"Hi, can I help you get a job?"
Feeling anxious when searching for a job opportunity is natural, and moving through a grueling hiring process doesn't help those nerves. What does make it easier for candidates, however, is the use of specialized tools such as chatbots software that help create recruitment chatbots. These are built to automate tasks for recruiters and conversationalize the stages for recruits.
A major reason why recruitment chatbots are gaining popularity is that they work well with HR technology, such as applicant tracking software (ATS). These tools help manage the entire recruiting process, from job postings to scheduling interviews to building a centralized information source.
What is a recruitment chatbot?
A recruitment chatbot is an automated system for completing tasks such as scheduling interviews and collecting screening information. The chatbot works through pre-programmed responses, or artificial intelligence, without a human operator.
Most hiring managers view the candidate experience as very or extremely important; using a recruitment chatbot makes the hiring process easier, more cohesive, and streamlined.
Benefits of recruitment chatbots
Recruitment chatbots are an incredible tool just beginning to be utilized by recruiters and hiring managers.
Improves candidate experience
Every day, more and more people are becoming comfortable conversing with the robots around us. Consider how many people speak to Alexa, Siri, and Google daily to accomplish simple tasks.
As recruiters and hiring managers seek to improve their candidate experience, chatbots can make people more comfortable with the early stages of the application process. This will help recruit Millennials and Gen Z candidates who desire optimized communication methods and value ease and convenience.
70%
of candidates lose interest while submitting a job application if it takes more than 15 minutes to complete.
Source: Greenhouse
Streamlines administrative tasks
Recruitment and hiring managers must complete several administrative tasks in their roles. With the implementation of a recruitment chatbot, however, these tasks can be automated, freeing up bandwidth.
Common administrative tasks automated by chatbots:
- Scheduling in-person or phone interviews with human contacts
- Nurturing candidates who may have fallen off during the application process with reminders
- Collecting applicant information to funnel directly into an ATS
- Answering frequently asked questions about the role and application process
- Asking screening questions about candidate experience, knowledge, and skills
- Ranking candidates based on qualifications, engagement, or activity
Recruitment chatbots sometimes coordinate with recruiting automation software to create complete talent acquisition suites.
Saves time and money
Perhaps the most compelling case for recruitment chatbots is the ability to save your recruiting and HR team time and money. Recruitment chatbots are not designed to replace humans but quickly complete the sometimes overlooked recruitment tasks.
It’s estimated that a majority of resumes for a role are ignored. Chatbots can interact with this majority and do tasks that recruiters don’t necessarily have the time or capacity to complete. The chatbot can screen out unqualified candidates more quickly, so recruiter efforts are better focused.
Want to learn more about Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)? Explore Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) products.
Challenges with recruitment chatbots
No innovation is 100% perfect. While implementing chatbots can simplify hiring workflows and offer many possibilities, there are still challenges to overcome as technology evolves to meet future needs.
Lacks a human touch
Although a chatbot usually has a name and is a splendid greeter, there's still a lot of debate on how human a chatbot can truly be.
There's something to be said about how delightful talking to newer bots with some form of a personality and sense of humor can be. And for many industries, this is all a chatbot needs to be to improve user engagement.
However, recruiting is a hard-core human experience. When people apply for jobs, it is more often than not one of the most important decisions in their life. In situations like these, it is important to note that a recruitment chatbot can and will serve simply as a touchpoint for candidates and a medium for collecting qualifying information.
Uncertainties in language and reactions
Chatbots are extremely efficient in the sense that they can operate exactly the way they are programmed to. Additionally, recent technological advancements prove that chatbots can predict user behavior to some extent and respond accordingly.
Despite the customization abilities that chatbots possess today, there is no standardization regarding how people text, use emojis, and answer in short forms and slang. Human speech is variable, and predicting what and how someone will respond is difficult, a downside of many technological programs in recruitment, like resume parsing.
Another issue that chatbots have little to no control over is how job applicants respond to being met by a chatbot during the early hiring stages. Research says that most users rate chatbot interactions as positive but there is no guarantee over how users feel about trusting and connecting with a chatbot.
Let chatbots make your job easy
As everything around us becomes more automated, it’s only natural that we will find applications for this technology in recruitment.
Implementing recruitment chatbots is the first step toward streamlining hiring processes and creating a better candidate experience. Start building a cute little chatbot for your next talent pool today.
Interested in how technology is completely changing the world of talent acquisition? Learn about how virtual reality recruitment is taking hiring to a new dimension.
Derek Doeing
Derek is a former G2 content associate. He can usually be found discussing pop music, politics, or digital marketing on the internet. (he/him/his)
