At times, candidates may require additional time to finish their interviews due to various reasons such as travel, illness, or unexpected events. In such cases, candidates often request deadline extensions.

The deadline extension feature streamlines the process of granting deadline extensions promptly to maintain a positive candidate experience and allow you to get more candidate submissions when you need them.

Settings

Managing deadline extensions in Spark Hire involves control at two different levels: the company level and the job level.

• At the company level: These settings are managed by users with Admin roles and apply to all jobs by default.
• At the job level: These settings can be managed by any user with access to a job allowing them to override the default company-level settings and set up new rules that will only apply to that specific job.

Access the deadline extension requests page

At the company level

To access the deadline extension requests page at the company level, click on the Jobs dropdown in the sidebar menu and select Deadline extension requests.

On this page, you can configure the deadline extension request settings and review pending extension requests submitted by candidates across all jobs.

At the job level

To access the deadline extension requests page at the job level:

1. Click the Jobs dropdown in the sidebar menu and select View jobs.
2. Choose the relevant job from the list and click View.
3. Select the Deadline Extensions tab.
4. If you wish to set up different settings for the job, toggle the switch to Override default extension settings and then configure the deadline extension request settings.

On this page, you can review the pending deadline extension requests submitted for the selected job.

Configure deadline extension request settings

1. Choose how you want to manage deadline extension requests. Your setting will apply to future extension requests.
   • Automatic (recommended): Choose to have deadline extensions automatically approved or declined to save time and effort. When this option is selected, you’ll see the Approval rules below and you’ll be able to:
     1. Set the maximum number of times a candidate can be granted an extension for the same interview.
     2. Set the number of days by which the interview should be extended.

        

   • Manual: If you choose to manually approve/decline deadline extensions, you’ll get notifications when a new request is submitted based on your notification setting preferences. Below the extension settings, you’ll see the full list of pending requests.
   • Disabled: If you choose to disable this option, candidates will not be able to request deadline extensions.
2. Click Save.

To return to the most recent previous settings, click on Revert.

Review pending deadline extension requests

When you configure deadline extension requests to be managed Manually, you have the option to make an individual decision about each request.

To review pending requests, navigate to the deadline extension requests page on the company or job level. Under Pending requests, you can see the details of all requests including the candidate's name, original deadline, date, and reason for the extension request.

Make a decision about each request:

• Approve: If the request is legitimate and you can accommodate additional submissions, approve the request to grant the candidate additional time to complete the interview. You’ll need to specify a new extension duration. The candidate will receive an email with the updated deadline and any other relevant details.
• Decline: If the request does not meet your criteria or if you cannot accommodate it, you can decline the request. In this case, the candidate will receive the notification that the company is no longer accepting new submissions for that position.
• Ignore: If you choose to ignore the request, the deadline extension will be declined but the candidate won’t be notified.

Candidate experience

The candidate experience depends on the configuration option that you select.

• Automatic: When candidates request a deadline extension, the request will be automatically approved/declined by the system depending on whether they meet the rules.
• Manual: When candidates request a deadline extension they will be prompted to provide a reason for their request. When the request is approved/declined, the candidate will be notified by email.
• Disabled: Candidates will be notified that the deadline has passed and the company is no longer accepting new submissions.

Email notifications

When a deadline is approved/declined, either automatically or manually, the candidate will be notified:

• Approved: The candidate will receive an email update with the new deadline for the extension.
• Declined: The candidate will receive an email update that the company is no longer accepting new submissions for that position.

Additional cases

• Candidates cannot request a deadline extension for interviews that have been expired for over 30 days, regardless of the configured settings.
• If the candidate attempts to complete an interview for a job that is inactive, they will receive the same message as if the deadline extension requests option was disabled: the deadline has passed and the company is no longer accepting new submissions.