Why HR Teams are Relying on Recruitment Chatbots

The process of communicating with hundreds of candidates one by one during a recruitment drive is costly, slow and leads to inconsistent responses.

Nearly 60% of job seekers reported having received a poor candidate experience while interacting with human resource (HR) professionals.

Leading companies have started using AI-based applications to make the recruitment process efficient, with recruitment chatbots emerging as a popular tool.

Recruitment chatbots automate the communication between recruiters and candidates, after candidates apply for jobs on a company’s careers page. These chatbots obtain the candidate’s contact information and ask basic questions about experience and background. They can also shortlist candidates for interview with minimal HR interference.

Although chatbots are not used widely for recruitment today, they will likely be an important part of the recruitment process in the future.

By 2022, 35% of organizations are expected to turn their job application process into a simple conversation by utilizing conversational user experience and natural language processing in the form of chatbots.

Let’s look at how chatbots resolve different recruitment challenges and save cost:

Challenge 1: Inefficient, slow screening leads to delay in recruitment process and increases cost

As delay in hiring activities results in higher spend on recruitment, the HR department likes to close the process quickly. The time required for hiring varies across industries. Hiring for some industries may take more than a few months owing to the unavailability of qualified candidates.

Resolution: Chatbot increases the productivity and efficiency of the recruitment process

Chatbots automate the recruiter's administrative tasks of qualifying and scheduling candidates. Additionally, bots better engage candidates, increasing the chances of targeting appropriate candidates from a limited talent pool and reducing the time to hire. With chatbots assessing candidates, the HR team can fulfil other important responsibilities.

Challenge 2: Poor and ineffective communication diminishes a candidate’s interest in the opportunity

HR teams often have a hard time engaging good candidates as they are frequently reached by different recruiters, making it harder for a recruiter to retain the candidate’s interest in the company. Also, candidates with hard-to-find aptitudes may consider multiple job offers simultaneously. Thus, recruiters have to make extra effort into persuading such candidates to choose their company over competitors.

Resolution: Chatbots can enhance candidate experience

The first impression of a company during the recruitment stage can make a huge impact on candidates. Recruitment chatbots help enhance candidate experience by engrossing them with just-in-time, instant communication.

Can chatbots replace human recruiters?

While there has been a considerable increase in the adoption of chatbots, it’s important to keep in mind that chatbot automation can only support human tasks but cannot replace them. 

As recruitment has been a more human-oriented line of work, human involvement will always be necessary. The whole purpose of adopting chatbots is to help humans automate a few repetitive tasks that are time-consuming and costly. Artificial intelligence, when used in tandem with human expertise and supervision, can provide the best results.