Setting up shared calendars for interviews

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Available for Roles Super Admin, Admin, Team Member, Limited Team Member, Interviewer
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Packages Lever Basic, LeverTRM, LeverTRM for Enterprise

Shared calendars allow for greater flexibility when it comes to scheduling interviews across a recruiting team in addition to providing better visibility into interviews taking place at your organization.


Why use shared calendars to schedule interviews in Lever?

Users may find that they are unable to reschedule interviews that have been booked in Lever by another member of their organization because they do not have access to that person's calendar.

Scheduling window with modal indicating the user does not have access to the calendar on which they are attempting to reschedule the interview.

In this case, only the person that booked the interview will have the ability to reschedule it. Booking interviews using a shared calendar allows all users with access to that calendar to reschedule interviews as needed. This can save time when interviews are being coordinated by a recruiting team, in the event that an interview needs to be rescheduled and/or re-designated to another interviewer.

Lever supports shared calendars in both Google Calendar and Office 365. Instructions on how to set up a shared calendar in each of these platforms can be found below.

Setting up shared calendars in Google Calendar

 

In order for the shared calendar to connect correctly, you will need to create the shared calendar directly from your Google Calendar. This set-up does not require your organization's Google Apps administrator to create the shared calendar.

From your Google Calendar, click the + sign next to the Other calendars heading in the column on the left of the screen and click Create new calendar in the menu that appears.

Close up of calendar list in Google Calendar with plus sign highlighted on hover next to other calendars heading.

Input a title for the shared calendar and click the Create calendar button.

Name and description fields for new Google calendar being created, as well as Create calendar button beneath fields.

Next, click the title of the calendar you just created under the Settings for my calendars heading on the left side of the screen, and select the option to Share with specific people. Click the Add people button and input the email addresses of those that you wish to share the calendar with. In the Permission field, set the permission to Make changes and manage sharing and then click Send. 

Google Calendar settings menu with share with specific people option selected. Menu  expanded next to added users with permission options.

The calendar will now be listed under the My calendars header to the left of your Google Calendar. If you ever need to give additional users at your organization access to the shared calendar (or modify the permission level of a user that already has access), you can do so by hovering over it and clicking the icon to navigate back to the sharing settings.

Calendar list in Google calendar with menu expanded from one calendar and settings and sharing option highlighted on hover.

Once a shared calendar has been set up, users will need to re-sync their account permissions in Lever using the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Settings by clicking your avatar in the top-right corner of your screen and selecting Settings from the drop-down menu.

  2. Under the Permissions heading uncheck the boxes next to Contacts, Calendar, and EmailClick the Save Changes button that appears beneath the checklist and follow the authentication prompts.

  3. Once you have been directed back to your Lever Settings page, re-check the boxes next to Contacts, Calendar and Email and once again click the Save Changes button beneath the checklist. Follow the prompts to re-authenticate the sync.

Permissions section of My account page in Lever Settings.

If you do not see the Permissions section on your Settings page as described above, your organization may have arranged for this section to be hidden by default as a security measure. Please contact Lever Support to have the Permission section enabled on your account.

Setting up shared calendars in Office 365 or Microsoft Exchange

 

Sharing an Office 365 or Microsoft Exchange calendar with another user in your Lever environment will give them the ability to schedule interviews on your personal calendar, however they will not have the ability to reschedule interviews. Only interviews booked to a calendar associated with a shared mailbox can be rescheduled by users other than the person that booked the interview. For more details on this option, refer to the tip regarding shared mailboxes described below.

Individuals using Office 365 or Microsoft Exchange can simply grant others in their organization access to their Outlook calendar. The calendars that a user has access to will be reflected in Lever. This method for calendar sharing is feasible for smaller teams. Consider an example of a team consisting of 5 recruiters. Each member of the team could grant the other 4 members of their team access to their Outlook calendar.

From your Outlook calendar, click the Share button in the upper-right of the screen and select the calendar that you wish to share from the menu that appears.

Outlook calendar with Share button circled to the upper right of calendar grid.

Input the name or email of the person that you wish to share the calendar with in the search bar.

Sharing and permissions modal with individual's email address entered into user search field.

Open the menu to the right of that person's name, select the Delegate sharing permission and then click Share. Repeat as necessary for each individual that you wish to share the calendar with.

Menu expanded next to user added to calendar with Delegate option highlighted on hover in menu.

Once a user has been granted access to the calendar, they will receive an email to their Outlook mailbox notifying them that the calendar is being shared with them. The recipient must open this email in Outlook on a web browser, and click the Accept button in the email.

Calendar sharing invitation email in Outlook inbox.

They will then see the calendar list under the People's Calendar heading on the left side of their Outlook calendar. 

 

As a more efficient method for calendar sharing, larger teams using Office 365 may want to consider setting up a separate Outlook mailbox for their team and sharing access to the corresponding calendar. This method requires that every team member has access to the shared Outlook mailbox. Consider an example of a team consisting of 20+ recruiters. Each of the members of the team could have access to the shared mailbox (e.g. recruitment@outlook.com) and then each individual would be granted access to the calendar corresponding to that mailbox. 

 

Note that if a calendar has been shared using the methods described above, it will not be possible to schedule interviews with Microsoft Teams links on behalf of the user with which the calendar has been shared. Interviews booked with Teams links can only be scheduled by the owner of the corresponding Office 365 calendar. To learn more about booking interviews with Teams links, refer to our Microsoft Teams integration help article.

Once a shared calendar has been set up, users will need to re-sync their account permissions in Lever using the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Settings by clicking your avatar in the top-right corner of your screen and selecting Settings from the drop-down menu.
  2. Under the Permissions heading uncheck the boxes next to Contacts, Calendar, and EmailClick the Save Changes button that appears beneath the checklist and follow the authentication prompts.
  3. Once you have been directed back to your Lever Settings page, re-check the boxes next to Contacts, Calendar, and Email and once again click the Save Changes button beneath the checklist. Follow the prompts to re-authenticate the sync.

Permissions section of My account page of Lever Settings.

If you do not see the Permissions section on your Settings page as described above, your organization may have arranged for this section to be hidden by default as a security measure. Please contact Lever Support to have the Permission section enabled on your account.

Viewing invite responses to events on shared calendars

If you have set up a shared calendar in Google Calendar, you can use Lever's Interview RSVP functionality to view invite responses in both the Candidate pipeline view and on Candidate profiles.

Invite responses from Candidate pipeline view

Learn more about how to enable the Interview RSVP functionality and how it can be used to enhance your team's visibility into scheduled interviews.

 

The Interview RSVP functionality does not work with shared Office 365 calendars. We recommend that Office 365 users advise hiring managers and interviewers to contact them directly if they are unable to attend an interview they have been scheduled for.

Google Calendar users also have the alternative option of enabling event response notifications via the Settings for the shared calendar. You can do this by hovering over the shared calendar under the My calendars heading, clicking theicon and selecting Settings and sharing from the menu that appears.

Calendar list in Google calendar with menu expanded from one calendar and settings and sharing option highlighted on hover.

On the Settings page, select Other notifications from the menu on the left side of the screen and enable email notifications for event responses.

Menu on Google Calendar settings page with Other notifications header selected and Event Responses notification option configured to email.

 

To reduce the volume of emails in your inbox related to event responses, consider setting up a filter to deflect "Accepted" event responses.
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