Interview Central has been an SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting feature for quite some time. Due to it's availability and length of time on the market, it's often assumed that most customers are using it. However, as of late, we have had several discussion with our SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting clients about how it fits in to their business process and if they should be using it. We thought we would dust up this subject matter, address some common questions, share with how it works, and ways it can be incorporated in your recruiting process.
A: No, Interview Scheduling and Interview Central are two separate features and can be used independent of one another. Interview Scheduling is the actual scheduling component in SuccessFactors Recruiting and Interview Central is where the hiring manager and interview team can provide feedback on an interview.
A: While it is best practice to have core competencies aligned with your jobs, we understand it’s a big task and takes time to get there! There are a couple of options that will allow you to take advantage of Interview Central in the meantime:
The first option is to use the “thumbs up/thumbs down” feature along with attaching any interview notes. The drawback here is that any user who goes into Interview Central will get a pop-up that says competencies haven’t been properly configured for the job. This is not a great user experience, but it is still an option.
The second option is to add in some competencies you can rate your interview on. For example, what are you looking for in a candidate? Are you looking for someone who can deliver excellent customer service? Perhaps you can add a competency related to customer service and rate them on that during the interview.
A: Anyone who has been added as an interviewer can rate candidates after the interview.
A: If you want to prevent the error message as mentioned above, you will need at least one competency to add to the requisition for rating purposes, but you are not limited to how many you can have. However, five to seven (5-7) is a good place to start.
Interview Central allows interviewers to document interview feedback on candidates who are interviewed. It will rank your candidates based on the ratings you provide and can clearly show how your candidates stack up against each other.
The key here is consistency. You should be consistently asking interviewees the same set of core questions. That’s how having pre-determined competencies make this process much easier. However, as mentioned in the Q&A section, if you don’t have pre-defined competencies for each of your jobs, you can use a standard set of categories to rate your candidates on and those can be added as “competencies” for interview feedback only. Providing hiring leaders with a standard interview guide which can be attached to your requisition and made available in the “print and go pack” area of Interview Central can be helpful for interviewers to ensure they are following the same guidelines for all candidates they interview.
Now that we know anyone can leverage Interview Central, let’s look at how it works.
Once an interview has been scheduled, the candidate will be available in Interview Central. To access Interview Central, click on the Interview Central tab. Once in interview central you will see the Req ID’s you have candidates scheduled to interview for and will see their names listed below the job.
Click on the “Print and Go” pack for a review of the job description, candidate resume and cover letter if attached, as well as an interview guide if added to the requisition. This gives the interviewers the materials needed for the interview.
Once the interview is complete, go back into Interview Central and click “rate now” next to the candidate you would like to provide a rating for. Select the rating (from 1 to 5) for each “competency.”
After providing the rating and giving the candidate a thumbs up or down, save the changes. Once candidates are rated, they will be visible on the right side of the screen with their rating. Visually, it’s great way for interviewers to see how candidates compare to each other.
As you can see, Interview Central is simple to use! It's an included feature within SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting that you can leverage as a way to document real-time interview feedback. Do you currently leverage Interview Central? What do you love about it? If you're still on the fence, we'd be happy to discuss how this could compliment your current business process. Give us a shout and we'll connect you with one of our certified Recruiting experts who can help you determine if it's a fit.
