This article explains how to create customized email templates in Personio. Create any number of user-defined email templates, for example, for the automatic acknowledgment of incoming emails, the rejection of an application, or the invitation to an interview. Using email templates will save time, effort and ensure that the communication with candidates is consistent across the entire company.
Create email templates
To create a new email template, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings > Recruiting > Recruiting > Email templates.
- In the text field Add a new email template, insert the title you want to give your template, and click Save.
- Enter the subject line and body of the email. To personalize the communication with your candidates, use the option to Insert placeholders and Gender split.
▶︎ Placeholders are used to automatically populate the message with the corresponding candidate data. Learn more about the different placeholders below.
▶︎ Gender split is used if you want the software to make gender-specific (grammatical) adjustments in your emails automatically. This only works if you have added the candidate system attribute for Gender to the application form of your Personio Career Page. Note that the male gender variable by default is listed first. - You can add an attachment to the message if needed. To do so, drag and drop files or upload a new document. You can attach further documents when emailing candidates.
- Click Apply changes.
Note
All employees who will be sending emails to candidates from within Personio, should configure an email signature. The individual signatures are added automatically to both free-form emails and to messages that have been created from email templates. Learn more about Setting Up an Email Signature.
Use placeholders
Placeholders are used to automatically populate the message with the corresponding candidate data. The following placeholders can be inserted in the template:
General placeholders
| Placeholder | Description |
| {{first_name}} | The candidate's first name. |
| {{last_name}} | The candidate's last name. |
| {{position_name}} | The name of the advertised position. |
Note
When creating email templates, placeholders should always be typed in manually into the template (instead of copying and pasting) to avoid errors and wrong formatting.
Interview placeholders
These placeholders can only be used in messages that are created and sent from the interview tab. Otherwise, the system cannot determine which date or weekday for example to insert, as this is then not linked to a specific interview.
| Placeholder | Description |
| {{interview_date}} | The scheduled date of the interview. |
| {{interview_weekday}} | The scheduled weekday of the interview. Example: Friday |
| {{interview_time}} | The scheduled time of the interview. |
| {{interview_participants}} | The first and last names of the interviewers. Example: John Doe and Jane Doe |
| {{interview_participants_with_job_title}} | The first and last names of the interviewers, and their respective job titles. Example: John Doe (Marketing Manager) and Jane Doe (CEO) |
| {{interview_video_conferencing_link}} | The link to the videoconference (if configured). |
| {{smart_interview_scheduling_link}} | The link for the smart scheduling of the interview (if configured). |
Note
For interview placeholders, the inserted language is always taken from the position's default language.
Example
You have created a position with English as the default language. You receive an application from a German candidate and send an interview invite using a German template that contains interview placeholders for the weekday, etc. The email that will be sent to the candidate will be in German, but the weekday will be inserted in English.
Insert HTML-formatted content into emails
When creating emails and email templates, you can add HTML-formatted content, including images.
To, for example, insert an existing email signature into the template, follow these steps:
| Step | Screenshot |
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1. Copy the contents from the existing email signature. |
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| 2. Go to your email template, and insert the copied content into the email body, either via right-click or using Ctrl+V. |  |
3. Then click on More text  , and select Code View <>. Now you can edit your content's HTML code. |
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For more information on using templates when sending messages to a candidate, take a look at our article How to send recruiting messages.