Overview
To help with managing candidates at the top of the funnel, Gem Scheduling allows you to generate self-scheduling links that you can send using Sequences, or via messaging channels such as LinkedIn. Gem will automatically create applications for any prospects who book times via these links, move them to the corresponding job stages, and assign scorecards to the interviewers based on what's configured in the job’s Interview plan. This article will cover how to create and send smart scheduling links in Sequences, and also manually - for example in LinkedIn InMail, or other direct messages.
Requirements
- Your team must use Gem ATS.
- You must have admin access to set up Scheduling settings.
- Users must have access to their team’s shared scheduling calendar to send smart scheduling links.
Setup
Before you can start generating smart scheduling links, make sure you have the following set up:
- An active job. See Gem ATS: Create a Job for details of how to complete the job setup process.
- An interview stage enabled for scheduling. See Gem Scheduling: Configure a job for scheduling for details of how to enable a stage for scheduling. This stage should have the following configured:
- A scheduling calendar.
- A candidate calendar event.
- A Zoom host, if Zoom is enabled as a video conferencing tool.
- An interview, with at least one required interviewer.
- Access to your team’s shared scheduling calendar. Speak to a team admin if you’re not sure whether you have access to this or not.
Considerations
Please bear in mind the following considerations when using smart scheduling links:
- Smart scheduling links can be used to send self-schedule requests only - they are not compatible with availability requests.
- Interviews scheduled using a smart scheduling link automatically use the same scheduling settings and interviewer pools configured in the Interview plan for the job. This ensures your scheduling practices are consistent, and you don’t require any additional setup to use smart scheduling links.
- To ensure candidates are not accidentally sent the same scheduling request twice, Gem will intelligently suppress any existing scheduling automations when a candidate books an interview using a smart scheduling link.
- Applications created via smart scheduling links will have Gem Scheduling as the application source.
- Smart scheduling links are designed to supercharge initial screen scheduling for sourced candidates, but you can still generate self-scheduling links as normal for other situations, such as for inbound candidates.
Use smart scheduling links in Sequences
You can easily add a smart scheduling link into a Sequence so that any prospect who receives an email can follow the link and schedule an interview.
Follow these steps to add a smart scheduling link into a Sequence:
- Create a new Sequence as you would do normally (see our Creating Sequences article for more details of how to set up a sequence), or edit an existing Sequence.
- In any Email or InMail stage where you’d like to include a smart scheduling link, select scheduling_link from the list of tokens above the message editor.
- This will open an Insert smart scheduling link pop-up, where you can choose which job and interview you want the link to be associated with.
When editing a Sequence which is already associated with a particular job, only that job will be available to select at this point.
- Select the Job drop-down, and choose a job.
- Select the Interview drop-down and choose an interview. This will default to the first scheduling-enabled stage after Application review, but you can choose a different one if needed.
- Review the interview details, which will display on the pop-up once you’ve chosen a job and interview.
If you need to change any of the interview details or scheduling settings, you’ll need to update the interview itself.
- Edit the link text if needed.
- Select Insert link and the link text will now be visible in the body of the Sequence. Note that the
scheduling_linktoken can only be added into the body, not the subject line.
- Complete the rest of the Sequence as normal. When emails are sent, prospects or candidates will be able to select that link and schedule interviews for themselves.
Once a candidate has scheduled an interview using a smart scheduling link embedded in a Sequence, that Sequence and the relevant job are now linked. The job’s Sourcing page will include the Sequence, and no other jobs can now be connected to that Sequence. The sequence will also be automatically paused.
Use smart scheduling links elsewhere
If you want to use a smart scheduling link outside of a Sequence - for example in an existing conversation you’re having with a candidate - you can manually generate a link and send it to candidates however you prefer.
Before generating a smart scheduling link, make sure your job is set up as per the Setup section above.
Follow these steps to generate a smart scheduling link:
- Navigate to the Jobs page.
- Select the job you’d like to generate a link for, and go to the Interview plan section.
- Select the interview that you want to generate a link for.
- On the Editing interview pop-up, scroll down to the Scheduling details section.
- Under Smart scheduling link, select the Generate link button.
- Select the Copy button to copy the link once it’s been generated.
You can now send this link to any candidates who you’re already in conversation with, for example in LinkedIn, Indeed, or via email.
What does the candidate see?
When a candidate clicks on a smart scheduling link (via either a Sequence or a direct message), the process that follows is very close to what you would expect to see in the standard Self-scheduling workflow.
- When a candidate selects a smart scheduling link, they will be taken to a page containing a calendar, details of the interview, and some candidate information fields.
- Once the candidate selects a date, a list of available time slots will appear - calculated based on the interviewer’s working hours, time zone and availability that day, and the length of the interview.
- The candidate will need to provide their first and last names, email address and phone number. Gem will use these pieces of information to check whether the candidate already has a candidate record, and if not to create a new record for them (see the What happens next? section for more information on record creation).
- With a date and time selected, and the candidate information fields populated, the candidate then just needs to select the Schedule meeting button to confirm their interview.
- Once booked, the candidate will see a confirmation screen with details of their interview.
- The information provided under the Can I reschedule? and Can I cancel? drop-downs is dependent on what’s set under Booking preferences for the Self-schedule workflow settings. If the stage is configured to allow candidates to cancel and/or reschedule, expanding one of those drop-downs will reveal the option to cancel or reschedule.
See Gem Scheduling: Configure a job for scheduling for more information about how to adjust the settings for cancellations and rescheduling.
- The candidate will also receive a calendar event with details of the interview, and an email confirmation if scheduling confirmation emails are configured for this job.
What happens next?
When a candidate clicks on a smart scheduling link and schedules an interview, Gem will automatically check whether they have an application. This determines what happens next:
- If the candidate already has an application for the job in question, Gem will move them to the relevant stage and schedule the interview.
- If the candidate doesn’t have an application but does have a candidate record, Gem will create an application, move them to the relevant stage and schedule the interview.
- If the candidate doesn’t have a candidate record, Gem will create a new candidate record using the information provided on the self-scheduling page, then create an application, move the candidate to the relevant stage and schedule the interview.
If you look at the candidate record for a candidate who followed a smart scheduling link, the Activity Feed section will look something like this:
In this example, you can see that Gem has created an account for the candidate, added them to a job, and scheduled an interview.
Note that the candidate’s source is set as Gem Scheduling.
If you also check the candidate’s application, you will see that a scorecard has been automatically assigned.
Lastly, if you check the Talent pipeline section of the job, you’ll see that the candidate has been added into the correct stage and marked as Scheduled.
FAQs
See below for the answers to some commonly-asked questions regarding smart scheduling links.
What happens if a candidate clicks on a smart scheduling link when they already have an open application for that job?
They will be able to open the self-scheduling page, but will see an error message confirming that they already have an active application.
What happens if I have a scheduling automation enabled for the interview stage?
When a candidate books via a smart scheduling link, any automation that would normally apply when an interview is scheduled - such as automatically generating and sending a self-scheduling link - is ignored. This way, there’s no risk of candidates being sent multiple self-scheduling links.
Have any issues or questions on this topic? Please feel free to contact your dedicated Gem Customer Success Manager directly or our Support team at support@gem.com.