'Auto Replace Declined Interviewer & Trainee' feature:

1. Will automatically select from a pool of tagged interviewers/trainees OR accept the designated alternate from the template listed as part of an OR relationship to replace someone who has declined.

2. Will take action as long as it is 48 hours before the scheduled interview. Short notice declines (those within the 48 hour window) will be communicated immediately to the coordinator so they can make a manual replacement.

3. Has a limit of 3 replacements before it stops auto-replacing and notifies the coordinator

4. Will inform the coordinator via email that a substitution has taken place.

5. Will inform the coordinator if no suitable replacement is available so they may take action.

Overview Tutorial:

How to set-up and use this feature:

This feature is available to ALL customers. In order to leverage this feature at the template level, you will need to:

1. Turn on the feature in the Settings > Interview Settings section
2. When this toggle is enabled, all new templates created will have Automatically Replace Declined Interviewers turned on automatically. You can always toggle this off in the template settings.
3. All previously created templates will not have this setting enabled. To turn this on, go to template you wish to enable by clicking to Scheduling Templates > Base Templates or Interview Templates and click into the template you wish to update. You can toggle this feature on by clicking on the Template Settings tab and toggling the feature on:

How the feature works:

1. Once the toggle is turned on at the template level, you are all set. You can continue to schedule as normal.
2. If an interviewer declines 48 hours or more before the interview, the coordinator will receive an email informing them the interviewer has declined.
   1. If the decline happens within the 48 hour window, GoodTime will not replace the interviewer and the coordinator will need to take manual action to update the interview.
3. There will be a small delay (~15 minutes) between the decline email and the replacement. This is GoodTime in the background identifying a replacement and scheduling the new interviewer along with updating all the systems.
4. When an interviewer has been replaced, the coordinator will receive an update informing them a replacement interviewer has been found and updated:
   
   

Frequently Asked Questions:

• At what point is it too late to auto-replace an interviewer/trainee?
  If the interview occurs within 48 hours of the interviewer declining, GoodTime requires the coordinator to manually replace the interviewer. We plan to allow companies to customize this window in the future.

• Is load balancing taken into account when replacing an interviewer/trainee?
  Load balancing is taken into account when replacing an interviewer if a tag was used. Interviewers will be selected based on our standard criteria to replace the interviewer with a new one.

• What happens if there are no available interviewers/trainees in that time slot?
  The coordinator will be sent an email alerting them that a replacement could not be found to prompt them to take action.

• What happens if the user manually swaps out an interviewer/trainee before the ~15 minute auto replace workflow executes?
  The auto replace will compare the interviewer it expects to see and if something has changed, GoodTime will not make a replacement.

• Are 'Automatically Replace Declined Interviewers/Trainee' email notifications sent in addition to the existing interviewer decline notifications?
  No, If you activate (by toggling-on) the 'Automatically Replace Declined Interviewers' setting then the notifications associated with this feature when an interviewer declines will replace all of the 'standard' interviewer decline email notifications you would have previously received from GoodTime.
  
  
• Are candidates notified when an 'Auto Replace' occurs?
  No, Candidates are not notified when an interviewer is automatically replaced (but their calendar event will automatically update to reflect the most up-to-date interview itinerary).
  

• Are they notified by Slack when changes are made?
  No, all changes are currently communicated by email.

• Can changes be set as pending review?
  No, this feature will not ask for review before making a change.

• If an interview was scheduled with “auto replace declined interviewer” ON then we toggle it OFF under interview template settings, will it apply to interviews already scheduled? Or will it only apply to interviews scheduled moving forward?
  Interviews created using templates that had automatic interviewer replacement ON unfortunately will continue to use that setup for each event in the interview series. Any interviews created after the turn-off point should not be auto replacing

Known Issues:

1. If the Automatically Replace Declined Interviewers toggled is turned on at the Base Template & Interview Template, it will continue to be turned on even if the global setting is turned off
2. If you toggle the Automatically Replace Declined Interviewers setting on in the advanced settings section during the scheduling workflow, an interviewer will not be replaced