Walk-in | Meaning and Definition

What is a walk-in?

Walk-in refers to a condition wherein an individual such as a new employee, customer, future employee who is present for an interview, etc., reaches the respective place or office with no advance appointment. Most commonly, a walk-interview is used in HR, which is a process of interviewing candidates with the CVs and resumes for a position directly in the company. A walk-in-interview can be characterized by the following:

•   Occurs without an appointment beforehand.
•   It is a short duration meet and greet session.
•   Involves a few questions.
•   Employed as a handy tool to narrow down the talent pool.
•   It is structured, however, unplanned and spontaneous.
•   Employed by organizations when they need to consider mass recruitment, particularly beneficial for initial talent screening.

Through walk-in interviews, employers can gauge the efficiency of the candidates. The process also facilitates them to satisfy a huge number of potential candidates in a relatively short period of time. Moreover, it helps save both resources and time for the organization. As the recruiters get to meet prospective employees in person, they can quickly decide whether to hire or not.

For candidates, a walk-in is basically a meeting more casual in nature than a formal meeting. The applicants can quickly sense the philosophy of the company, its workplace culture, and other things without investing much of their resources and time. Moreover, it grants applicants a formal idea about their image or caliber as being a proper fit in the workplace or not and the role as well. However, a downside of walk-ins is that a person needs to complete all the paperwork on the spot, and in such interviews, standing out is not an easy task, so getting a position would be difficult too.