Gem Scheduling allows you to send self-scheduling links to candidates, either individually or in bulk, so that they can book their own one-on-one interviews. When you send a candidate this link, they can select from a list of possible slots to book themselves in for their interview, saving you time by eliminating the back-and-forth of collecting availability from the candidate in order to schedule them. In this article we will take you through the steps required to send a self-scheduling link to a candidate.
Prior setup
Before sending a self-scheduling link, you’ll want to make sure everything is set up first.
Firstly, while it’s not required, we recommend you configure your company branding so that the page that candidates see will have your company’s logo and colors.
Secondly, you’ll need to configure a stage for self-scheduling. Doing this in advance will save you time in the long run, because it sets up defaults for all self-scheduling links you send out for that stage. You can still customize individual self-scheduling emails when you send them, if you need to tailor them to specific candidates.
Getting to the self-scheduling workflow
With everything configured, you’re ready to start sending out self-scheduling links. Once you’ve enabled a stage for scheduling, all unscheduled candidates currently in that stage will have a status of Needs scheduling in their candidate records and in the talent pipeline.
In the Scheduling Queue or the candidate record, unscheduled candidates will be labelled as Ready to schedule or Ready to request availability (depending on the default scheduling workflow for each job).
From here, if the job stage that the candidate is being scheduled for is set with self-scheduling as the default workflow, the scheduling button to the right of their name will default to Self-schedule. If not, but you still want to send a self-scheduling link, you can select the down arrow and then choose Self-schedule from the dropdown. Either way, selecting this will take you into the self-scheduling workflow.
For a video walkthrough of the self-scheduling workflow, watch Gem Scheduling How-to: Self-schedule requests.
Self-scheduling link workflow
The ‘Send self-schedule request’ pop-up contains some basic information about the interview, and the default wording for the self-schedule request email that will go out to the candidate (based on the template you created when configuring the stage).
The appropriate interviewer (based on the settings you chose when configuring the stage) will automatically be imported at this point. If you need to modify this for a specific candidate, you can do so via the Advanced settings button.
In order for this pop-up to display you need to have fully configured the job, with these four elements completed: interview duration, at least one interviewer, a self-schedule request email, a confirmation email (if used). If one or more of those elements has not been completed, you will instead be taken to an ‘Advanced Settings’ page which contains all of the self-scheduling options, so you can complete everything there before sending the request.
If you need to change anything at this point, you can still do that. You can edit the email that the candidate will receive (either manually editing it, or selecting a different template) right from this pop-up, or if you need to amend anything else you can click the Advanced settings button to see all of the available information that can be edited (see our Gem Scheduling: Configure a job for scheduling article for details of these settings).
When you’re happy that everything is configured correctly, you can either select the Save & generate link button to send the link to the candidate manually (without generating an automated email), or the Send self-schedule request button to send the email.
With the self-schedule request email sent, you’ll see a confirmation page which includes the self-schedule link in case you want to save that for future reference.
From here you can either return to the Scheduling Queue, or go to the candidate’s profile.
From the candidate profile you can see that the interview stage has been updated with some self-scheduling information, including:
- Details of when the self-schedule request was made.
- Interview status, which will display Self-schedule requested until the candidate has completed the self-scheduling process.
- The self-scheduling link, in case you want to share that manually.
- Details of the interviewer pool.
- Automation details, confirming whether automation is on or not and, if enabled, when a reminder will be sent (if required) to the candidate.
Bulk self-scheduling
If you want to send self-scheduling links to multiple candidates who are all in the same interview stage, you can do that by self-scheduling in bulk.
For a video walkthrough of bulk self-scheduling, watch from the 2 minutes 40 seconds mark of Gem Scheduling How-to: Automations & Bulk-self-scheduling.
In the Scheduling Queue, you can use the Select option next to a candidate’s name to add them to a selection, then continue to do this until you’ve selected all of the candidates who you would like to self-schedule.
With at least one candidate selected, you’ll see the Bulk self-schedule button appear at the top of the page, alongside a note displaying the number of candidates currently selected. Once you’ve selected all of the candidates that you want to self-schedule, select this button to open the ‘Bulk self-schedule’ page.
The maximum number of candidates that you can bulk self-schedule is 35.
From this point onwards, the workflow is essentially the same as when sending an individual self-scheduling link. The ‘Bulk self-schedule’ page clearly shows how many candidates are being self-scheduled, and what interview you’re self-scheduling them for.
From here you also have the opportunity to amend any of the relevant details - event details, interviewers, the message to candidates, the confirmation email, etc.
When you’re happy with everything on this page, select the Bulk send scheduling links button to send the self-scheduling emails.
What does the candidate see?
When you send a self-schedule request email, the candidate will receive an email based on the template you chose, including a link to click to make their selection. Here’s an example of what that email might look like:
When the candidate clicks the link in their email, they will be taken to a page with a calendar and a range of time slot options, depending on the availability of the interviewers in the interview pool.
Here the candidate can look through all of the available dates, and select a time slot for their interview. When they confirm this, they will see confirmation of the time slot they selected, as well as information about rescheduling or cancelling the interview if required. At this point the candidate can cancel or reschedule from this page if they realise they have made a mistake.
Additionally, the candidate will then be sent a calendar invite and a confirmation email, with details of the time slot they selected.
What do you see once a candidate self-schedules?
When a candidate completes the self-scheduling process, you will also receive an email confirming the details of what they have booked.
In addition, if you look at the candidate’s profile you will see that the scheduling status has now been updated to Scheduled, and that the interview stage now contains details of when the interview is scheduled for.
If the candidate reschedules or cancels their interview, you will receive emails confirming those details too.
- Prior setup
- Getting to the self-scheduling workflow
- Self-scheduling link workflow
- Bulk self-scheduling
- What does the candidate see?
- What do you see once a candidate self-schedules?