Smart Interview Scheduling makes it easier to find a suitable time for interviewers and candidates. Learn how to set up your personal calendar availability, send a link, and some best practices. 

Note
This feature is only available if you have integrated your company calendar (Google Calendar, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Exchange) with Personio. Learn how to set up the integration of your company calendar.

Set up your calendar availability

The dates and times appearing to candidates are a combination of your availabilities. It comes from your external calendar and your interview calendar (in Personal Settings). Candidates can only see the available dates for the next thirty-five days. Also, public holidays from your Personio Absence Calendar are not blocked in your external calendar. You need to block them manually.

To configure your availability for interviews in your personal calendar, follow these steps:

1. Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner and select Personal Settings.
2. In the left menu, go to Calendar availability.
3. Then select your weekly availability.

4. Times marked in green are set as available. Times in white are set as unavailable. Click times marked in green to deselect, and click times marked in white to select.

Send a Smart Scheduling link

To send a smart scheduling link to a candidate, follow these steps:

1. Go to Recruiting > Applications.
2. Enter the candidate's application and go to the Interviews tab.
3. Click Schedule Interview, select the interview type and the interviewers.
4. Click Set up a scheduling link to set a range of dates within which the candidate can choose from. You can also set a duration for the interview and add some buffer times. It avoids clashes and scheduling back-to-back interviews. 

5. Optional: select an email template under Automatic email confirmation. Once candidates pick a slot, they receive a confirmation with the interview details. If you do not have email templates, Personio will use a default template. The language of the automatic email depends on the job's default language. It is not possible to change it.

   
   
6. Then click Create link.
7. Configure the outstanding details, such as Interview method, Room, Evaluation form...
8. Then click Email candidate and select Insert scheduling link to insert the Smart Scheduling link into the email body. Learn how to create email templates. 
   
   
9. Click Send email. The interview status will show as Scheduling link sent.

Additional information about Smart Scheduling

When the candidate clicks on the link in the email, they see a list of days and time slots that they can choose from. The time slots visible to candidates depend on a combination of calendars. It is a merge of the availability of the participants' external calendar and their Personio calendar:

Time zones require manual updates. If no slots are available, participants must review their time zone in their calendar. To do so, they can go to their settings (Personal Settings > Calendar Availability).

Once they select a slot, the candidate and participants receive a confirmation email. The status of the interview will change to Scheduled. The email language depends on the job's language. Users cannot customize it.

If the candidates cannot find availability, they can select the option I can't do any of these days. The organizer then receives a task to resend a new link to the candidate.

Use case

Recruiter Sabrina Smith wants to schedule an interview with candidate Johanna Blume. Leon Brink, the team lead of the job, will also join. Sabrina and Leon have both updated their availabilities in the calendar in their Personal settings.

1. Sabrina creates an interview in Johanna's application, adding Leon as a participant. She sets up a scheduling link, sets zoom as the Interview method, and clicks Email candidate.

2. She creates the email with the scheduling link, and sends it to Johanna. The Interview status becomes Scheduling link sent. Sabrina's status is Attending. Johanna's and Leon's status is Awaiting response.

3. Johanna receives the email with the link, and selects May 12 at 11:30 for her interview.

4. Johanna, Sabrina, and Leon receive the confirmation email. It contains the link to the Zoom meeting and an ical attachment with the date and time. Sabrina and Leon also receive a link to the application in Personio.

5. Sabrina, Leon, and Johanna accept the ical attachment. They add the interview to their calendar. The Interview status becomes Scheduled. The status for Sabrina, Johanna and Leon is Attending.

Best practices