Set Up Two-Way Email Communications

You set up two-way email messaging so that recruiters and the hiring team can have conversations with candidates using email.

Before you start

Enable Vanity Email

• Vanity email is a prerequisite for enabling two-way communication. We use a dedicated vanity email box to send emails to candidates and receive their replies. When you set up two-way email communications, you need to configure an email messaging provider so that the replies received from candidates can be read from the vanity email box and processed.
• Along with the vanity email, you must also set up the no-reply email, which will be used to send job alerts, campaign emails, and candidate verification emails (with PIN).
• When two-way communications is enabled, the vanity email and no-reply email are used to send emails to internal candidates as well.

• For two-way email communication to work, the work email must be set as the primary email in the employee's profile in Person Management. To do this, go to My Client Groups > Person Management and search for the employee. From the employee's profile photo, click the More Information menu, select Personal and Employment and then select Person. In the Communication Methods section, select Email Details from the Edit menu and set an existing work email address as primary, or add a work email address, if it doesn't already exist.

  This feature won’t work as intended if any other email, for example, home email, is set as the primary email.

Here's what to do

1. Create an Email Messaging Provider
2. Enable Two-Way Communication for Email
3. Create the Profile Option to Read Email Messages from a Given Start Date

Create an Email Messaging Provider

You need to create an email messaging provider and activate it. Only one email messaging provider can be active at a time.

You can set up an email messaging provider that's based on IMAP and uses Basic or Open Authentication. If you're a Microsoft Office 365 user, you can consider Microsoft Graph over IMAP.

Microsoft Graph Considerations

Moving to Microsoft Graph from IMAP has these advantages:

• The Microsoft Graph endpoint lets you access Outlook and many other Office 365 services. For more information, see this Microsoft documentation: Compare Microsoft Graph and Outlook Endpoints.
• Certificate security support is available for Microsoft Graph.
• Setting up Microsoft Graph also enables Microsoft 365 calendar integration, thereby making the process of scheduling interviews easier.

To set up Microsoft Office 365 as your email messaging provider using Microsoft Graph API, see the topic, Configure and Activate Microsoft Graph API as Your Email Messaging Provider.

Set Up Other Email Messaging Providers using IMAP

Before you start

• Set up SPF or DKIM or DMARC on the vanity email domain.
• Register the vanity email domain on Google Postmaster and Yahoo CFL (Consumer Feedback Loop).

For information on these steps, see the technical brief, Implementation of Google/Yahoo Email Sender Guidelines (Document ID 3053819.1) on My Oracle Support.

Here's what to do

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:
   • Offering: Recruiting and Candidate Experience
   • Functional Area: Recruiting and Candidate Experience Management
   • Task: Recruiting Messaging Configuration
2. On the Recruiting Messaging Configuration page, in the Email Communications section, click Add.
3. Enter a name and description.
   The user name of the active email messaging provider must be the same as the vanity email.
4. The vanity email box will increase in size over time. If you choose to delete emails after they're read, select the Delete read emails option.
5. Select an authentication type:
   • Basic Authentication
   • OAuth
6. Based on the authentication type you selected, enter the required info:
   • Basic Authentication: Capture the details from your email service provider: IMAP Server, IMAP Port, User Name, Password. Note: Basic authentication for Office 365 is deprecated. Therefore, use OAuth authentication.
   • OAuth: Email Provider, IMAP Server, IMAP Port, Grant Type, Scope, Tenant ID, Authentication URL, Client ID, Client Secret, User Name. To use the two-way email messaging capabilities with an Office 365 mailbox, you need to register an application in Azure AD and set up a service principal in Exchange to enable the application to access Exchange mailboxes via client credentials flow with the IMAP protocol. For details, see the technical brief Set Up OAuth for Office 365 Users (ID 2936718.1) available on My Oracle Support.
7. Click Check Connection to make sure that the configuration is properly done.
8. Click Save and Close.
9. On the Recruiting Messaging Configuration page, in the Email Messaging Providers list, find the provider you added and set it to Active.

Configure and Activate Microsoft Graph API as Your Email Messaging Provider

Using Microsoft Graph API integration, you can read candidate emails sent to a vanity mailbox that’s set up on Microsoft Office 365. This support is provided through open authentication using a client secret or client certificate-based credential.

To configure Microsoft Graph API, complete these prerequisites:

• Enable two-way email communications.
• Configure the vanity email.
• Enable the profile option IRC_2_WAY_EMAIL_LAST_SYNC_TIME.

Next, configure Microsoft Graph AI as your active email messaging provider by completing the steps below.

Configure Microsoft Azure Cloud

1. Set up a Microsoft Azure application.
2. Set up a vanity email with a mailbox on Microsoft Azure.
3. Set up SPF or DKIM or DMARC on the vanity email domain.
4. Register the vanity email domain on Google Postmaster and Yahoo CFL (Consumer Feedback Loop).
5. Configure Graph API in the Microsoft Azure application and update its access policy to prevent the application from accessing all mailboxes or user profiles.

For detailed instructions on configuring these prerequisites, see the technical brief Set Up Microsoft 365 Integration for Interview Scheduling and Emails (Document ID 2664168.1) on My Oracle Support.

For more information on steps 3 and 4 above, see the technical brief, Implementation of Google/Yahoo Email Sender Guidelines (Document ID 3053819.1) on My Oracle Support.

Configure Microsoft Graph API

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:
   • Offering: Recruiting and Candidate Experience
   • Functional Area: Recruiting and Candidate Experience Management
   • Task: Enterprise Recruiting and Candidate Experience Information
2. Expand the Microsoft Graph Integration section and click Edit.
3. Select Enable Email Integration.
4. To reuse the Azure application details that have been configured for calendar integration, select the Use same authentication configuration as calender integration checkbox. To use a different configuration, complete these fields:
   • Default User Identifier or Email: This must be the same as the vanity email. If you enter the default user identifier, it should be associated with the same email as the vanity email.
   • Application ID: Enter the client ID used in Azure.
   • Tenant ID: Enter the unique identifier used for the Azure Active Directory instance in your organization.
   • Application Authentication Type: If you select Client Secret, provide the application password. If you select Certificate, upload the certificate file and provide the certificate password.
5. Select the Delete read emails checkbox if you want the read emails to be automatically deleted. This ensures that the inbox isn’t full and all incoming emails are received.
6. Click Validate Integration to ensure Graph API is configured correctly.

7. Click Save.

Activate Microsoft Graph API as the Email Messaging Provider

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:
   • Offering: Recruiting and Candidate Experience
   • Functional Area: Recruiting and Candidate Experience Management
   • Task: Recruiting Messaging Configuration
2. Expand the Email Communications section.
3. In the Email Messaging Providers section, you'll see Microsoft Graph Integration added. From the Actions menu (shown as three dots) next to it, select Activate.

Note that you can’t add any other email provider with the same name as Microsoft Graph Integration.

Enable Two-Way Communication for Email

You enable two-way communication for email and decide if you want to enable it for external candidates, internal candidates, or both.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:
   • Offering: Recruiting and Candidate Experience
   • Functional Area: Recruiting and Candidate Experience Management
   • Task: Recruiting Messaging Configuration
2. On the Recruiting Messaging Configuration page, select these options:
   • Enable Two-Way Email Communications with External Candidates if you want to enable two-way messaging with external candidates.
   • Enable Two-Way Email Communications with Internal Candidates if you want to enable two-way messaging with internal candidates.
     Note: When you enable two-way email communications for internal candidates, email notifications related to recruiting will no longer appear in the worklist notification on the global header.

Create the Profile Option to Read Email Messages from a Given Start Date

You need to create a profile option called IRC_2_WAY_EMAIL_LAST_SYNC_TIME to read email messages from a given start date. It represents the last time the email messages are read and processed by Recruiting.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, click the Tasks icon.
2. Click Search.
3. On the Search page, search for the task Manage Profile Options.
4. Click the task name.
5. On the Manage Profile Options page, click the Create icon.
6. On the Create Profile Option page, create the profile option by entering these values:
   • Profile Option Code: IRC_2_WAY_EMAIL_LAST_SYNC_TIME
   • Profile Display Name: 2-Way Email Last Sync Time
   • Application: Recruiting
   • Module: Recruiting Common
   • Description: Define the last sync time for the two-way email communication feature.
   • Start Date: Today's date
7. Click Save and Close.
8. You're back on the Manage Profile Options page and the profile option IRC_2_WAY_EMAIL_LAST_SYNC_TIME is displayed. You need to enable the profile option at the Site level.
9. On the Manage Profile Options page, go to the Profile Option Levels section.
10. Set the profile option to be enabled and updatable at the Site level.
11. Click Save and Close.
12. You need to set profile value for the profile option IRC_2_WAY_EMAIL_LAST_SYNC_TIME to define from when the email messages are to be read.
13. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, click the Tasks icon.
14. Click Search.
15. Click the Search icon.
16. On the Search page, search for the task Manage Administrator Profile Values.
17. Click the task name.
18. On the Manage Administrator Profile Values page, search for the profile option code IRC_2_WAY_EMAIL_LAST_SYNC_TIME.
19. Set the profile value to yesterday's date, that is Current date - 1. Use the UTC date and time in standard ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.
    Note: If you don’t set a value for this profile option, it’ll be set to a default value of 7 days before the current date. If you haven’t created a profile option, then the default value can’t be set and emails won’t be processed.
20. Click Save and Close.

Configure Notifications for Candidate Replies to Automated Emails

When candidates reply to automated emails that are sent from a vanity email, you can now configure who from the hiring team should be notified about it.

Using this configuration, you can't notify hiring team members when candidates reply to:

• Auto-generated emails that are sent from a no-reply email. Hiring team members have to access the no-reply mailbox to see the candidate replies.
• Any emails that aren't auto-generated (that is, emails composed manually by hiring team members). Hiring team members have to access the Messages tab to see the candidate replies.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:
   • Setup: Recruiting and Candidate Experience
   • Functional Area: Recruiting and Candidate Experience Management
   • Task: Recruiting Messaging Configuration
2. In the Hiring Team Notification for Replies to Automated Emails section, click Edit.
3. Select the respective check boxes to notify either recruiters or hiring managers or both. By default, both check boxes are selected. If the email was sent in the context of a candidate pool, the pool owners are also notified.
   Let’s say you select both hiring managers and recruiters to receive the email replies. After the candidate sends their first reply, let’s say you change the configuration to notify only hiring managers and not recruiters. When the candidate sends subsequent replies to that same email thread, this configuration change won’t impact the earlier recipients’ list. Both hiring manages and recruiters will continue to receive the replies for the existing conversations.