This article describes how to schedule interviews using Personio’s integrated calendar. To do so, first ensure that your admin has activated the synchronization with your company calendar so that you can use Personio’s integrated calendar. For further information, read Set up the integration of your company calendar.

Create an interview

To create an interview with the integrated calendar, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Recruiting > Applications.
2. Enter the candidate's application and click on the Interviews tab.
3. Select New interview and choose an interview type.
   Learn more about how to Configure Interview Types.
4. Select the participants (interviewers and organizer). If you as the organizer would also like to see the scheduled interview in your calendar, please add yourself as a participant.
   

   
   Tip Although the organizer does not necessarily have to participate in the interview, they must already be defined as the person responsible for the job. Each participant needs to be assigned a recruiting role to define the rights they are granted by being invited to the interview. Learn more about Step 7: Defining Recruiting Roles.

5. Now click on Find a slot in the calendar to schedule the interview using Personio’s integrated calendar. Learn more about the calendar view.
   

   
   Note At least one participant must be selected before the button becomes active. 

6. In the calendar, you can switch between a weekly view or a daily view to get more details on busy calendars. Then select a time slot via drag-and-drop, choose a room if required, and click Select slot.
   

   
   Note If an interviewer's calendar is not authenticated, you will see a ⚠️ next to their name.

7. Under Interview method, you can select if the interview will take place in person, via phone, or via an integrated videoconferencing provider (Google Meet, Zoom, MS Teams, or GoToMeeting). Learn more about Setting up videoconferencing for Interviews.
   

   
   Notes
   ▶︎ Videoconferencing options only become available if the selected Interview-Host is an authenticated user of the videoconferencing provider.
   ▶︎ A user can only host one videoconference at a time.

8. In case you have configured evaluation forms, you can select one from the drop-down menu and set up a reminder for the interviewers to receive automatic email notifications to remind them of this task. Find more information in Step 4: Creating Evaluation Forms.
9. Then select Invite interviewers.
   An interview event is created in the calendar of all interviewers via the Personio calendar API. This allows the selected room to be booked at the same time. Any notes added to the interview in Personio are also added to the calendar event. In case you created a video interview, the calendar event will contain a link to the video conference.
   

Once the interview is scheduled, you can send the invitation to the candidate. Learn more about How to send recruiting messages.

Tip If you prefer candidates to choose their own date and time for the interview from a list of options, you can send them a Smart Scheduling link. Learn more about Smart Interview Scheduling.

Understand the calendar view in Personio

The calendar view shows events which have been entered for the selected employees and rooms. The employees and rooms the events relate to are flagged in different colors.

The following flags assist you in navigating the view:

• Employee absences are shown as Personio absences. The absence type is not indicated, though.
• Events with a duration of over 24 hours are shown at the very top of the relevant day.
• The current day is marked with a blue line at the top of the day, and the current time is indicated by another blue line.
• If an interviewer's calendar is not integrated, you will see a ⚠️ next to their name.
• Public holidays are indicated above the calendar.

Note Public holidays from your Personio Absence Calendar are not blocked in your external calendar. To prevent candidates from scheduling interviews on public holidays, you need to block these dates manually.

The calendar view provides the following functionalities:

• Click on the < > arrows to navigate between weeks (or days if you are in the Day view)
• Select a Room from the drop-down menu.
• Click on Day for better visibility of suitable time slots.
• To enter a new event, click on the required time, and select the appropriate duration by dragging the cursor to the planned end of the event.
• The selected time and room will then be added to the planned interview.

Interview status

The scheduled interview will appear in the Interview tab, containing the status Scheduled, Completed, or Canceled. An icon will indicate the Interview method (zoom, Google Meet, etc.). The time of the interview will be based on the host's timezone, and the timezone will be indicated in brackets next to it. If you have created a videoconference, the link to access the videoconference will appear. To cancel the interview, click Cancel this interview. Interviewers and candidates will be informed of the cancellation.

Once an interview has been created, the following status responses can be shown in the scheduled interview as well as the company calendar:

Note
The candidate status is not displayed when scheduling interviews with the integrated calendar. 

What calendar information is displayed in Personio?

In Personio, data from the interview participants' calendars is shown when using the Find a slot in the calendar feature.

• All public events are shown with details. Individual access rights in the calendar's settings are not considered by the integration.
• All private events in an employee's calendar are displayed as busy.
  
  

  Note
  In the calendar integration, you have the option to tick the box to show private event details, in which case the title of the event will be displayed. To do this, navigate to Settings > Integrations > Calendar integration and check the box underneath Interview scheduling.

Refer to our frequently asked questions for more information about the calendar integration and the handling of data privacy and GDPR compliance.

What interview information is displayed in the company calendar?

Note
Once an interview is scheduled, two separate calendar events are created: an internal event is created in the company calendar for the internal participants who are organizing the interview, and a separate event is created in the candidate's personal calendar whereby the candidate is the only participant.

All interviews created are private. This means that only internal participants of the interview can view the details in their calendars. Other colleagues from the company cannot see any information. See below for an overview of what calendar items are visible to whom.

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