How to enable Outlook calendar meetings in Appraisd for all users

N.B. This feature is currently undergoing beta testing and will be released fully shortly. You may encounter teething issues until fully released.

If your organisation uses Outlook or Teams calendars, the Outlook calendar integration with Appraisd will make it easier for managers and team-members to book a meeting in their calendar from within Appraisd. You can also ask for a Teams call to be added to the meeting invitation.

What does the feature do?

• Every employee will see a "Schedule review meeting" button on their reviews and check-ins. Their manager will see the same.
• Clicking on the button will open a calendar booking screen that shows the availability for the review participants. Employees can choose a slot, add details, add a Teams call and save it, issuing the meeting invitation to all participants in the review.
• Admins can use the Reviews report to see the calendar meeting date and time for each review. Make sure you enable the "Review meeting date" column when looking at this report.

How to turn on and authorise the integration for everyone

1. Go to Configuration>Labs and find the setting "Enable Outlook calendar integration". 
   
2. Click the Sign in with Microsoft button which will open a new window where you'll be asked by Microsoft to authorise Appraisd to access your calendar. If you're a Microsoft admin with permissions to approve new Entra apps it will look a bit like this:
   
   You must give consent on behalf of your whole organisation for the Outlook app to work.
   
   If you don't have the requisite permissions to approve the app you don't see this option above, then we recommend you use this page to send a request to your IT admin who can give consent on behalf of everyone. Note: not all organisations allow users to make requests in this way in which case you'll need to contact them separately.
   
   
   If you can only consent for yourself, you must instead contact your IT admin who can consent for the whole organisation before continuing. 
   
   Your admin should ensure that they accept all permissions for the Appraisd Outlook enterprise app so that it looks like the below in Microsoft Entra's Enterprise Applications:
   
   
   

   Ensure that all the permissions listed in the screenshot above are granted on an account wide level BEFORE continuing to with this guide.

3. Once you, or your admin approves the request, you should then come back to this setting and press the login with Microsoft button once more where you'll then be greeted by a success message and can turn on the setting for your account.
   
   Note: I suggest asking a colleague to try the Outlook sync (both accessing their calendar in Appraisd and creating a meeting) to ensure permissions have been granted account wide by you/your IT admin.
   
   

How to book a meeting once you've authorised the integration

1. Once you've given authorisation, and have clicked on a "Schedule review meeting" button, you should see a calendar schedule pop open similar to this:
   
   
   
   
2. Choose a slot, add any extra detail you'd like to (including adding a Teams call if you'll be doing this remotely). Press Save.
3. A meeting will now appear in your Outlook or Teams calendar and also in your team-member / manager's calendar. The meeting in your calendar will also include a link back to the relevant Appraisd review or check-in so you can get back to it easily. It will look similar to this: