10 Reasons Why You Need a Recruiting Chatbot

If you shop online you have probably come across a chatbot. You see them on most e-commerce websites because they’re hoping to sell you a product. If you have a question about that item, they want to get the answer in front of you ASAP, so that you don’t leave their site to buy a competitor’s product.

In recruiting, the goal is the same. We are essentially selling a role within a company to a candidate. Treating candidates like consumers is the new way to attract and acquire talent. Thats why it’s time to adopt the e-commerce mentality of putting information in front of candidates to provide a better candidate experience. A recruiting chatbot is the perfect tool to do that.

Here are 10 reasons why you should implement a recruiting chatbot on your career website.

1. It’s 2021 (finally). These days, we find information we want within seconds from our phones, laptops, etc. Instead of making candidates search your career site for information hidden by countless mouse clicks, use a Chatbot to put the information they want right in front of them, on-demand. 
2. Chatbots turn passive candidates into applicants. Chatbots offer text applications. If you are hiring a large number of employees for entry-level positions, in your job postings, ask candidate’s to text “JOBS” to 555-555-5555. Your chatbot will reply asking for their name, email, phone number, anything you want. Whether the candidate applies at that point or not, you have their contact information for future positions. Because we always have our phones, candidates are more likely to send a text to inquire about a position than they are to apply online. 
3. Your team will thank you. Chatbots are able to automate your team’s least favorite tasks – including resume review, interview scheduling, and application updates. Chatbots encourage candidates to apply, pre-screen resumes, and allow your team to send a text or email blast to candidates that were pre-screened as a possible fit. The recruiter can simply click a button, triggering a text link to pre-screened candidates asking them to select a time for a phone interview. You’ll save so much time! 
4. Chatbots are incapable of showing bias towards candidates. When a chatbot is automating tasks from the top of a recruiting funnel (i.e. resume screening), they will not pass on a candidate because of their name, the year they graduated high school, or the college they attended. Instead, chatbots process responses to questions based on qualifications, time in roles, etc. Chatbots alleviate the risk of biases towards candidates. 
5. Chatbots provide data. It is easy to determine if your chatbot is working for you. Some examples of metrics you can pull include user metrics (total users, engaged users, user sentiment), message metrics (total/new conversations, miss messages, which are messages the bot can’t respond to), and so many more. 
6. You are always available. Chatbots are available to candidates any time, day or night. A candidate browsing your site at 3:00am can ask questions in real-time. If that candidate is awake at 3:00am because they feel stressed about work, they might ask your Chatbot about work/life balance. Your chatbot lets the candidate know that work/life balance is important to your organization, and now you have an applicant. You’re always on! 
7. Chatbots are the future of work. HR functions are starting to rely on chatbots to complete simple tasks. Think self-service benefit requests, employee-facing HR intranet bots, and reminders and follow-ups for onboarding new hires. Teams are getting creative and automating as much as possible – you can get ahead of the game.
8. Chatbots are agile. Chatbots let you know what you don’t know. When a question is submitted and the chatbot doesn’t know how to respond, it alerts the system admin, who should either create a new response for the bot, or, edit an existing response so the bot knows to use it should the question be asked another time. It lets you know what candidates want to know.
9. Branding. Giving your chatbot a personality and setting a friendly tone will make your organization and the candidate experience warmer. By customizing chatbot responses, you give candidates a look into how your company treats employees. If it is fun to work at your company, let a candidate feel that by making your chatbot transparent and fun to engage with.
10. Chatbots integrate with your existing software. You spent a lot of time and money making your ATS work for you; make it better by implementing a chatbot that integrates easily with your suite of software. You’ll get the most out of your chatbot by linking it to your ATS to send candidate info, and with your email calendar for scheduling purposes.