Interviews and scorecards

Adding someone to an interview is an access decision. The panel (the people interviewing) is what lets a person with Interviewer access open that candidate, and they need both: a place on the panel and the access.

Arrange an interview

You can arrange interviews with HR admin or Recruiter access, or as the Hiring manager named on the role. An Interviewer cannot, which is what stops someone adding themselves to a candidate.

1. Open the candidate. In the role's pipeline, choose Interviews on their row.
2. Start it. Choose Arrange an interview.
3. Fill in the details. What kind of interview is the name the panel sees on their Home tab, so make it clear. When is in your own time zone, Minutes defaults to 60, and Where can be a room or a meeting link.
4. Choose the panel. Tick at least one person under Who is interviewing. The list shows members of your AB Talent workspace, so a colleague who has never opened AB Talent will not be on it yet.
5. Save. Choose Arrange it.

Arranging an interview does not move the candidate to the Interview stage. That still takes Advance and a reason.

You can leave When empty. The panel still gets access, which is useful if they need to see the candidate before agreeing a slot, and the interview shows No time set yet. You cannot add a time later, though, so an interview saved this way cannot be booked in a calendar.

What the panel can see

Someone with Interviewer access reaches a candidate from Needs you on the Home tab, where the interview appears as Interview: and its name. The candidate's page is the only hiring screen they can open. It shows the candidate's name, stage and Match score, the interviews, and scorecards under the rule below.

They do not see the role, its pipeline, or other candidates, and they cannot send messages or make decisions. The page does not show the CV text or the AI's line-by-line findings today.

Book it in Outlook

You can put the interview in your own Microsoft 365 calendar and invite the panel. The meeting is yours: you are the organiser, the invitation comes from you, and replies come back to you.

1. Leave the box ticked. In the arrange form, Book it in my calendar with a Teams meeting starts ticked when booking is available.
2. Check the panel if you like. With a time and a panel set, Check the panel's calendars shows each person as Free, Busy, Can't tell or No email address. Can't tell is not the same as free.
3. Choose Arrange it. The interview is saved first and then booked. It then shows In {your name}'s calendar, with a Join button for the Teams meeting.

If the calendar refuses, you keep the interview and a message says why. A Book in my calendar button stays on the interview so you can try again. Each interview can hold one booking.

Change or cancel an interview

An interview's time and panel cannot be edited after it is arranged. To change either, choose Cancel it and arrange a new one. Moving the meeting in Outlook does not change the time AB Talent shows.

Cancelling removes the panel's access to the candidate, unless they are also on another interview with that candidate that is not cancelled. Scorecards already written are kept. What happens to the meeting depends on who cancels:

Mark as done records that the interview happened. It leaves the calendar alone and the panel keeps its access.

“No longer in someone's calendar”

A meeting cancelled or deleted in Outlook does not tell AB Talent. So when the organiser opens the candidate's page, AB Talent asks their calendar whether the meeting is still there. If it is gone, the interview shows No longer in {name}'s calendar and the Join button disappears.

The interview itself does not change, and the panel keeps its access until a person decides. Choose Cancel it, or arrange a new interview. Only the organiser sees this warning, because only their sign-in can read that calendar, and it needs the same browser session as booking. Everyone else keeps seeing the booking as it was recorded.

Write a scorecard

A scorecard is one interviewer's written assessment of one interview. Anyone on the panel can write one, and so can anyone who works the role. A scheduled or finished interview takes scorecards, and a cancelled one does not. Once the interview's time has passed or it is marked done, Write your scorecard: appears under Needs you on the Home tab.

1. Open it. On the interview, choose Write your scorecard.
2. Rate each requirement. The form lists the role's requirements, the same lines the AI screening read. Choose Strong, Met, Mixed, Not met or Didn't cover it, and note what the candidate said. Every line starts at Didn't cover it, which is not the same as Not met.
3. Add anything else. Use Anything else for what the lines do not cover.
4. Give your view. What do you recommend? offers Hire, Leaning yes, Leaning no and No. It starts on Leaning yes, so set it deliberately.
5. Choose Submit.

You have one scorecard per interview. Change your scorecard replaces it, and the earlier version is not kept.

Yours first, then everyone else's

With Interviewer access, you cannot read anyone else's scorecard for a candidate until you have submitted one of your own for that candidate. This is enforced by AB Talent and not just hidden on the screen, and the page says so: “Other people's scorecards stay hidden until you submit yours. Reading them first is how a panel talks itself into agreeing.”

Whoever works the role (HR admin, Recruiter, or its Hiring manager) can read scorecards at any time, because they collect the assessments. That includes a hiring manager who is also on the panel.

A scorecard moves nobody, and neither does a recommendation. Whoever runs the role reads the panel's views and decides with Advance or Reject, giving a reason.

Quick reference

Choose the panel with care, because it decides who can see the candidate, and let each person write their view before they read anyone else's.