What is interview scheduling?
Alva reads the calendars of everyone assigned to an interview stage, finds the times they are all free, and emails the candidate a link to pick one. The booking goes into everyone's calendar with a video call attached.
Before you schedule an interview
Before you can schedule an interview, make sure the following requirements are met:
An interview has been added to the stage
An interview must be added to the relevant stage before it can be scheduled. You can add one during the Design Assessment Plan step when creating a job, or from the Stages tab of an existing job.
To add an interview to an existing job:
Open the job and go to the Stages tab.
Click Assessment plan in the top-right corner.
Select Add assessment in the relevant stage.
Choose Interview.
Select an interview template from your library or create a custom interview.
For more information about creating and configuring interviews, see Interviews in Hiring System.
Assessors have been added to the interview
Assessors are the members of your hiring team who will evaluate the candidate during the interview. At least one assessor must be assigned so Alva can check their calendar availability and offer suitable interview times.
To add assessors:
Open the job and go to the Stages tab.
Open the ••• menu for the interview stage.
Select Manage assessors.
Choose the assessors from the list.
💡Note: Only the job owner and members of the hiring team can be added as assessors.
Your calendar is connected
You can connect your calendar in either of these ways:
Using Alva Hiring Agent
Start a chat with Alva Hiring Agent.
Ask the agent to connect your calendar.
Follow the instructions in the chat.
From the interview stage
Open the ••• menu for the interview stage.
Select Scheduling overview.
Click Schedule for a candidate.
Select Connect my calendar.
Follow the instructions from your calendar provider.
Scheduling an interview
To schedule an interview, start by opening the scheduling view for the candidate you want to invite. From there, you can choose the interview details and the times you want to offer.
In the Stages view, open the ••• menu on the candidate's card.
Under Interview, click Schedule interview.
Check connected calendars
When you select Schedule interview, Alva checks which assessors have connected their calendars.
Only connected calendars are used to find available times.
If at least one assessor has connected their calendar, you can continue and select Send a reminder for the others.
If no assessors have connected their calendars, you cannot continue.
Add details to the calendar invitation
Calendar invitation title
The Calendar invitation title is automatically taken from the name of the interview stage in the job. Edit it if you want the candidate to see a different interview name in their invitation.
Notes
Use Notes to add information the candidate should have before the interview. The notes are included in the calendar invitation description and are visible to the candidate in the calendar event.
Choose the interview duration and times
First, choose how long the interview should be and which times the candidate can book.
Select the duration
Choose 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours.
To use a different duration, select Custom and enter the duration in minutes.
Browse and select individual time slots
Use Browse time slots when you want to control exactly which times the candidate can choose from.
Browse the available dates using the calendar navigation.
Select up to 20 non-overlapping time slots.
Select Select all available to choose all displayed slots when everyone is free.
Offer all available times within a date range
Use Select a date range when you want to give the candidate more options.
Select the first and last date of the range.
The date range can include up to 35 days.
Review the available times displayed under Suggested times.
You cannot select or remove individual times. All available slots within the date range are offered to the candidate.
Once you have chosen the duration and times, click Preview the scheduling email to continue.
AI transcription bot
When enabled for your organisation, an AI bot joins the interview and records a transcript. The candidate is notified that the interview will be transcribed.
To disable the bot for all interviews, go to Settings → Default settings → Default scheduling and transcription settings.
To skip the bot for a specific interview, decline it when it asks to join the meeting.
To learn more about AI transcription, see Interview transcripts and AI suggestions.
Prepare the invitation email
Choose the sender
Check that the correct candidate is listed under Recipients, then choose who the email should be sent on behalf of under Sender.
Use an email template
Select a template under Use a template.
Click Add to email.
The template populates the Subject and message, which you can edit before sending. To learn more about templates, go to Candidate Communication Templates.
Review and send
Update the Subject and message as needed, then review the candidate preview. When the email is ready, click Send to candidate(s).
💡Note: The invitation is delivered by Alva from a noreply address. Replies do not reach the selected sender, so include contact details if the candidate may need to contact you.
Schedule several candidates at once
To schedule interviews for multiple candidates in the same stage:
Hover over a candidate’s card and select the checkbox.
Select the other candidates you want to include, or click Select all.
Select Schedule interviews.
Before you send the invitations, Alva identifies candidates who cannot be invited and displays the reason:
Pending booking request
Already booked
No email address
What the candidate sees
The candidate receives an email with a Book your interview link. When they open it, they can:
View the available times you offered.
Select the time that works best for them.
Confirm the booking.
After booking, the candidate sees Your interview is booked with a Join video call link and receives a confirmation email.
If none of the offered times work, the candidate can let you know. Their status then changes to Needs attention in Alva, where you can see the reason. To learn how to track booking requests and scheduled interviews, see Follow up on interviews below.
Follow up on interviews
Use the Interview overview to track and manage interviews for candidates in a stage.
To open it:
Go to the Stages tab.
Open the ••• menu for the interview stage.
Select Scheduling overview.
For each candidate, the overview shows:
Their interview status: Not Scheduled, Awaiting Approval, Interview Scheduled, Needs attention, Declined, Cancelled, or Past.
The hiring manager and interview date.
The relevant action, such as Schedule, Start interview, Reschedule, or Cancel interview.
The right-click menu ( ••• icon on the candidate card) shows one scheduling action at a time: Schedule interview before anything is sent, Cancel booking request or Cancel scheduled interview while one is live, and Re-schedule interview once it is over, cancelled or declined.
What cancelling does depends on how far the candidate has got:
If they have booked a time, they are emailed and the interview leaves everyone's calendar.
If they have not booked yet, nobody is emailed. The booking link then tells them the interview is no longer available.
Rescheduling keeps the same link - the candidate is asked to pick a new time, and the old booking stays until they do.
Any Questions?
Use the chat in the bottom right corner to connect with a member of our support team.
