Occy enables you to choose how interviews are scheduled using automatic and manual events scheduling.

In the automatic configuration, anyone can schedule an event at any time within the working hours you have set in Occy, provided that there are no existing events in your calendar. This could be candidates choosing an interview slot, for example. Learn how to set your working hours here.

Manual configuration allows users to create more precise windows for scheduled events by creating specific timeslots within the calendar connected to your occy account; these slots will then be used to determine availability when scheduling interviews. Events will only be able to be scheduled in these timeslots. To learn how to connect your calendar, click here.

Accessing Calendar Settings

Choose between automatic and manual event scheduling in the Calendar section of settings by clicking Settings in the main menu, then My Account and then Calendar, and scrolling to the Schedule Events section.

Automatic Events Scheduling

Choosing the automatic option will allow anyone to schedule an event at any time within your set working hours. If you have your calendar synced, it will show available slots within the working hours set in occy and the times available in your calendar. When you select Automatic, the Working Hours option will appear.

For more information on setting your working hours, follow Setting your working hours.

Manual Events Scheduling

Choosing the manual option will show the Slots section. Here, you will see an overview of available, partially available, and booked interview timeslots.

To learn how to create slots within your work calendar, click here.

How to Schedule an Interview

There are two ways to schedule an interview with a candidate - by sending an interview invite directly from the candidate profile or by creating an automation event in a job pipeline or workflow to send invites to candidates placed in a specific stage. Find step-by-step guides for both below.

Scheduling Interviews from the Candidate Profile

Select the Candidate

• Click into the candidate profile from within a job or from the Candidates section and select the Schedule Meeting icon.

Configure the Interview Details

Start by configuring the interview details:

• Add a title for the interview.
• Choose whether you would like the interview to be conducted by all the listed interviewers (by selecting Full Panel) or by a single interviewer from the list of interviewers (by selecting Single Interviewer).

Note: The Full Panel option means all interviewers listed must have availability within their working hours or slots for an interview slot to be available to the candidate. The Single Interviewer option provides slots from each interviewer's availability individually, and allocates interviews to individual interviewers evenly to balance their workloads. The Single Interviewer option increases slot availability and flexibility within your team by showing and allocating interview slots for interviewers who are available, even if other interviewers have no availability.

• Select team members who will make up the interview panel from the Team Members dropdown menu.
• Choose whether the interview will be in person or remote. If the interview is in person, you will be prompted to select a location from an additional dropdown menu; this list will consist of the saved locations from the Company Settings area - to find out more, click here.
• Add a short note to the candidate. Interview invites are sent as a link within an email or SMS template, so the note section can be used to include any requirements or specific information regarding the interview, but it is optional as communication will also be sent via email or SMS.
• Select whether to send a specific interview timeslot to the candidate or a range of slots for the candidate to choose from.
• Then, click Next.

Select the Interview Time & Date

Now it's time to select the interview time:

• Choose a date or date range.
• Add the meeting duration. 
• If you have chosen to send a specific slot, select the time of the interview.
• Ensure the time zone is correct and click Next.

Send the Interview Invite

The final step is to choose how to send the interview invite:

• Choose whether to send the interview invite via email, SMS, or both.
• Select an email or SMS template from the list or write the text in the message body box. 

Note: The Interview Invite shortcode will provide the link for candidates to confirm their interview slot and must remain in the message.

• Optional - Attach a file to send to the candidate with the interview invite.
• Click Done to send the invite.

Details of the interview can be found in the Interviews tab of the candidate profile.

Creating an Interview Invite Automation

Interview invite automations can be added to pipeline templates in the Settings area or workflows within specific jobs. This ensures all candidates added to a specific stage within a job will be sent an interview invite. For a refresher on workflow automations, click here.

The following steps will guide you through adding an automation to the Workflow section of a job; to add automations when creating or editing a pipeline template, click the Workflow button at the top of the pipeline (full guidance can be found in the Pipeline Templates article).

See the full process in the demo or read the steps below:

Add the Automation

• Get started by navigating to the Workflow tab within the job.
• Choose the stage in which candidates must be moved to to receive an interview invite, click More Events, and Send Interview Invite.

• Choose whether you would like the interview to be conducted by all the listed interviewers (by selecting Full Panel) or by a single interviewer from the list of interviewers (by selecting Single Interviewer).

Note: The Full Panel option means all interviewers listed must have availability within their working hours or slots for an interview slot to be available to the candidate. The Single Interviewer option provides slots from each interviewer's availability individually, and allocates interviews to individual interviewers evenly to balance their workloads. The Single Interviewer option increases slot availability and flexibility within your team by showing and allocating interview slots for interviewers who are available, even if other interviewers have no availability.

• Next, add an interview title, select the roles that will be interviewing candidates (e.g. Interviewer, Hiring Manager, Recruiter), and add a note to be sent to the candidate if required; remember, the interview invite link will be sent via email, so that some text will be seen there, too.
•  Select a meeting type. If the interview is in person, you will be prompted to select a location from an additional dropdown menu; this list will consist of the saved locations from the Company Settings area - to find out more, click here.

Configure the Interview Options

• Now configure the interview slots. In the example below, we have chosen to send the candidate three days' worth of interview slots to choose from; this time period will start from when the candidate is moved to the stage and sent the interview invite.
• Choose how long the interview will last to allow occy to send interview timeslots that fit into your schedule without conflicting with other commitments.

Add an Email Template

• Select an email template or add text to the message body section. Make sure to include the [INTERVIEW_INVITE] shortcode to ensure candidates can schedule and confirm an interview slot.
• Finally, click Add to add the interview invite automation.

• The interview invite automation will appear in the stage in the Workflow tab.

Why Is an Available Slot Not Visible?

At times when there is an existing entry in your calendar, candidates and team members will not be able to schedule you for events and interviews. If you have created a slot that is not showing in an interview invite, check these troubleshooting tips:

• Make sure that there are no all-day events scheduled on the day your slot is scheduled.
• If a slot is not available but there is no visible conflict in the calendar, this could be due to an event occurrence being previously removed from the calendar, which is a reoccurring event.

Additional Note: If an event has been removed from an Outlook or Google calendar but is still showing in the occy calendar, click into the event in the occy calendar and then exit out of it and the event will disappear.

Interview Reminders

The Interview Reminder feature in occy enables you to keep regular contact with candidates scheduled for an interview, ensuring they do not miss the slot and building a relationship and positive image for your company without the extra admin work. 

Enabling Interview Reminders allows occy to automatically send interview reminders to candidates across all jobs via SMS or email with variable time options available. 

Learn more in the guidance below or this demo:

Before Enabling Interview Reminders

Before you can start scheduling interviews, you need to connect and sync your calendar with the interview scheduling tool. This ensures that your availability is accurately reflected and avoids scheduling conflicts. For a reminder on how to do this, click here.

occy also gives you the option to send email reminders, SMS reminders, or both if you would prefer. Please ensure that you have created the email and SMS reminder templates that you would like to use. Remember, there is a wide range of shortcodes available to personalise your message, including candidate name, job title, interview date, time, location, and interviewer's name. 

For a recap on how to create templates, check out our email and SMS Knowledge Base articles.

How to Enable Interview Reminders

• From your dashboard, navigate to Settings>Job Settings>Interview Reminders.
• Use the toggle to enable or disable interview reminders across the platform.

Note: As this feature applies to all jobs and cannot be attached to specific ones, this feature can only be enabled by Recruiters and Admins.

• Next, select whether you would like to send reminders via email, SMS, or both and select the relevant template to send to candidates from the dropdown menu.

Now it's time to configure the reminder settings. In the Reminder Set Up section, users can choose from two options:

• Using the first option, users can create a reminder timeline by selecting times from the dropdown menu; reminders will be sent to candidates at this set time (or times) before the interview.

• Using the second option, users can use the dropdown menu to configure reminders to be sent at specific intervals starting on a chosen date before the interview.

• Once configured, remember to click Save to activate interview reminders.
• Interview reminders can be turned off using the toggle.