Set up the integration of your company calendar

This article explains how to integrate Personio with your company calendar using Personio's subcontractor Cronofy. It will explain the benefits of using a calendar integration, and detail the setup process and requirements.

Important information for a successful integration

Functionalities

The calendar integration with Cronofy offers different functionalities depending on the area.

Area

Functionality

HR Management

Absences entered in Personio are automatically transferred to your company calendar. Learn more about the Calendar Integration for Absences.

Note: It is currently not possible to transfer hourly absences through the calendar integration.

Recruiting

You can synchronize your employees' calendars and meeting room calendars with Personio. This allows you to see the availability of interview participants directly in the calendar when scheduling an interview. Learn more about Scheduling Interviews Using the Integrated Calendar.
You can set up your availability for interviews and send smart scheduling links that allow candidates to choose from available interview slots. Learn more about Smart Scheduling of Interviews.
You can also integrate videoconferencing products (such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.) with Personio to create links for video interviews directly in Personio. Learn how to Schedule Interviews Using the Integrated Calendar.

Notes
▶︎ When you activate the calendar integration, only the requested absence periods and recruiting interviews that take place after the activation will appear in your external company calendar.
▶︎ You cannot activate the transferal of absence periods or recruiting interviews separately.

Calendars available for integration

Personio currently supports integration with the following three calendars:

Google Apps
Microsoft Office 365 (this includes all versions of 2010, 2013, and 2016)
Microsoft Exchange (this includes all versions of 2010, 2013, and 2016)

Requirements

To integrate your company calendar with Personio, you need the following roles:

Personio Account Administrator: To accept Cronofy as a subcontractor, and to give the Company Calendar Administrator access rights to the Calendars settings page.
Company Calendar Administrator: To access the Calendars settings page in order to perform the setup.

Step 1: Check if the Cronofy checkbox is enabled

Personio's calendar integration integrates software from the subcontractor Cronofy B.V. To activate the integration of Personio with your company calendar, the Cronofy checkbox in the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) must be activated under Settings > Support > Plan & Billing. For more information about the compliance and security standards of the integration through Cronofy, see our frequently asked questions.

Step 2: Connect your company calendar

Once you have accepted Cronofy as a subcontractor, go to Settings > Integrations > Calendar integration, and choose which of the following calendars you want to integrate with Personio: Google Calendar, Office 365 (via Graph API), Office 365 (EWS), or Microsoft Exchange.

Note
You should give your Company Calendar Administrator access to the Calendar integration settings under Access Rights > Account Configuration > Calendars.

Google Calendar

Click Connect Google Calendar.
Install the Cronofy Google Workspace app on your GSuite domain. You can download the app here.
Tick the box to confirm you installed the Cronofy app on your Google Workspace domain.
Tick the box to agree to the Cronofy Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Click on Link Google Workspace Domain.
Authenticate with your Google Admin credentials.

For further information on connecting your company calendar to GSuite, please see the Cronofy documentation.

Office 365 (via Graph API)

For Office 365 there are two options to set up the integration, via Graph API or via EWS. Personio recommends using Graph API. Learn more about the differences between these integrations in What are the differences between EWS and Graph API?

Click Connect Office 365.
Tick the box to agree to the Cronofy Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Click on Link Office 365 Account.
Authenticate with Office 365 Admin credentials.

For more information, please visit Cronofy’s help center article Enterprise Connect for Exchange and Office 365 (Graph API).

Office 365 (EWS)

1. Create a Service Account (Company Calendar Administrator)

To connect to Office 365 via EWS (Exchange Web Services), you first need to create a Service Account in Office 365, that will be used to impersonate rooms or users when managing events. Learn How to set up a Service Account.

Notes
▶︎ The Service Account must have a mailbox assigned, which cannot be a shared mailbox.
▶︎ The Service Account must have a (fully paid) license assigned.

2. Assign the Impersonation Role to the Service Account (Company Calendar Administrator)

Once the Service Account is created, you need to assign it the Impersonation Role. This way, events can be created directly in the user's calendar. Learn How to set up the Application Impersonation.

Notes
▶︎ The Impersonation Role requires full access to the calendars of the domain.
▶︎ This role must be assigned to the Service Account.

3. Test the configuration (Company Calendar Administrator)

To confirm that the credentials and connectivity required for the integration are correct and available, test the configuration before connecting Office 365. Learn how to Test the Configuration.

4. Connect Office 365 (Company Calendar Administrator)

Once the Service Account has been created and the Impersonation Role is assigned to it correctly, go to Settings > Integrations > Calendar integration, and follow these steps to connect the calendar:

Click Connect Office 365.
Tick the box to agree to the Cronofy Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Click on Link Exchange Account.
Authenticate using the Service Account Email and Service Account Password.

For more information, please visit Cronofy’s Help Center article Enterprise Connect for Exchange and Office 365.

Microsoft Exchange

1. Create a Service Account (Company Calendar Administrator)

To connect to Microsoft Exchange, you first need to create a Service Account in Exchange, that will be used to impersonate rooms or users when managing events. Learn How to set up a Service Account.

Notes
▶︎ The Service Account must have a mailbox assigned, which cannot be a shared mailbox.
▶︎ The Service Account must have a (fully paid) license assigned.

2. Assign the Impersonation Role to the Service Account (Company Calendar Administrator)

Once the Service Account is created, you need to assign it the Impersonation Role. This way, events can be created directly in the user's calendar. Learn How to set up the Application Impersonation.

Notes
▶︎ The Impersonation Role requires full access to the calendars of the domain.
▶︎ This role must be assigned to the Service Account.

3. Test the configuration (Company Calendar Administrator)

To confirm that the credentials and connectivity required for the integration are correct and available, test the configuration before connecting Microsoft Exchange. Learn how to Test the Configuration.

4. Connect Microsoft Exchange (Company Calendar Administrator)

Click Connect Exchange.
Enter the Service Account Email and Service Account Password.
Enter the email you will use to impersonate (another email from the same domain, that the service account can access via the Impersonation Role).
Tick the box to agree to the Cronofy Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Click on Link Exchange Account.

For more information, please visit Cronofy’s help center article Enterprise Connect for Exchange and Office365.

Step 3: Finalize settings

In the area Interview Scheduling, you have the option to activate the checkbox Show titles of employees’ private events on the “Find a slot on calendar” feature (Optional). This allows the organizer of an interview to see the details of events marked as private in the calendars of employees who they would like to invite to the interview.

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

Synchronize employees and rooms

During the initial synchronization with the calendar provider, all current users and meeting rooms are authenticated. This process may take a few minutes. To check if all employees and rooms have been successfully synchronized, go to Settings > Integrations > Calendar integration.

Note
If you see error messages for unsuccessful synchronization of employees, take a look at the Prerequisites for employees to be synchronized. Otherwise, see the different errors and solutions in our article to Troubleshoot the Company Calendar Integration.

Prerequisites for employees to be synchronized

The following prerequisites must be met so that employees can be successfully synchronized with the company calendar and Personio:

Prerequisite	Example
The user's email address must already exist on the authenticated domain.	The company XY has integrated its calendars on its company domain XY.com. As a result, all users in XY with @xy.com email addresses are automatically authenticated. However, an external recruitment agent with the email address @hiringhelp.com would not be validated.
The employee must exist in the company calendar or have a company email address.	If a new user is added to Personio before their account has been created in the calendar application, you will receive an error message. In this case, the employee must be synchronized again after they have been added to the company domain. See Add new employees.
Only emails unique to one employee can be connected.	If an employee is using a shared inbox, you will receive an error message. The employee must have an email address unique to them in order to be synchronized.

Add new employees

When you add new employees to your company domain, they will automatically be authenticated in Personio. If any synchronization errors happen, you will receive an error message.

There are five different synchronization statuses of employees:

Status	Details	Tooltip displayed
Authenticating	The authentication process has started.	This may take some time. In case the status does not change, use the "Sync all employees" button to try syncing again.
Pending	The authentication is being checked.	The employee's calendar is still syncing. In case the status does not change, use the "Sync all employees" button to try syncing again.
Authenticated	The employee has been successfully authenticated and the employee's calendar has been synchronized.	-
Unavailable	The authentication was unsuccessful and the employee's calendar cannot be synchronized. If this error appears, take a look at our article Troubleshooting: Company Calendar Integration Setup.	A message from Cronofy will be displayed. or The employee's calendar could not be synced. Please try the troubleshooting article.
Error	An issue was encountered after a successful authorization. Please contact our support team via Help > Support and Updates > Find Answers.	Something went wrong. Please contact customer support.

To synchronize an individual employee or all employees again in Personio, go to Settings > Integrations > Calendar integration. The first accordion contains a list of employees that have not been synchronized. Click the down arrow to open the accordion.

To synchronize an individual employee, click the loop icon to the right of the employee’s name.
To synchronize all employees, click Sync all employees at the top right of the accordion.

Add new rooms

If you use Personio's Recruiting feature, you can easily add meeting rooms for scheduling interviews. An information icon confirms that meeting rooms have been successfully synchronized. If you add new rooms under your company's domain, you need to synchronize them manually with Personio.

To synchronize new rooms, go to Settings > Integrations > Calendar integration and click Sync all rooms.

Tip
For more information and FAQs, read Cronofy's guide on Connecting Organization Calendars.

Frequently asked questions

Below, you'll find answers to commonly asked questions about the calendar integration and, in particular, the handling of data privacy and GDPR compliance.

What is Cronofy?

Cronofy B.V. (Apollolaan 151, Amsterdam, 1077 AR, The Netherlands) is a subcontractor of Personio that provides a calendar synchronization service. Using Cronofy's calendar synchronization service allows you to integrate your company calendar with Personio.

What data is being accessed?

Cronofy will have access to all calendars, entries, and content. In particular, this includes email addresses, calendar entries, and content, as well as subject, place, time, and content of calendar invitations created by your employees via Personio.

Tip
▶︎ If it is possible that your employees store confidential or private information in their personal calendars (or in case this is explicitly authorized), we recommend informing them that after the calendar integration has been activated, third parties and, depending on the settings, selected employees of your company will have access to all contents of the calendars.
▶︎ Alternatively, we recommend that you avoid storing confidential or private information / appointments in your calendars. This is merely a recommendation and does not constitute legal advice.

GDPR compliance

Cronofy Amsterdam is based in the EU and processes the data exclusively on servers located in Germany. It is ISO27001 certified and has a SOC2 report available. For more information on Cronofy compliance and security, you can refer to Cronofy's documentation on Privacy and Security.

Data processing agreement (DPA)

As Cronofy is a Personio subcontractor, it is not necessary to conclude a separate DPA with them. Their service can be used under Personio's DPA as long as you accept Cronofy B.V. as a subprocessor of Personio. To do so, go to Settings > Support > Plan & Billing > Data processing agreement (DPA). Under Additional parts of the contract > Subcontractors, activate the checkbox next to Cronofy B.V..

Note Should you want to use Cronofy's features, then the data required for the provision of those services will be processed by the subcontractor Cronofy B.V. You can prevent this processing of data by opting out of the usage of those features.

Can I restrict or limit Cronofy's access to my data? (using Graph API)

Cronofy needs full access to your data to be able to create events. However, Graph API has fewer permissions and accesses only calendar data. You can further limit access to certain user groups by following this documentation.

Can I restrict or limit Cronofy's access to my data? (using Service Account)

Cronofy needs the write access to your data, to be able to create events. However, you can:

Why is free-busy access not enough?

Using free-busy access will prevent Personio from creating events directly into your calendars. As this is the core functionality of our feature (creating interview events and creating absences directly in Outlook) we need full access and therefore cannot restrict the access to free-busy. See here for more information on levels of access.

Are hybrid setups supported?

As it is only possible to connect one service account with Personio, hybrid setups usually cannot be supported. If your company has email inboxes in a hybrid environment (partly at Office 365 and the rest on an on-premises Exchange server) then the integration with Personio will not be possible, as this hybrid setup would require more than one service account to be connected.

How are absence periods displayed in calendars?

All absence periods are displayed per default as Out of Office. All calendar entries are displayed as Private. The name of the time-off period will never be shown, as this data is not transferred to Cronofy. Only the start and end date / time of an absence are sent to Cronofy.

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