An email template contains information about an email that should be sent to the candidate as a result of an event. You can link an email template to a specific stage for specific actions, such as confirming a schedule or requesting availability. This can greatly speed up your workflow since it eliminates the need to write out the email yourself every time you schedule a candidate. In this article we will talk you through how to create email templates, and explain what information you can include in them.
Creating email templates
You can create a Scheduling-related email template either from the Email templates page, when you’re configuring a stage for scheduling (in the Advanced settings for that stage), or when sending an availability or self-scheduling request.
There are three types of email templates relevant to Gem Scheduling:
- Scheduling confirmation
- Availability request
- Self-scheduling request
Each type has the same set of fields that can be configured - see the Template fields section below for full details.
Some useful information regarding email templates:
- We recommend creating email templates that you can reuse for multiple jobs and stages, using tokens (see the Template fields section) to automate the insertion of candidate-specific information.
- All of the details defined in a template will be used as defaults when you’re scheduling a candidate. If you want to customize the message for a specific candidate though, you can make edits when you’re scheduling them, and Gem Scheduling will only use those changes for that particular candidate.
- Emails are attributed to the name and email address of the person sending the email, and any replies will be sent to this email address.
The Email templates page
You can create, view or update any email template from the Email templates page.
By default this page displays a list of all the different types of email templates - if you scroll down to the bottom you’ll see the three Scheduling-related types:
Select the arrow next to any one of these types to see the list of available templates.
To create a new template, select the + New email template button at the top of the screen. This will open a ‘Create email template’ pop-up, where you can name the template and choose which type you’d like it to be (i.e. ‘Availability request’, ‘Self-scheduling request’ or ‘Scheduling confirmation’).
See the Template fields section below for details of the available fields to complete for any template.
Configuring a stage
When configuring an interview stage there are three places (depending on which Scheduling workflow(s) you’re using) within Advanced settings where you can select, edit or create new email templates. These places are:
- Scheduling preferences: Scheduling confirmation email
- Request availability workflow: Availability request email
- Self-schedule workflow: Self-scheduling request
For example:
There are two ways of creating a new template from any of these pages:
- Select an existing template from the Email template dropdown, then amend any of the fields and click Save as template.
- Leaving the dropdown as it is, create a new email from scratch then select Save as template.
See the Template fields section below for details of the available fields to complete for any template.
Sending availability or self-scheduling requests
When sending an availability or self-scheduling request, you can create a new email template in much the same way as when configuring an interview stage.
On the ‘Request availability’ or ‘Send self-schedule request’ screen, before you send the request you can review the message that will be sent to the candidate.
You have the same options here as before - to amend an existing template or create a new email from scratch. With either of those done, the Save as template button will become available, allowing you to save this particular email as a template.
Template fields
Every email template has a range of settings which you can configure when creating it.
Type (required)
The type of email template that you’re creating - i.e. ‘Availability request’, ‘Scheduling confirmation’ or ‘Self-scheduling request’ - which corresponds to the candidate touchpoint you’ll want to send it out after.
NOTE: When creating a template from the Templates page, you can choose which type you want it to be. For any other ways of creating a template, the Type will always be automatically set to match the relevant workflow (e.g. creating a template in the ‘Request availability’ section of a stage’s Advanced settings will always create an Availability request template.
The template Type determine which tokens are available to insert into the body of the email.
Once created, you can’t change the template Type of an email template.
Name (required)
The name of the template that will be visible in the Email Templates page, in the interview stage’s Advanced settings, and when scheduling interviews or sending availability/self-scheduling requests. This is not visible to candidates, so we recommend being as descriptive as possible for ease of future reference.
Subject (required)
The subject of the email sent to the candidate. You can use tokens in this field if needed (see below for more details).
Body (required)
The contents of the email, which you can format using the various options shown at the bottom of the Message body editor (e.g. bold/italic/underline, add a list, insert an image, etc.).
You can also add tokens into the body of your message, for example if you want to automatically insert the candidate’s name, the name of the job they’re applying for, the name of the interviewer, etc.
NOTE: For availability and self-scheduling request emails, make sure to include the {AvailabilityRequest.Link} or {SelfSchedulingRequest.Link} tokens.
For a full list of available tokens, see our Gem Scheduling: Available tokens article.
Attachments
Select the paperclip icon in the Message body editor to add attachments to the email - you can add up to four different attachments. The attachment file names will be visible to the candidate, so make sure they’re names you feel comfortable sharing.
Add Cc/Bcc
Use this option to send the email to additional addresses - either Cc if you want them to be visible to the candidate or Bcc if you don’t want them visible to the candidate (or included if a candidate replies to all).
You can include specific email addresses here, or choose a member of the hiring team by role (i.e. Coordinator, Hiring Manager, Recruiter or Sourcer).
- Creating email templates
- The Email templates page
- Configuring a stage
- Sending availability or self-scheduling requests
- Template fields
- Type (required)
- Name (required)
- Subject (required)
- Body (required)
- Attachments
- Add Cc/Bcc