The value of chatbots in recruitment, and other AI tools

Content Team

The use of chatbots in recruitment and other AI tools is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.

According to LinkedIn’s 2018 Global Recruiting Trends report, 35 percent of talent professionals say AI is the top trend in hiring.

Chatbots in recruitment

Many companies use AI chatbots to boost communication, answer questions, improve candidate matching, and even bolster employee engagement after hire.

While many hiring managers and recruiters are figuring out how to incorporate AI, the majority are not losing sleep that AI recruiting tools are going to replace them. According to the report, only 15 percent of hiring professionals think AI tools will make their work obsolete.

The value of AI recruiting technology lies mostly in the early stages of the hiring funnel, as well as in scheduling and clerical tasks. By taking on many of these time-consuming, yet important hiring touch points, many believe AI is enriching later, people-to-people interactions. Discover some of the top ways AI chatbots and hiring tools improve recruiting.

Chatbots in recruitment make communication 24/7…

Prospective job candidates want immediate answers. Yet hiring managers and recruiters need time off, and even large-scale, global companies don’t have the available staff to answer questions around the clock. Enter the AI chatbot. These ‘automated conversation agents’ can handle many of the early questions candidates have about available jobs and the skills required for particular jobs.

In the fall of 2017, for example, Marriott launched MC, a Marriott Careers chatbot for job seekers available through Facebook messenger. By asking questions of the chatbot, people can find out if Marriott jobs that fall in their skill set are available in their geographic area. They can also ask questions about the culture at different organizations within the brand.1 Most importantly, they can do it when they are commuting home from a job they are considering leaving, or over the weekend. When people can’t get fast, simple answers about a job opportunity, they tend to move on. This is especially true of highly-prized passive candidates.

…They also reduce the resumé pile

Newer AI chatbot technologies can help with the initial culling of resumés, so people without ‘must-have’ skills don’t wind up in the mix. The Mya chatbot launched by FirstJob, for example, can analyze applications for specific skills and ask applicants to expand on their experience. Mya and other chatbots can guide candidates through questions normally found within online applications, forms that are often left incomplete. These chatbots can follow up with applicants and encourage them to finish, as well as rank them based on their engagement levels.

Chatbots in recruitment keep candidates engaged…

Candidates often rank poor communication as their primary frustration after they’ve applied for a position, completed an interview, and even between job offer and on-boarding. AI chatbots can schedule second interviews, explain next steps, answer questions, and keep talent up to date on their hiring status. Companies are much less likely to lose candidates to offers from other organizations when they keep them in the loop.

… They can also read people

AI technology is also being used during video interviews to analyze the applicant’s facial expressions and word choices. The technology can determine levels of interest and engagement in the candidate’s face during the conversation, and pick out words that indicate qualities such as commitment, positivity, and flexibility.

On the whole, chatbots in recruitment improve human interactions

Rather than making recruiting more mechanical, many experts believe that AI chatbots and recruiting tools will allow for improved people-to-people interactions in recruitment. Hiring managers and recruiters have long lamented not having enough time for relationship building because of the demands of scheduling and emailing. With AI chatbots helping to answer candidate questions and determine job fit, however, they can spend more time getting to know candidates better, further through the hiring funnel—when it matters most.

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Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

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