One of the most tedious tasks today is interview scheduling. The back and forth, calendar coordination, and endless email chains waste precious hours each week. In fact, hiring platforms universally estimate that it can take 30 minutes - 2 hours each week to schedule 1 interview - and if the candidate isn't in front of their computer, it can take 12- 24 hours for them to respond.

Interview scheduling is a huge waste of time and distracts HR teams and recruiters from far more pressing activities that have an impact on new hires, team cohesion, and company growth.

Interview scheduling software like Paradox, Pillar, and Calendly can help companies streamline the process by allowing hiring teams to create a customizable schedule of various interview steps (phone screens, video interviews, etc.), and assign recruiters/hiring managers to each step. When these tools are integrated directly with your ATS and interview intelligence software, save HR teams hundreds of hours per year.

If you look at the largest time-wasting activities for HR teams, the time constraint on scheduling interviews and the number of back-and-forth emails put it squarely at the top of the list. So identifying and implementing a hiring tech stack that includes these tools is vital to keeping your team from overwhelm.

Once implemented, platforms like Paradox (which is actually a digital assistant), Greenhouse (ATS), and Pillar (interview intelligence software) allow users to create and manage the entire hiring process including interview scheduling, sending out interview introductions, invitations, and reminders, recording the actual interview, and tracking the status of candidate responses - allowing better insights and automation from end-to-end.

With the right interview scheduling software in place, HR teams can get back to focusing on the more important aspects of hiring and talent management.

If your HR team is struggling to find the right tech stack to streamline your interview scheduling process, check out our FREE guide - "How to Build the Best Recruitment Tech Stack," for more tips, tricks, and a list of the tools that we use.

Best Interview Scheduling Software

When it comes to choosing the best interview scheduling software, there are a few key factors to consider when making your decision. First and foremost, you'll want to choose a platform that offers a user-friendly interface, and dashboards that give you all the necessary information in one place. Next, take a look at some reviews and try to see their suite of tools to help you manage interview schedules, candidate introductions, and track responses.

Some of the best interview scheduling software options on the market today include:

1.) Calendly: Calendly is a popular interview scheduling tool that allows users to create and share customized scheduling links with candidates. This platform also integrates with a variety of other tools and apps, such as Zoom and Google Calendar, to make the scheduling process even more streamlined
2.) Paradox: Paradox is primarily a digital assistant that also offers interview scheduling capabilities. This platform allows HR professionals to easily search for candidates, send out scheduling requests, and track responses all in one intuitive interface.
3.) Pillar: Pillar is primarily used as a video interview platform, but includes interview scheduling tools that make the entire process easier on your HR and recruitment teams.
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Next, consider integrations. What tools are you currently using in your hiring process? Do you use a digital assistant? Ai sourcing? ATS? Interview Intelligence? Video Interviews, and Onboarding Platforms? Does the interview scheduling software you’re considering have a direct integration with those tools? If it doesn't, you'll be wasting a massive amount of time transferring data from one place to another and trying to sync everything up.

Getting a fully integrated tech stack from end-to-end can save time, increase efficiency, and ultimately lead to better decisions when it comes to hiring because you're not constantly reconciling candidate data and verifying dates from your interviewer booking system.

Finally, think about the overall cost of the interview scheduler. Is there a free trial option available? Are there any additional costs associated with using the platform? Does it include any additional features or perks? Knowing the answers to these questions can help you make an informed decision and find the best interview scheduling software for your team.

Ultimately, the best interview scheduling software for your organization will depend on your specific needs and requirements. However, by choosing a platform with a user-friendly interface, a range of features, and solid customer support, you can ensure that the scheduling process is streamlined and efficient.

Automated Interview Scheduling

Automated interview scheduling is one of the most powerful features offered by the interview scheduling software. Think about what this means for HR teams and candidates - no more back and forth. This feature allows recruiters to automate the process of scheduling interviews by sending out scheduling emails to candidates with pre-set interview times and dates - and this will only get better in the future as Ai tools are automatically scanning calendars for the best times to meet.

Let me reiterate - automated interview scheduling is such a powerful tool because it allows recruiters to focus on more important tasks meaning they can save time and resources by eliminating the need for manual scheduling processes, such as sending out scheduling emails and tracking responses via spreadsheets or other manual methods. This feature can also help to reduce scheduling conflicts and improve the overall candidate experience by providing candidates with a simple and streamlined scheduling process.

All of this combined leads to fewer challenges in the hiring process.

To implement automated interview scheduling, look for a platform that offers this feature as part of their core offering. Pillar offers this option and it integrates directly with Calendly or Google Calendar to make it easy on your team.

It’s important to note that not all interview scheduling software providers offer the same features- for instance, Pillar offers scheduling interview emails and introduction emails, so your candidates are familiar with who they're meeting with, and the hiring managers have all the details they need about the candidate at their finger-tips before the email. This means that each person is better prepared for the interview. So make sure to do your research before deciding on the best one for your organization.

Pillar also integrates with popular ATS systems like Lever and Greenhouse, video interview platforms like Zoom and Teams, and onboarding platforms like BambooHR, allowing for a smooth and streamlined hiring experience.  This means that your team can easily transition from one stage of the interviewing process to the next without losing data or time.

Scheduling Interviews for Candidates

Scheduling interviews for candidates can be a time-consuming and tedious process - we've mentioned this previously, but it's true. As a matter of fact, it's why companies like Pillar exist. Saving time allows you to do more of the important things - like reading a resume, reviewing their social media pages, creating interview questions, or having an in-depth conversation with a candidate.

These are the items that will let candidates know you're paying attention to them and that you care.

To that point, one of the most important aspects of scheduling interviews for candidates is communication. Communication is key in any organization - and this is especially true when it comes to hiring. Make sure you provide candidates with all the necessary details about their interview well in advance, including who they will be meeting with and what time and date the interview will take place.

At Pillar, we recommend using a personalized interview schedule message to accomplish this. This message includes information about your company and expresses excitement for your upcoming interview- showing them you’ve taken the time to learn about them and their skills, which helps to strengthen candidate relationships- and we have these templates teed up and easy to access in your dashboard under, "scheduling interviews for candidates templates."

Automated interview scheduling is a powerful tool that saves recruiters time and resources while improving the overall candidate experience. Leverage a platform like Pillar that offers automated scheduling, as well as other features to help streamline the interviewing process.

As you consider interview scheduling software, hopefully, this article has given you some new perspectives on what features to look for as well as how automated scheduling can improve the candidate experience. With Pillar, you’ll be able to save time and resources while ensuring that each candidate is given a personalized and professional experience. Schedule a demo to see how you can save time and money today!