Ahead of Schedule: How Thermo Fisher Scientific Is Booking Interviews Faster with Automation

Interview scheduling is notorious for placing tedious administrative demands on recruiters and coordinators. The constant back and forth can consume countless hours per week — hours that could be better spent on high-level strategy and more personalized candidate engagement.

That’s why when Amy Ritter, Sr. Director of Talent Acquisition Operations at Thermo Fisher Scientific, faced unprecedented hiring challenges, she knew she needed a way to cut through the interview scheduling red tape.

Find out how her team is automating aspects of the interview process with AI for faster, more efficient hiring at scale — and cutting a full day off their workload in just the first month.

Watch Ritter’s quick-hitting 5-minute overview below, or read on for the highlights!

Why They Needed To Automate

( for a better CX and faster hires! )

A global leader in serving science, Thermo Fisher Scientific is playing a big role in battling Covid-19 through vaccine and therapy production — and it’s part of the reason Ritter and her team are experiencing significant hiring demands. In 2021, they saw 2X more requisitions than in 2020 and Ritter estimated 40,000 requisitions would close by year’s end.

“We’re not shielded from an extremely tight labor market and all of the competition out there. We’re finding that candidates are considering multiple opportunities at once, and in some cases, entertaining multiple offers,” she revealed. “Engaging experiences, recruiter productivity, and speed are critical for us like never before.”

Why They're Using Phenom

Ritter wears a lot of hats in her role as a TA leader — and candidate experience (CX) is one of her favorites. Already a Phenom customer, implementing Phenom’s AI-Scheduling dovetailed perfectly with providing an excellent CX in more ways than one:

• Candidates are impressed with a fast, efficient interview process where they’re empowered to schedule at their convenience.
  
• A better, faster experience equates to a decreased chance candidates are whisked away by competitors.
  
• Recruiters are freed from time-consuming, mundane scheduling tasks so they can focus on more strategic candidate engagements.
  

Because AI-Scheduling is connected to their Phenom CRM, Ritter could also minimize the technology learning curve and keep things simple for her team. “Rather than adding new tools to our recruiters’ and coordinators’ tech stack, it made sense to leverage the interview scheduling functionality right within the Phenom CRM — giving them a one-stop shop to engage with candidates and track their hiring progress,” she pointed out.

The Details Behind Their Consumer-like Experience

Fun fact: Thermo Fisher Scientific named its Phenom scheduling assistant “Ruby” for Dr. Ruby Hirose, a Japanese-American biochemist whose contributions include helping develop the polio vaccine. Ruby directly integrates with Thermo Fisher’s Office 365 account, automatically generating interview time slots for candidates based on interviewers’ availability. The tool also automates cancellations and rescheduling.

A major advantage, according to Ritter, is that Ruby allows their TA team to provide a consumer-like experience for candidates by making it efficient and frictionless. “We know candidates’ expectations are not all that different from consumers’ expectations. Offering a similar experience for candidates to schedule interviews is a no-brainer,” Ritter said.

With automated, templated campaign capabilities, AI-Scheduling also enables Thermo Fisher Scientific to differentiate itself with eye-catching emails and convenient texts throughout the interview process. Recruiters can schedule communications relevant to the job candidate’s stage in the journey — reminders, interviewing tips, and more — to help interviewees feel prepared and comfortable.

Results That Speak Volumes

After a month-long pilot with Phenom’s AI-Scheduling, Thermo Fisher saw notable improvement in both recruiter productivity and speed:

• 78% of all interviews (1K+) were scheduled with automation
• AI-Scheduling cut a full day off the interview process in the first month
• Their 24-hour interview request response rate improved from 95% to 98%
  

“Our time to get interviews scheduled improved by half a day, and our time to complete interviews also improved by half a day — making an entire day that we shaved off of our interview scheduling experience,” Fisher said. In addition, their improved 24-hour interview request response rate "indicates that users are finding the experience positive and easy to use," she noted.

Lessons Learned

On the heels of their pilot with AI-Scheduling, Ritter also shared some best practices and key takeaways:

1. An ideal use case for automated scheduling involves interview teams with three or less interviewers.
   
2. When using the tool for larger interview teams, make pre-determined blocks of time available.
   
3. The tool is especially valuable for scheduling recruiter and hiring manager phone screenings.
   
4. Encourage user adoption by providing scenario-based job aids.
   

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