Did you know that 90% of Americans are willing to take a pay cut to start a new job that is more meaningful? Upon reviewing your company’s applicant response templates, would you find clear examples of how your organization provides employees with notable work? How about your interview questions, do they convey the meaning behind your mission?
Static templates and boilerplate interview questions often diminish the candidate experience. They’re not personalized, dynamic, and they certainly don’t empower candidates to envision themselves as the hero of your company. However, a few brave recruitment pioneers are piloting solutions that are dynamic, personalized, and engage candidates at first touch. They are chatbot innovators!
This post is the second of four on how you can source, interview, assess, and schedule candidates with A.I. and not need a single line of coding knowledge.
For tenured recruiters, I can feel your eyes rolling through the internet as you read that chatbots are the wave of the future. You might be saying to yourself, “It’s been tried before…” or “They’re too dumb to work!” However, in the past two years, our mechanical friends have come a long way.
When it comes to conveying a meaningful company message, chatbots can provide a highly personalized experience for candidates. Rather than boilerplate email responses or template interview questions, bots can be customized to interact with every candidate, not just the select few that move past the resume screening stage.
Let’s explore a few chatbots you can demo today to see how things have improved.
Talkpush: I mentioned Talkpush in my last post, and what’s great about their system is the diversity they offer regarding chatbot platforms. You can host your bot via Facebook Messenger, webchat sites, SMS text, WhatsApp, or an interactive IVR phone call. In addition to this, Talkpush will also customize your bot with NLP (Natural Language Processing), so it will learn along the way. Lastly, Talkpush has CRM capabilities as well. So, if their bot works for your recruiters, they can also build out a sales/customer service solution too!
Olivia by Paradox AI: There’s something to be said about form and functionality in any software service, and Olivia has that in spades. The chatbot from Paradox is wonderfully easy to use, can determine if a candidate is a fit in less than a minute, and can manage interview scheduling well beyond the initial phone screen. When you’re trying to convey meaning and value for candidates, Oliva’s NLP can handle ad-hoc questions mid-interview, and then dynamically go back to the interview questions. “She’s” so talented in keeping people engaged that over 75% of applicants say thank you to “her” at the end of their interview.
AllyO: In addition to the now standard NLP multilingual chat, screening/assessments, and qualifications match, AllyO will soon have the unique ability to analyze industry jobs and recommend new roles your company should consider posting! This goes way beyond a mere chat, as consultative support to your recruiters. Lastly, AllyO can keep candidates engaged beyond interviews with branded pre-boarding and onboarding experiences, first-day reminders, and 30-60-90 day surveys.
Hubspot: If you don’t have the funds to invest in a vendor solution like those listed above, you can always build your bot too! You may have heard of Hubspot before as a CRM tool for marketing, sales, and customer service. In 2017, they acquired the Motion.AI chatbot building platform and have now folded it into their system. Sadly, Hubspot didn’t carry over all the customizations Motion.AI had in place, and they’re charging a higher monthly fee as well. That said, if you’re a current user, their new chatbot feature will allow you to add a scalable bot that can interview candidates and integrate with your sales, marketing, or customer service systems.
You want your candidates to feel heard, respected, and excited about joining your company. Of course, chatbots have the potential to be abused, but with the right team-mindset and implementation, they can truly enhance the candidate and recruiter experience with meaningful interactions that exemplify your brand.
If you enjoyed this post like/comment to let me know. Stay tuned for the next post covering A.I. for assessing talent.