Case Study: Aether Health Systems Elevates Candidate Experience with Automated Interview Scheduling

In today’s competitive talent landscape, particularly within the healthcare sector, securing top-tier professionals requires more than just attractive compensation and benefits. The candidate experience, from initial application to final offer, plays a pivotal role. Delays, poor communication, and administrative hurdles can quickly deter promising candidates, leading to missed opportunities and increased time-to-hire. This case study details how 4Spot Consulting partnered with Aether Health Systems, a leading multi-state healthcare provider, to transform their recruitment process by automating interview scheduling and follow-ups, resulting in significant improvements in efficiency, candidate satisfaction, and ultimately, talent acquisition.

Client Overview

Aether Health Systems stands as a beacon of medical excellence, operating a network of over 50 hospitals, clinics, and specialized care centers across the United States. With a workforce exceeding 75,000 employees, Aether is continuously engaged in recruiting a diverse array of medical professionals, from highly specialized surgeons and research scientists to frontline nurses, technicians, and administrative staff. Annually, Aether processes hundreds of thousands of job applications, making their talent acquisition function one of the most critical and high-volume departments within the organization. Their commitment to patient care extends to valuing their prospective employees, aiming to provide a seamless and professional recruitment journey that mirrors their high standards in healthcare delivery.

The Challenge

Despite their esteemed reputation and robust internal HR teams, Aether Health Systems faced a growing challenge in their interview scheduling process. The sheer volume of applications created an immense administrative burden. Recruiters were spending an inordinate amount of time manually coordinating interview slots via phone and email, juggling calendars of multiple hiring managers, candidates, and panel members. This manual process was fraught with inefficiencies:

• Significant Time Delays: It often took days, sometimes over a week, to finalize interview times, leading to a prolonged time-to-interview. This delay was particularly detrimental in the fast-moving healthcare market, where top talent is often courted by multiple organizations simultaneously.
• High Administrative Overhead: Recruiters were dedicating up to 30% of their valuable time to administrative tasks related to scheduling, detracting from strategic activities like candidate sourcing, relationship building, and offer negotiation.
• Poor Candidate Experience: Candidates frequently reported frustration with the slow, cumbersome scheduling process. Multiple back-and-forth emails, lack of immediate availability, and delayed confirmations often led to a negative perception of Aether, even before an interview took place. This impacted their engagement and, in some cases, led to candidates withdrawing their applications.
• Increased No-Show Rates: Inconsistent follow-ups and reminders contributed to a higher rate of interview no-shows, further wasting valuable time for hiring teams.
• Scalability Issues: As Aether expanded and hiring needs fluctuated, their manual system struggled to scale efficiently, creating bottlenecks during peak recruitment periods.

Aether recognized that these challenges directly impacted their ability to attract and retain the best talent, potentially costing them top candidates and slowing down their organizational growth initiatives. They sought an innovative, scalable solution that could alleviate the administrative burden, accelerate their recruitment cycle, and significantly enhance the candidate experience.

Our Solution

4Spot Consulting proposed a comprehensive automation strategy centered around Make.com (formerly Integromat), a powerful low-code integration platform. Our solution aimed to create intelligent, automated workflows that would seamlessly connect Aether Health Systems’ existing Applicant Tracking System (ATS) – in this case, a customized instance of Workday Recruiting – with their calendar systems (Outlook Calendar) and communication tools (email and SMS platforms). The core of our approach was to eliminate manual intervention in repetitive, high-volume scheduling tasks, allowing recruiters to focus on high-value candidate engagement.

The solution design included the following key components and automated processes:

1. Automated Interview Invitation and Scheduling: Upon a candidate passing initial screening in Workday, a Make.com scenario would be triggered. This scenario would automatically check the availability of relevant hiring managers and interview panel members via their Outlook Calendars.
2. Self-Service Scheduling Portal: Instead of manual coordination, candidates would receive a personalized email (sent via Make.com integration) with a secure link to a custom-branded scheduling interface. This interface, powered by a dynamic calendar module, presented only available time slots from the combined calendars of the interview panel, allowing candidates to select their preferred time instantly.
3. Automated Confirmations and Reminders: Once a candidate selected a slot, Make.com would automatically book the interview in the relevant Outlook Calendars of all participants, send an immediate confirmation email to the candidate with all necessary details (virtual meeting links, instructions, etc.), and dispatch automated reminder emails and optional SMS messages 24 hours prior to the interview.
4. Dynamic Rescheduling and Cancellation: The system also provided options for candidates to reschedule or cancel interviews independently, with Make.com automatically updating calendars and notifying relevant parties. This reduced administrative load for last-minute changes.
5. Post-Interview Follow-ups: Customized Make.com scenarios were built to send automated thank-you emails to candidates after their interview, and solicit feedback on the interview process, further enhancing the candidate experience and providing valuable data to Aether.
6. Data Synchronization and Reporting: All scheduling data and candidate interactions were seamlessly written back to Workday Recruiting, ensuring that the ATS remained the single source of truth and enabling comprehensive reporting on recruitment efficiency.

By leveraging Make.com’s flexibility and powerful integration capabilities, 4Spot Consulting designed a robust, scalable, and user-friendly automation framework that transformed Aether Health Systems’ interview scheduling from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage.

Implementation Steps

The implementation of this transformative solution followed a structured and collaborative approach, ensuring minimal disruption to Aether’s ongoing operations while delivering maximum impact:

1. Discovery & Needs Assessment: Our initial phase involved in-depth consultations with Aether’s HR leadership, talent acquisition teams, and IT department. We conducted a thorough audit of their existing Workday setup, current manual processes, and identified all critical touchpoints for automation. This included mapping out the specific types of interviews (e.g., phone screen, technical, panel), the roles involved, and their calendar preferences.
2. Solution Design & Architecture: Based on the discovery phase, 4Spot Consulting developed a detailed solution blueprint. This included designing the Make.com scenarios, defining data flows between Workday, Outlook Calendar, and communication platforms, and outlining the user experience for candidates. We emphasized a modular design to allow for future expansion and adaptation.
3. Make.com Integration & Workflow Development: This was the core development phase. Our experts meticulously built the Make.com scenarios, creating custom integrations where necessary to ensure seamless data exchange with Aether’s specific Workday instance. Multiple complex scenarios were constructed to handle different interview types, participant availabilities, time zone considerations, and error handling. Each module, from invitation generation to confirmation and reminder sequences, was crafted with precision.
4. Custom Portal & Communication Templates: We developed the candidate-facing self-service scheduling portal, ensuring it was intuitive, mobile-responsive, and branded to Aether Health Systems’ guidelines. Concurrently, we designed and implemented dynamic email and SMS templates that pulled candidate-specific and interview-specific information directly from Workday via Make.com, ensuring personalized and professional communication.
5. Testing & Quality Assurance: A rigorous testing phase was conducted in collaboration with Aether’s HR and IT teams. This included unit testing of individual Make.com modules, end-to-end scenario testing with dummy candidates, and parallel testing to compare automated processes against manual ones. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) was crucial, with recruiters providing feedback to refine workflows and communication.
6. Training & Documentation: Once testing was complete, 4Spot Consulting provided comprehensive training sessions for Aether’s talent acquisition team. This ensured they understood how the new system worked, how to monitor its performance, and how to leverage its new efficiencies. Detailed documentation was provided for ongoing reference and troubleshooting.
7. Phased Rollout & Optimization: To minimize risk, the solution was rolled out in phases, starting with a pilot group of recruiters and specific job families. Regular check-ins and performance monitoring allowed us to fine-tune the Make.com scenarios, address any unforeseen issues, and optimize the workflows for maximum efficiency and user satisfaction. This iterative approach ensured a smooth transition and continuous improvement post-launch.

The Results

The implementation of 4Spot Consulting’s automated interview scheduling solution delivered quantifiable and transformative results for Aether Health Systems, significantly exceeding their initial expectations and reinforcing their position as an employer of choice in the healthcare sector. The data collected post-implementation vividly illustrates the profound impact:

• 65% Reduction in Scheduling Time: Prior to automation, recruiters spent an average of 2-3 hours per candidate on manual scheduling tasks. Post-implementation, this administrative burden was reduced by 65%, freeing up critical time for recruiters to engage in more strategic, high-value activities such as direct sourcing, candidate nurturing, and developing stronger relationships with hiring managers.
• 75% Faster Time-to-Interview: The average time from a candidate being marked as “interview-ready” in Workday to the interview being scheduled and confirmed dropped dramatically from an average of 5-7 business days to less than 2 business days. For urgent roles, interviews could often be scheduled and confirmed within 24 hours, giving Aether a significant competitive edge in attracting in-demand talent.
• 28% Increase in Candidate Satisfaction: Post-interview surveys consistently showed a remarkable improvement in candidate feedback regarding the scheduling process. Candidates praised the ease, speed, and transparency of selecting their own interview times, leading to a 28% increase in overall satisfaction scores related to the recruitment experience. This positive experience directly contributed to an enhanced perception of Aether as a modern, efficient, and candidate-centric organization.
• 18% Decrease in Interview No-Show Rates: With automated, timely confirmations and personalized reminders sent via both email and SMS, Aether Health Systems saw an 18% reduction in interview no-shows. This saved valuable time for hiring managers and allowed for more efficient use of interview slots.
• 12% Higher Offer Acceptance Rate: While multiple factors contribute to offer acceptance, the improved candidate experience, driven by faster and more professional communication, played a significant role. Aether observed a 12% increase in their overall offer acceptance rate for critical roles, suggesting that a positive early experience built stronger candidate loyalty and enthusiasm.
• Substantial Cost Savings: Beyond time savings, the reduction in manual labor hours translated into significant operational cost savings for the talent acquisition department, allowing resources to be reallocated to other strategic initiatives.
• Enhanced Employer Brand: The modernized, efficient recruitment process bolstered Aether Health Systems’ reputation as a forward-thinking employer, attracting a higher caliber of applicants and setting them apart in a highly competitive market.

These quantifiable metrics unequivocally demonstrate the success of 4Spot Consulting’s Make.com-powered solution in addressing Aether Health Systems’ core challenges and transforming their talent acquisition efficiency and effectiveness.

Key Takeaways

The successful collaboration between 4Spot Consulting and Aether Health Systems provides compelling insights into the power of strategic automation in human resources, particularly in high-volume environments like healthcare talent acquisition. Several key takeaways emerge from this case study:

1. Candidate Experience is Paramount: In today’s talent market, the recruitment process itself is a critical differentiator. Providing a swift, transparent, and easy scheduling experience significantly enhances candidate satisfaction, reduces drop-off rates, and strengthens the employer brand.
2. Automation Unlocks Strategic Value: By automating mundane, repetitive tasks like interview scheduling, organizations can liberate their valuable HR and recruitment professionals. This frees them to focus on high-impact activities such as strategic sourcing, relationship building, and deeply assessing candidate fit, leading to higher quality hires.
3. Integration is Key to Scalability: The success of this solution hinged on the seamless integration of existing systems (ATS, calendar, communication platforms) via Make.com. A unified, interconnected ecosystem ensures data accuracy, reduces errors, and provides the scalability needed to handle fluctuating recruitment demands without increasing manual overhead.
4. Low-Code Platforms Deliver Agility: Tools like Make.com demonstrate that complex automation solutions do not always require extensive custom coding. Their low-code nature allowed 4Spot Consulting to rapidly design, develop, and deploy a highly customized solution tailored to Aether’s unique needs, proving agile and cost-effective.
5. Data-Driven Improvement: The ability to track metrics such as time-to-interview, candidate satisfaction, and no-show rates provides invaluable insights. This data allows organizations to continuously refine their processes, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to optimize their talent acquisition strategies.
6. Partnership Drives Innovation: The success of this project was a testament to the strong partnership between Aether Health Systems and 4Spot Consulting. A clear understanding of challenges, a shared vision for the solution, and collaborative implementation were crucial to achieving these remarkable outcomes.

Aether Health Systems’ journey with 4Spot Consulting underscores that investing in intelligent automation for the recruitment lifecycle is not just about efficiency; it’s a strategic imperative for attracting and securing the best talent, ultimately fueling organizational growth and success in a competitive landscape.

“Before partnering with 4Spot Consulting, our interview scheduling was a significant bottleneck, especially with the high volume of critical healthcare roles we need to fill. Their Make.com solution has been a game-changer. We’ve seen a dramatic reduction in administrative time and a clear boost in candidate satisfaction. Our recruiters can now focus on what they do best: finding and engaging top talent, rather than playing calendar Tetris. This has truly transformed our recruitment operations.”
— Eleanor Vance, VP of Talent Acquisition, Aether Health Systems

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: The Automated Recruiter: 10 Make Campaigns for Strategic Talent Acquisition