Set up candidate communication via email – Personio

This article explains how to send and receive candidate emails in Personio. Personio lets you centralize all recruiting emails. This helps ensure smooth communication with candidates.

You can communicate with candidates via Personio in two ways:

Use the Personio email service option. This is the default option and requires no action from you.
Set up a connection using our Google integration, Microsoft integration, or SMTP. The benefit of this option is that your company’s own recruiting email address appears as the sender.

Before you start

Permissions

To set up candidate communication via email, you need permissions for the Recruiting settings.

Before you set up a connection

If you choose to set up a connection (Option 2), consider the following:

For a connection to work, you need a fully licensed recruiting email address. Shared mailboxes aren't supported. Learn more in our troubleshooting article.
To set up an SMTP connection, you need the support of your internal IT department.
If you use Google as your email provider, then you need to set up the direct Google integration. Soon, Google will no longer support new SMTP connections. We also strongly recommend using our direct integration with Microsoft. However, it's still possible to set up an SMTP connection with Microsoft.

Option 1: Use the Personio email service (default)

You can use the Personio email service to communicate with your candidates. This is the default option. Personio automatically creates a company recruiting email address for you. This is hosted by our in-built mail service, Mailjet. All candidate communication via Personio runs under this email address. To view these settings:

Go to Settings > Recruiting.
Click the General tab.
Next to Recruiting email settings, click the button to edit. Your company's recruiting email address looks like this: youraccount-jobs@m-personio.com. When you send candidates an email via Personio, this is the email address that appears as the sender.

While you can't change the email address, you can select whose name appears as the sender. Go to Sender name and select either the company or the employee.

Option 2: Set up a connection

You can send emails to candidates from Personio using your custom email address. (In other words, from your usual company domain.) Your custom email address appears as the sender. If you don’t set this up, your emails are automatically sent by the Personio email service option.

Follow the steps below to set up a connection.

Step 1: Set up an email redirection

To receive candidate emails in Personio, you need to set up an email redirection. This way, all emails and applications sent to your custom email address transfer to Personio.

When you set up the redirection successfully, emails are no longer sent through our in-built email service, Mailjet. If you experience delivery problems, Personio cannot investigate. Contact your IT department if you need support with setting up email redirection.

To set up an email redirection, follow these steps:

Go to Settings > Recruiting.
Click the General tab.
Next to Recruiting email settings, click the button to edit.
Copy the company recruiting email address that Personio created for you. It looks like this: youraccount-jobs@m-personio.com.
In your company's email server, set up an email redirection. We recommend you store a copy of your emails in your company email server inbox. Learn about best practices for setting up email forwarding with Gmail.
In Personio, go to Sender name and select who appears as the sender of the email. You can choose the company or the employee.

Step 2: Set up the connection

To send and receive messages from your custom email address via Personio, you need to set up a connection. If you use Google or Microsoft, then you need to set up our direct integration. Otherwise, set up an SMTP connection.

Set up our direct integration with Google or Microsoft

This integration uses modern authentication (OAuth protocol). You need one of the following email providers:

Microsoft (Office 365 or Exchange with Microsoft Entra ID)
Google

To set up the integration with Google or Microsoft, follow these steps:

Go to Settings > Recruiting.
Click the General tab.
Next to Recruiting email settings, click the button to edit.
In the field Custom email address, enter your company's recruiting email address.
Under Sending emails, select Microsoft or Google.
Click the button to enable the integration.
A new browser tab opens. Provide the login credentials of your custom email address (the same one from Step 3).
Grant Personio permission to send emails on your behalf. You're redirected to Personio. If you don’t have the appropriate rights, a permission request is sent to the Microsoft or Google account. The Microsoft or Google administrator needs to accept it before you continue.
Click Activate integration. If you currently have an SMTP setup, this disables it.
Optional: Test the connection.

Note:
The sender address on all outgoing candidate emails is the address entered in the Custom email address field during the integration setup. The Email used for sending emails field is a display field only and doesn't affect which mailbox sends the emails.

If you want to make changes to the integration at a later stage, temporarily enable the Personio email service.

Set up an SMTP connection

This section explains how to set up a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) connection to your email server. If you've already set up the direct integration with Google or Microsoft, then skip this section.

The SMTP settings vary depending on the SMTP server. This applies whether you're using Microsoft Exchange Server or other in-house hosted options. There are additional requirements for Microsoft Office 365, described below.

Follow these steps:

Go to Settings > Recruiting.
Click the General tab.
Next to Recruiting email settings, click the button to edit.
In the field Custom email address, enter your company's recruiting email address.
Under Sending emails, click the SMTP option and then start the setup.
Enter the information in the required fields. See the table below for more details.
Click Test connection and wait for confirmation. If your SMTP server can't establish a connection, an error message appears. Review your setup details again and refer to our troubleshooting article.
Click the button to activate the integration.

If you want to make changes to the integration at a later stage, temporarily enable the Personio email service.

Field name	Details
Host	Enter your email provider's hostname. The hostname is a unique identifier.
Port	A port allows computers and servers to communicate with each other and with the internet. Using ports ensures that data packets are always assigned to the correct application. For example, emails are assigned to the port reserved for emails. The port to use depends on your SMTP server. Common ports are 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (SMTPS), with less common options being 25 or 2525.
Encryption	The encryption protocol to use between Personio’s servers and your mail host. This ensures that emails can be sent securely using SMTP. We support: SMTPS SMTP with STARTTLS SMTP with STARTTLS and Certification Verification SMTP with STARTTLS and Certification Verification is the secure option compatible with the largest number of email providers.
Account	Personio uses the registered account to identify itself to your email provider's SMTP server. The account is usually a complete email address. The address entered must be the same as the user-defined email address. It must have permission to send emails via that address.
Password	The password required is the same one you use to log in to the email associated with the account.

Set up an SMTP connection with Microsoft Office 365

We strongly recommend using our direct integration with Microsoft. Alternatively, you can set up an SMTP connection. You need to fulfill the following requirements:

Activate Authenticated SMTP in your Microsoft Office 365 account. For more information on activating Authenticated SMTP, refer to this Microsoft Exchange article.
Have a licensed Microsoft Office 365 mailbox to send emails. For more information, read this Microsoft Exchange article.
Use the following ports: Port 587 with TLS (recommended) or Port 25 with TLS. Check that your network doesn't block the ports.
SMTP server: To link Microsoft Office 365 with Personio via SMTP, use Client submission (smtp.office365.com). This option supports most usage scenarios and is the easiest to set up.

Note:
Direct sending and SMTP Relay: Personio is an application that sends emails as a third-party provider. As such, the connection with this Microsoft Office version isn't supported.

Step 3: Set up a connection for legal entities (optional)

The email settings you set up for the parent company automatically apply to legal entities. The legal entity uses the same email address as the parent company.

You can choose to use a separate email address for legal entities. This way, the email address of the legal entity appears as the sender. As before, you need to set up a connection.