Why Interview Rates Are Low at Recruitment Agencies, and How to Raise Them

In the recruitment business, the interview rate — the share of candidates for whom an interview is arranged, and the share actually held — bears directly on the placement rate.
Yet many agencies struggle with both.

“We have the registration but cannot get a time arranged”
“We arrange the time but the interview does not happen”

These are common, and they are why valuable registrations are lost.

This article assumes a setup where the calling and the interviewing are handled by different people, and covers the ideal figures for both rates through to how to improve them.
It comes with concrete examples and practical know-how, so we hope you find it useful.

▽Recommended for
・Readers who want to improve the rate at which interviews are arranged
・Readers who want to improve the rate at which interviews are held
・Readers considering a tool to help

1. The difference between the two rates

In the recruitment business, alongside how accurately you match candidates to employers, how reliably you get candidates as far as an interview is a figure worth watching closely..

The step from a new registration — a lead — to an interview matters in particular.
Two measures are used to make that step visible: the rate at which interviews are arranged and the rate at which interviews are held. Those are the two measures.

the rate at which interviews are arranged

Definition: the share of candidates for whom an interview time was fixed (scheduling complete)
Formula: interviews arranged ÷ active registrations × 100

the rate at which interviews are held.

Definition: the share of arranged interviews that actually took place (interview complete)
Formula: interviews held ÷ interviews arranged × 100

For instance, if you fix a time with 50 of 100 applicants, the rate arranged is 50%.
If 40 of those 50 actually turn up, the rate held is 80%.

A fall in either measure means fewer vacancies put forward, and so fewer placements and lower revenue.

The two look alike but are quite different, and what to fix and what to do about it differ clearly as well.

Our marketing support service for recruitment agencies is click here

2. The ideal figures for each

As described above, the rate at which interviews are arranged and the rate at which interviews are held. they bear directly on results in recruitment.
They are the first step towards matching candidates and employers, and stumbling here means nothing further — no recommendation, no offer.
So what figures should you actually aim at?

From our own experience inside recruitment agencies and from the clients we support, NowVillage recommends the following as ideal.

Note that the figures vary by sector and by job function, so treat them as a general guide only.

the rate at which interviews are arranged

50% or above
(one in two of the candidates approached has a time fixed)

the rate at which interviews are held.

70% or above
(at least 7 of every 10 arranged interviews take place)

Where you fall short of these — the rate arranged under 50%, say, or the rate held under 70% — there is a good chance the problem lies in the first response or in how you follow up.

3. To raise the rate held, raise the rate arranged first

You will want both to improve at once, but the first priority is the rate at which interviews are arranged.— improving that.
Without a fixed time there is no interview, and without an interview there is no recommendation to an employer and no offer.

In other words, if you want to raise the rate held, the order of work is to raise the rate arranged first.
Improve the rate arranged and grow the base you are working from first.

At the arranging stage, too, the candidate is keen and responds readily. Take that chance and carry them smoothly through to the interview, and later drop-off is easier to prevent as well.
Conversely, while the rate arranged is low, no amount of improvement in the rate held will raise the total number of interviews much.

4. Why the rate arranged falls, and what to do

So what causes the rate arranged to fall?
Here are the common causes and what to do about each.

4.1 The first email or call is slow

The single biggest factor is how quickly you can approach a candidate after they register.
A candidate is keenest immediately after registering. Call them then and the chances of arranging an interview rise sharply.

But a few hours’ delay, or leaving it to the next day, and their schedule is often already filled by another agency, or they have moved on to something else and their mind has turned, or their keenness has dropped — and a valuable chance is lost.

NowVillage recommends the following.

Examples (a selection)

・Call within 30 seconds to five minutes of registration
Immediately after registering the candidate is likely still looking at the screen, and the call is more likely to connect.

・If you cannot get through, follow up by SMS
If the call goes unanswered, send an SMS — “This is [name] from [company]; I just tried to call you” — and invite them to call back.

・Call again later
If you did not get through during the day, call again. The best times are the lunch break, between 12 and 1, or after work from 6pm.

・Set up an internal notification in Slack, Chatwork or similar when a registration comes in

・Bring in a tool that makes an immediate call possible (a CTI, for example)

・Rotate staff across the hours, or run shifts

4.2 The email is long and hard to read

Most candidates are either in work already or students still job-hunting.
So they are fitting their search, and their exchanges with agencies, around work or study.

Are the emails you send such people long?
A long email is likely to be abandoned part-way, or to feel like a chore, and the scheduling never happens.
Keep email to the minimum you need to convey, and structure it so the content reads at a glance.

Examples

Make these three things explicit in the email you send:

• The purpose of the interview (e.g. to hear about your career hopes in detail)
• How long it takes and how it is held (e.g. 30 minutes, online)
• Possible times (several)

Keep the subject line as brief and to the point as the body.
Do that and the reply rate improves markedly.

4.3 You are calling from a withheld number or a mobile

A call from a withheld number, or an unfamiliar mobile, invites suspicion and is more likely to be ignored.
Among younger candidates in particular, there is a tendency never to answer an unknown number.

As far as possible, call from a landline that shows the company name.

And simply sending a line by SMS or LINE before you call — “This is [name] from [company]; I will call you shortly” — changes the answer rate a great deal.

Examples

• Call from a landline (a number beginning 03 or 0120, say)
• Say you are going to call, by SMS or similar, before you do

These may seem like small points, but small considerations like these decide whether the interview gets arranged.

4.4 Use several channels: email, phone, LINE

When a call does not connect, do you treat it as over because there was no response? In supporting agencies we often see cases where no next approach is made.

Candidates in their twenties and thirties in particular increasingly do not answer the phone, and relying on a single call is risky.

So follow up through channels other than the phone — email, SMS, LINE. Doing so makes a reply more likely.
Candidates of the smartphone generation are used to text, and LINE or SMS can feel like a lower barrier, so bringing LINE into your communication is worth considering.

Examples

・Do not rely on the phone alone; add channels to suit the person (LINE, SMS)

・Choose the channel for the situation — phone, then LINE, then phone and email

For example
If the first call goes unanswered:
Send an SMS at once: “I just tried to call. This is [name] at [agency]. Please let me know a time that suits you.”

Then 30 minutes to an hour later, send again on LINE:
“Sorry to trouble you. I am writing about the registration you made. If it suits you, I would like about five minutes of your time.” — polite and to the point.

The next day, call again and send an email reminder as well:
Subject: “[Name] / arranging an interview time”
Body: “Apologies for writing again. I would like to hear what you are looking for, and would be grateful for about 15 minutes. Would any of the times below suit you?”

Using several channels in sequence like this steadies the response rate and lifts the rate at which interviews are arranged.

External services that connect to HubSpot
・LINE: LITTLE HELP CONNECT
・SMS: Accrete
・Communication platform: Sokucom

Our marketing support service for recruitment agencies is click here

5. How to raise the rate held

Arranging a time means nothing if the interview does not take place on the day.
To prevent “we agreed a time and they did not come” and “we lost contact”, raising the rate held means building a state in which the interview reliably happens.

Here are four ways to do it.

5.1 Send a reminder the day before

Where no confirmation goes out the day before, no-shows happen often — the candidate forgot, or let it slide.
Candidates of the smartphone generation have notifications buried easily, and too little contact the day before or on the day is a major cause of last-minute cancellation.

So put in place something that always sends a reminder the day before.
Reminding through several channels — LINE and SMS as well as email — raises both the open rate and the certainty.

Examples

・Send by LINE or SMS in the afternoon or evening of the previous day
“[Name], your online interview is tomorrow at [time]. The Zoom link is here. We look forward to speaking with you.”

・Send a Google Calendar invitation
So the candidate is notified too, put the appointment straight into Google Calendar when you arrange it, and let the reminder run itself.

・Send a short line on the morning of the day as well
“We will hold the interview as planned at [time] today. We look forward to it.” — which also nudges them towards preparing.

5.2 How the interview works is unclear, or makes them anxious

For a candidate unused to Zoom or Google Meet, not knowing how to connect or what to prepare causes trouble on the day, and cancellation out of unease.

So tell them simply and clearly, in advance, when, where and how the interview will be held.

Examples

・Send instructions beforehand
“We will use Zoom. Please join from the link below, around five minutes before. Dress as you like.”
Note: a template is useful here.

・Send a connection-test URL
It helps to put a test link in the email: “If this is your first time using Zoom, you can check your connection here.”

・Include a short FAQ
It is kind to add answers to the likely worries — “Do I have to show my face?”, “Can I join from a phone?”

5.3 They do not see why the interview is needed

A vague “shall we have a chat?” gives a candidate no reason to spend the time. Experienced candidates in particular tend to be wary of an interview as a sales pitch, and avoid it.

So state the purpose of the interview and what the candidate gets from it, so they can feel it is worth attending.

Examples

・State the purpose and the benefit together
“I hope to help you set out what matters most to you in this search”,
“I can tell you what options exist in the current market” — put it in terms that are about them.

・State how long it takes, specifically
“It takes about 15 minutes”, “About 30 minutes would be plenty” — making the commitment clear lowers the barrier.

5.4 The proposed date is too soon, or too far off

If the date is too soon — tomorrow, or today — the candidate has no time to prepare and may cancel. Too far off, more than a week, and they forget, or their plans change.
Aim to set the interview within two to five days.

Examples

・Offer three options — tomorrow, the day after, and the start of next week (Monday, say) — so they have a choice.

・Where arranging is difficult, be flexible: hold a provisional slot and confirm the day before.

Our marketing support service for recruitment agencies is click here

6. Managing candidate records in one place raises the rate held further

We have covered concrete ways to raise both rates; what underpins running them efficiently and effectively is keeping candidate records in one place.

While the information is scattered, none of the above will work however hard you try.
Where several channels are in use — email, LINE, SMS — it becomes difficult to tie the exchanges on each back to one candidate.
Then reminders to people with an interview booked get forgotten, or sent twice, or the same person reached on two channels is managed as two different people.
Mistakes like these make candidates distrustful, and the result is exactly the “did not come” and “no reply” you were trying to avoid.

To keep candidate records in one place, a CRM is the tool for the job.
With a CRM in place, you can expect the following gains in efficiency and in the rate held.

・Reminder status is visible, so nothing is missed
You can track a status for each candidate — reminder not yet sent, sent — so nothing falls through.

・Automatic reminders just before the interview prevent no-shows
Email and LINE reminders go out automatically the day before or on the day, which brings the cancellation rate down.

・Personalised wording raises the reply rate
Drawing on past exchanges and registration details, you can vary the wording to the candidate’s situation, so the communication reads naturally.

・Handovers between staff go smoothly
Notes, call history and status are shared, so a sudden change of adviser still allows a smooth follow-up.

7. HubSpot keeps candidate records in one place

To raise both rates steadily, keeping candidate records in one place is essential.
You need a setup where who said what, when, on which channel is all visible, and nothing is missed.

HubSpot, which combines CRM with marketing automation, is what works here.

With HubSpot in place, the measures described above become part of the system and can be run repeatably.

The following features in particular support both rates.

HubSpot features

Feature	Summary	How to use it
Notifications	Notify automatically on a form submission or a reply, so the first response is fast	・Notify Slack when a form is submitted ・Email the owner when a reply comes in
Tying a candidate to several channels	Email, phone, LINE and SMS exchanges are brought together under one candidate and kept as a history	・Sync with the LINE integration tool ・Sync with the SMS integration tool ・See call notes and chat history on one screen
Automated reminders	Send a reminder automatically the day before, to prevent last-minute cancellations	・Send an email or LINE message automatically one day before the interview date ・Insert the name and the time automatically

External services that connect to HubSpot
・LINE: LITTLE HELP CONNECT
・SMS: Accrete
・Communication platform: Sokucom

8. Talk to NowVillage about HubSpot

We hope that was useful.
“We want to improve the rate at which interviews are arranged”
“We want to improve the rate at which interviews are held”
“We do not know where to start”

If that is you, start by trying the measures described here.
What we have covered is only part of it.
“We would like to know more specifically”
“We want improvements that fit our own way of working”
“We are unsure about bringing in a tool”
If so, do get in touch with NowVillage.
NowVillage has a long record of improving operations with HubSpot, and deep know-how specific to the recruitment sector.
We will listen carefully to your situation and propose the best way to implement and use it.

Our marketing support service for recruitment agencies is click here