Save time during recruitment with templates

By: Julie McCoy October 12th, 2009

As several programs start hosting interview days this month, program coordinators are in an organizing frenzy. To help coordinators tame the craziness, I wrote an article in Residency Program Alert about how to work smarter and save time.

Creating e-mail templates is the most helpful tip for coordinators during recruitment. You’re corresponding with so many people about the same topics, why write countless e-mails stating the same exact information. Instead, just write it out once, save it in your drafts folder, and pull it out whenever you need it.

For example, send an e-mail with the following text to candidates you will not interview:

Dear [candidate name],

Thank you for you interest in the [name of program] training program at [name of hospital].

The members of our selection committee have reviewed the documents you submitted through ERAS , and we regret to inform you that we are not able to extend an invitation to interview at this time.

We wish you success in your medical career.

Thank you,

[your name]

Other ideas for recruitment template e-mails include:

A description of the curriculum, training experiences, and faculty member qualifications to send to applicants requesting information about the program
An outline of the interview day and directions to candidates coming for an interview
An overview of which visas your program accepts and your programs selection criteria

What e-mail templates do you use? Leave a comment in the box below describing what you use templates for or cut and paste the text in the box!

Comments(2) Program Management, Recruitment, Residency Program Alert

Comments

By Karen Sharrock on October 13th, 2009 at 10:12 am

I use templates for:
1) rejection letters,
2) offering interviews with our dates
3) confirming date selection (with information about hotels and dinner reservations as appropriate)
4) confiming interview date changes
5) informing applicants of missing data

The neat thing is that these can be stored in ERAS.

By Toni Haddad on October 14th, 2009 at 2:37 pm

While I don’t store my templates in ERAS, I do copy and paste into ERAS the initial invitation to interview and confirmation letter with hotel and dinner information, along with a template for applicants not staying in a hotel.

I also have a very gently worded template for candidates who are not granted an interview.