How Can Recruiters Get The Most Out Of Chatbots?
Recruitment chatbots are conversational interface platforms that assist with different recruitment-oriented processes, such as initial screenings or gathering information from candidates. They can simply use a plain script, but modern chatbots equipped with NLP (natural language processing) and NLU (natural language understanding) capabilities can understand written and spoken languages to successfully mimic people’s conversational abilities.
AI-powered chatbots can handle complex conversations and respond naturally thanks to the wide sets of data that they can learn from. Although there is powerful technology behind chatbots, they can still be easy to use and to set up. All of that makes them perfect companions for busy recruiters.
As the talent pool continues to tighten and thousands of vacancies remain unfilled, recruiters face new challenges to attract highly skilled candidates. Furthermore, job seekers expect a smooth recruitment process that is even similar to the customer experience and other interactions they have on a daily basis.
Regardless of the result of the hiring process, everyone needs clear communication and information flow. Yet, way too many people never hear back from a company after applying for a job. Candidates blame recruiters for that, but the reality for the majority of HR departments is a high number of applications and a constant time pressure. Besides, the recruitment process is full of manual and redundant tasks that in an ideal situation would be performed by an assistant, but this is not a common situation.
Fortunately, technology comes to the rescue, and a growing number of recruiters now take advantage of chatbots. These virtual assistants have become extraordinarily popular, especially in sales and delivering customer experience, but they’re steadily paving their way into other industries too, including HR.
In short, recruitment chatbots are conversational interface platforms that assist with different recruitment-oriented processes, such as initial screenings or gathering information from candidates.
They can simply use a plain script, but modern chatbots equipped with NLP (natural language processing) and NLU (natural language understanding) capabilities can understand written and spoken languages to successfully mimic people’s conversational abilities. AI-powered chatbots can handle complex conversations and respond naturally thanks to the wide sets of data that they can learn from. Although there is powerful technology behind chatbots, they can still be easy to use and to set up. All of that makes them perfect companions for busy recruiters.
In addition, candidates also have many reasons to appreciate chatbots. They improve and fasten communication and are available for questions 24/7, which is essential for candidates who complete the application process outside their business hours. Chatbots can significantly cut the time between submitting an application and a successful hire, which is a win-win for both candidates and recruiters.
The benefits of chatbots in recruiting
Automating repetitive tasks
First of all, recruitment chatbots can be extremely efficient virtual personal assistants that handle various tasks, including:
- Gathering necessary information and documents from candidates, such as their contact information, cover letter, CV, letters of recommendation, etc.
- Asking screening questions about previous professional experience, skills and education.
- Scheduling face-to-face or phone interviews.
- Answering frequently asked questions.
- Informing candidates about the results of the recruitment process.
Given that recruiters can receive even a few hundred applications for one position, automating these tasks is a game-changer in HR.
Meeting the needs of candidates
Probably the two most common pain points of candidates are poor communication and a lengthy recruitment process. Chatbots are one of the best ways to solve this issue and the fact that a company uses them doesn’t have to be hidden from the candidates. On the contrary, a growing number of job seekers understands that recruiters deal with a massive volume of applications and that they take advantage of technology.
People who are used to voice assistants like Siri or Alexa and chatbots in customer service won’t be surprised by encountering a chatbot in the recruitment process, instead they’ll likely appreciate its speed and efficiency. At the end of the day, it’s the candidate’s experience that matters most.
Chatbots are time-savers
Chatbots are available 24/7 and able to handle thousands of conversations concurrently, which significantly reduces the time spent on the recruitment process, for both candidates and recruiters. The numbers speak for themselves: the recruitment process, on average, takes 42 days and costs $4,129.
Additionally, a chatbot can automate up to 80% of the top-of-funnel recruiting activities. It doesn't only mean that the recruitment processes can be faster, but, importantly, that recruiters are finally able to deal with candidates and tasks they didn't have time and resources for previously.
How to use chatbots in recruitment
Screening applications
Once a candidate applies on a corporate website, a chatbot can turn on and initiate a conversation. Just like a recruiter, a chatbot can ask about professional experience, projects and education, and then for sending additional documents such as diplomas or letters of reference from previous employers. After the conversation, a chatbot can compare the candidate information with the job requirements and initially decide whether the candidate may be a good fit or not at this time.
Scheduling interviews
After the initial screening, the next step for the selected candidates is usually a phone or a face-to-face interview. This is also a perfect task for a chatbot, which can ask the candidate for availability, check the hiring manager’s calendar and pick the best time slot much faster than an exchange of emails between a candidate and a recruiter.
Answering queries
As we’ve already mentioned, one of the biggest advantages of chatbots is their uninterrupted availability and the possibility to handle thousands of conversations simultaneously. However, to ensure a smooth candidate experience, communication with a chatbot needs to be natural, relevant and high quality in general. It shouldn’t be handled by a simple binary chatbot but a more advanced one that is able to mimic a conversation between 2 people.
Job alerts
Automated job alerts are usually sent by email. However, the average email open rate is 14%, which means that lots of job alerts remain unnoticed. Instant messengers have a much higher open rate, and they’re slowly replacing email as the first written communication channel.
Enhancing Facebook Careers Page
Facebook has become a popular tool to find candidates. In fact, lots of employers claim they've found employees who encountered a job opening through social media, specifically on the Facebook Careers Page.
It shouldn’t be surprising since the vast majority of people interact with brands on social media. Why shouldn’t they do that when they’re looking for a job? By integrating a Messenger Recruitment Chatbot, candidates who are interested in the position can instantly get more information and even apply without leaving the page.
As you can see, chatbots and conversational AI have every potential to revolutionize HR and recruitment. They can significantly reduce the time between applying for a job and a successful hire, provide candidates with better information more quickly, and schedule interviews in a snap.
In addition, it’s important to stress that rumours of chatbots replacing recruiters are highly exaggerated. Instead, chatbots can be perfect virtual assistants in various recruitment processes, making them faster and more efficient. What’s crucial is that chatbots can improve the hiring experience of both candidates and recruiters.
Originally published at Chatbotize: How recruiters can get the most out of chatbots?