As the world of recruitment becomes more and more competitive, organizations are turning to chatbots to help them automate and streamline their hiring process. Chatbots are a valuable cost-effective tool for recruiting, but only if they are properly designed and implemented. By automating the process, you can save time and increase efficiency. In this article, we will walk you through the steps to create a successful recruitment chatbot.
In this Article:
What is a recruitment chatbot?
A recruitment chatbot is a conversational AI platform that automates the recruitment process by streamlining job seeking, candidate screening and interview scheduling. It uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to answer questions, screen candidates, collect information and rank them according to their qualifications. Recruitment chatbots can be used via email, SMS text, social media solutions, and other messaging applications.
Many time-consuming recruitment tasks are made difficult by repetition, eating up a recruiter’s valuable time. Recruiters spend more than 80 percent of their time on activities that don’t contribute much value. These chatbots were designed specifically for human resources to help save time and money, as well as improve the experience for those applying.
Organizations are now looking for different ways to hire employees rather than today’s common manual practices. With chatbots being such an easily accessible asset that quickly improves business efficiency and productivity, they have become the perfect assistant for busy recruiters. Gartner, Inc. predicts that in the future 25 percent of digital workers will use a virtual employee assistant (VEA) daily.
7 Steps to create a recruitment chatbot
To create a successful recruitment chatbot, follow these steps:
1. Define the purpose of your chatbot
Before you begin building your chatbot, it is important to define its purpose. What do you want your chatbot to achieve? Do you want it to help candidates self-schedule interviews? Do you want it to answer frequently asked questions about your company or the hiring process? Once you have a clear idea of the chatbot’s purpose, you can begin planning its features.
2. Choose a messaging platform
There are several different messaging platforms that you can use to build your chatbot, including Facebook Messenger, Slack, and Telegram. Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, so it is important to choose one that will best meet the needs of your chatbot.
3. Build a flowchart
Once you have chosen a messaging platform, you will need to build a flowchart that outlines the conversation flow of your chatbot. This will help you to determine what sorts of questions your chatbot will need to be able to answer and what sort of information it will need to be able to provide.
4. Write the script for your chatbot
Once you have built a flowchart, you can begin writing the script for your chatbot. This is where you will determine what sorts of things your chatbot will say in response to various questions or statements. It is important to keep in mind the personality of your chatbot when writing the script; you want the chatbot’s responses to come across as natural and human as possible.
5. Choose a name for your chatbot
Choosing a name for your chatbot is an important step in making it feel like a real person. The name should be easy to remember and pronounce, as well as be relevant to the chatbot’s purpose. For example, if your chatbot is designed to help schedule interviews, you might name it “Interview Scheduler.”
6. Find an icon or image for your chatbot
Your chatbot will also need an icon or image that will be used when people interact with it on the messaging platform. This icon should be easily recognizable and associated with your brand or company.
7. Test your chatbot
Before launching your chatbot, it is important to test it thoroughly on the messaging platform to ensure that it is functioning properly. You can do this by asking friends or family members to interact with the chatbot on the platform and provide feedback on its performance. You can also use tools such as Botometer to test whether or not your chatbot is passing the Turing test—that is, whether or not humans can tell that it is not a real person.
The best chatbots for recruiting
With so many HR technology providers on the market, it can be difficult to understand who offers what services, how they differ from one another, and which talent acquisition problems they can solve.
There are six most talked about recruiting assistants on the market today: HireVue Hiring Assistant, Ideal, Mya, Olivia, Watson, and Xor. All of these companies offer similar solutions – for example, nearly all of them have screening and scheduling functionality (except Watson). They all support a few (or more) languages; however, the bulk of them are using machine translation tools like Google Translate. The companies that are developing their multi-lingual support to be more localized and colloquial are HireVue Hiring Assistant and Mya.
What is the best way to use recruitment chatbots?
The best way to use a recruitment chatbot during the hiring process is to integrate it into your career site, job boards, and job postings. This will make the recruitment process easier for job seekers and give them a better candidate experience by allowing them to have their questions answered quickly by the bot. The recruiting bot can also simulate human conversation, helping you engage with candidates on a more personal level.
Identify your needs to be a successful email recruiter with a great user base
When selecting a recruiting chatbot, make sure it meets your needs by considering the industry you’re in and the size of your recruiting team. You should also consider the type of job seekers you wish to engage with, as well as any specific candidate experience goals you may have.
Know what features are important
When it comes to selecting a recruitment chatbot, consider what features are essential for your recruiting process. Common features include candidate pre-screening, job posting integration, scheduling interviews and providing answers to frequently asked questions. Other features such as natural language processing, machine learning and artificial intelligence can help improve the candidate experience.
Evaluate the chatbot’s capabilities
When evaluating a recruitment chatbot, make sure to assess its capabilities and features. It should have the ability to answer questions accurately and simulate human conversation. Be sure to evaluate how easily candidates can access their application status, as well as how quickly the recruiting team can locate qualified candidates.
Consider the costs associated with using a chatbot
The costs associated with using a recruitment chatbot can vary, depending on the features and capabilities offered. It is important to consider both upfront and ongoing costs, as well as any additional fees that may be charged for using certain features or services.
Ensure the chatbot has the right platform
Make sure that the recruitment chatbot you select is compatible with the platform you’re using. For example, if you’re using Google Assistant as your recruiting tool, make sure the chatbot has the necessary capabilities to work with it.
Examples of how companies are using chatbots for recruitment
Visit nearly every famous website (e.g. restaurant, healthcare telecommunication consultancy startup, financial services), and you’ll interact with a chatbot. The interaction is usually via text messaging or a web-based chatbot to get an immediate response from employers. This interaction in real-time can help to get an interview on-site or in certain situations like job interviews.
How can a recruiting chatbot benefit you?
By using this technology in your recruitment process, you can reduce recruitment costs, save time and increase candidate engagement. A recruiting chatbot also helps to automate administrative tasks such as scheduling interviews and pre-screening candidates, which can help your recruiting team focus on more important tasks.
Candidates are comfortable interacting with a chatbot
Candidates are comfortable interacting with a chatbot as it feels like they are having a human conversation. This helps them to build relationships with the recruiting team, which is beneficial for both sides.
As more and more people use Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant in their everyday lives, chatbots are becoming increasingly popular in the recruiting process. They can help to improve the overall experience for job seekers and give recruiters more time and resources to focus on building relationships with candidates.
Helps recruiters with administrative tasks
Recruitment chatbots can help to automate administrative tasks such as scheduling interviews and pre-screening candidates. This helps recruiters to save time while keeping track of the application process. Furthermore, recruitment chatbots can provide a more personalized experience for job seekers by answering their questions in natural language processing.
Enables recruiting teams to source qualified candidates
Recruitment chatbots can also help recruiting teams source qualified candidates and pre-qualify them. By using machine learning, it can rank candidate profiles based on their qualifications and helps to create a talent pool of potential hires.
Improves the overall candidate experience
Hiring chatbots helps to provide a more personalized experience by simulating human conversation and building relationships with job seekers. In addition, it can help to reduce recruiting costs and save time for both employers and job seekers.
Reduces bias in the recruiting process
In addition to these benefits, recruitment chatbots can also help to reduce bias in hiring decisions. Automating certain tasks such as scheduling interviews and collecting information about applicants can help to ensure that all candidates are treated fairly.
Demonstrating a modern and engaging company culture
Recruitment chatbots also demonstrate a modern and engaging company culture. By using this technology, you can show job seekers that you are up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies, which is likely to increase applicant conversions.
Experiencing a tangible return on investment (ROI)
Chatbots can help you to experience a quick and tangible return on investment (ROI). Automating certain tasks such as scheduling interviews and collecting information about applicants can help to reduce recruitment costs and save time for both employers and job seekers. In addition, they can also provide a more personalized experience for job seekers, which is likely to increase applicant conversions.
Challenges of using recruiting chatbots
There is no standard way of texting
The vast array of human texting styles, from slang to emojis to short-form, creates significant challenges for chatbot programmers. Natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms have to be trained in many ways to identify the different styles of communication.
Lack of human interaction
Recruiting chatbots are great for automating tasks, but it’s important to remember that they cannot replace the human recruiter. Recruiting processes need both a personalized approach and a human conversation to be successful.
High cost of implementation
Implementing chatbots in talent acquisition can be an expensive process, as they require customization and integration with existing tools and job boards. This can be a costly long-term investment, and it’s important to consider whether the return on investment is worth it. Chatbots need to be programmed with a range of responses to simulate a conversation, and this can take a significant amount of time and effort.
Limited functionality
Another challenge of using chatbots is that they can have limited functionality. For example, chatbots are not able to read body language or understand the tone of voice, which can make it difficult for them to accurately gauge a candidate’s suitability for a role.
May give false impressions
Finally, another challenge associated with using chatbots is that they may give false impressions about a business. For example, if a chatbot is unable to answer a job seeker, this could give the impression that the business is disorganized or does not care about its candidates.
What’s Next?
With too many job boards and not enough applicants, companies are desperately looking for the most talented individuals they can find. To optimize your recruitment strategy and appeal to the top-choice candidates, you need an applicant experience that is positive no matter the outcome.
The recruitment process is the first impression potential employees will have of your company. If you manage to frustrate them during this stage, they aren’t likely to want to work for you. Employer branding and a positive image have never been more important as quality experiences are becoming valued above all else—by customers and employees.
Chatbots are a great solution for helping companies to streamline the recruitment process. Recruiting chatbots helps you to hire better candidates by adding a “human touch” back into the process. They offer an easy way to engage candidates and provide a frustration-free experience from the very first point of contact with your company. While doing all this, recruiting chatbots also assess applicant quality in real-time so that only the best talent reaches the final stages of the hiring process.
Though some may fear that bots are here to take our jobs, they are designed to help us out. If you’re not careful, your competition will soon surpass you; resumes in the form of chatbots are becoming more and more popular. So, don’t miss out on this opportunity. Consider using a recruitment chatbot to simplify the process and get talent in the door faster.
Would you consider using a recruitment chatbot? We would love to hear your opinion!
