Smart chatbots prove that there is no shortage of talent when you know how to personalize recruiting. It all starts with a conversation, especially when it comes to recruiting. Communication plays a central role in the selection and hiring of candidates. In many companies and organizations, chatbots are often the first point of contact. Chatbots in recruiting have gained immense importance. Chatbots keep getting better and smarter. As a matter of fact, 73% of applicants couldn’t tell they were interacting with a chatbot when contacting companies to ask basic questions about their applications. The future of chatbots in the recruitment process is key to the survival and growth of all organizations.
What Are Recruitment Chatbots?
Ideal.com defines recruitment chatbots or ‘conversational agents’ as software applications designed to mimic human conversational abilities during the recruiting process. Much like virtual personal assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant, a recruitment chatbot uses AI technology such as natural language processing (NLP) to understand a person’s messages and respond to them.
A chatbot can be used within various forms of communication such as:
– SMS
– Email
– Social Media Profiles
– Messaging Apps
– Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
Chatbots are setting a new trend in the recruiting industry to handle time-consuming or repetitive administrative tasks effortlessly. Some of the functions they provide are resume parsing, filtering applicants for screening, answering FAQ’s and providing real-time updates. According to the Randstad Talent Trends survey, 84% of C-suite and HR executives believe that AI will have an impact on the workplace in the next 3 – 5 years.
What Are the Benefits of Using a Chatbot in the Recruitment Process?
Chatbots greatly improve the candidate experience
Chatbots are capable of responding to queries instantly. They can also answer several questions with no sign of impatience. This provides candidates with a great user experience as their questions are answered immediately. By eliminating the “black hole”, candidates have a better understanding of the process and their future employer.
Chatbots can handle administrative tasks effortlessly
Using a pre-compiled list of questions, chatbots can collect initial candidate information. You can screen candidates based on questions about their experience, skills, and qualifications. A chatbot can answer candidate inquiries pertaining to their application status, scheduled interviews, and carry out other routine administrative duties.
Reduces costs and time-to-hire
With so many responsibilities on a recruiter’s shoulders, there may not be time to hire potential candidates and build relationships. Chatbots can make this challenge easier by taking on several of these tasks. For example, it can process candidate inquiries and schedule interviews. They can also be adapted to conduct preliminary interviews and qualify candidates. This, in turn, can increase recruiters’ productivity.
Some additional benefits of chatbots are as follows:
• 24/7 availability
• Processes several requests from many applicants at the same time
• Engages candidates throughout the entire process
• Improves the brand value
• Smart and automated workflows
How Can Your Organization Leverage Chatbots in the Recruiting Process?
Chatbots Can Help Candidates With Their Queries
Candidates can ask the chatbot various questions regarding the company policies, application status, etc. A chatbot can also help with questions about the company or if anything is unclear about the application process. The conversational way in which candidates can ask questions to the chatbot makes research much more convenient than sifting through FAQs on complicated websites.
Chatbots Can Assist the Candidate Through the Application Process
With the chatbot by the candidate’s side, it can assist the candidate while submitting the required documents, help with the document upload, and also forward specific documents to the respective point of contact as per the rules set by the chatbot admin.
Chatbots Can Eliminate Human Bias
Hiring managers and recruiters can inadvertently introduce an element of unconscious bias into the recruiting process. Such a bias can cost a tremendous amount when you lose some talented candidates. Chatbots can eliminate human prejudice and help build a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Chatbots Can Be Used to Provide Real-Time Updates
As per a study, 65% of applicants said they rarely or never receive any information about their application. Chatbots can provide real-time responses and provide candidates with alerts to ensure that their candidates do not enter an information black hole.
Chatbots Are a Great Employer Branding Tool
Using a recruiting chatbot to communicate and interact with applicants can help ensure that the company is recognized as innovative and responsive when it comes to recruiting compared to peers. Some companies up their branding game by adding a unique personality to their chatbot. They align the chatbot and its interactions with their corporate values and culture to leave a powerful recall value in the candidate’s minds.
Conclusion
With the opportunities that AI brings with it, companies can achieve further levels of advancement overall. In turn, hiring and evaluating chatbots can be an incredible help for HR managers in managing essential recruitment functions. The chatbots can answer the most common questions and help applicants secure positions that match their profiles.
However, since the development of AI-based chatbots is still in its infancy, it brings with it certain intricacies. Often, applicants look for human cooperation during the hiring cycle that bots cannot fulfill. In addition, there is always a risk to data protection, since chatbots transmit a great deal of individual information.
Intelion Systems provides AI-powered solutions to ease up your recruitment process. Get in touch with us today to learn about AETIUS, our powerful AI recruitment software.
