Manual event scheduling allows you to create timeslots within your work calendar using a specific format which links the slots to occy, giving you full control over your availability for candidate interviews.

This demo and article takes you through the steps to create slots in a Google or Microsoft Outlook calendar.

For more information on the difference between manual and automatic scheduling, follow Scheduling Events.

How to Select Manual Scheduling

To use manual event scheduling, you must first sync your work calendar with occy. For a reminder on how to sync your calendar, click here.

• Navigate to the Calendar section by selecting Settings from the main menu, then My Account and Calendar.

• Next, scroll to the Schedule Events section and choose Manual Scheduling.

The Slots section will appear at the bottom of the page. After adding slots to your calendar, you can see an overview of available, partially available, and booked slots.

How to Create Slots in a Microsoft Outlook Calendar

Get started by copying the job reference number for the job that you would like to create interview slots for; this can be done in two ways:

• By using the copy icon next to the end of the reference number next to the job title from the list in the Jobs section.

• Using the Copy button next to the job title within the job.

• Next, select New Appointment from the top of your Microsoft Outlook calendar.

• To create a slot that can be recognised by occy, specific information must be added to the title. The format should be occy-job ID-reference text, for example, occy-01HZEKT9RMBAQM39FV3X8KPT5T-First Interview .
• Then, add the start and end time and date for your timeslot and click Save & Close. 

Note: When adding a time and date, make sure to check for conflicting appointments, as this may cause the slot to show as unavailable.

Users can now select an interview timeslot from this appointment time range.

How to Create Slots in a Google Calendar

Get started by copying the job reference number for that job that you would like to create interview slots for; this can be done in two ways:

• By using the copy icon next to the end of the reference number next to the job title from the list in the Jobs section.

• Using the Copy button next to the job title within the job.

• Next, click Create and Appointment Schedule in your Google calendar.

• Then, add a title. To create a slot that can be recognised by occy, specific information must be added to the title. The format should be occy-job ID-reference text, for example, occy-01HZEKT9RMBAQM39FV3X8KPT5T-First Interview.
• Next, choose the slot duration duration from the dropdown menu and the date and time in the Availability section.
• Click Next.

Note: When adding a time and date, make sure to check for conflicting appointments, as this may cause the slot to show as unavailable.

• Choose whether to add a location and description and click Save.

Users can now select an interview timeslot from this appointment time range.

Refreshing Your Calendar to View Slots

Once you have added slots to your work calendar, refresh your occy calendar to view the slots in your calendar and the Slots section of the Calendar page.

Note: If manually refreshing the calendar, the system will process the request once every 20 minutes. This means that if you refresh the calendar, and then refresh again after ten minutes, the second refresh request will not process until twenty minutes after the last successful calendar refresh. 

This can be done in two ways:

• Using the Refresh button in the Calendar section of the Settings area.

• Using the Refresh button in the main Calendar section found in the main menu.

After refreshing your calendar sync, you may need to refresh your internet tab to ensure your slots are updated with the new calendar appointment.

Below is an example of the Slots section after slots are added to you calendar:

• Green dots indicate days with available slots
• Amber dots indicate days with partially-booked slots, for example, if a candidate has chosen a 30 minute interview slot from the 1-hour slot created in your calendar.
• Red dots indicate days where all slots have been selected.
• Grey dots indicate days with no slots assigned to them.

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.