What is a recruiting chatbot?

A recruiting chatbot is an AI-powered software tool that communicates with candidates. As a virtual assistant (VA), it automates recruitment activities by using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to understand candidates’ questions and provide appropriate responses.

Chatbots learn from each conversation, recognizing patterns and developing more detailed responses to specific queries. By training a chatbot carefully, you can program it to answer common questions, pre-screen candidates and schedule interviews. If you integrate the chatbot with your applicant tracking software (ATS), it can also provide candidates with status updates.

Benefits of recruiting chatbots

Integrating recruiting chatbots into your hiring process can benefit employees, candidates and your business. Consider these potential benefits:

Expedite your hiring process

Hiring managers spend hours each week sourcing and managing candidates. Chatbots can streamline this process, reducing their workload and automating administrative tasks, such as:

• Reviewing resumes and job applications
• Contacting candidates
• Scheduling interviews
• Reserving interview rooms

Chatbots can communicate with candidates via text message or online chat, which can also improve response times.

Improve the quality of your hires

Chatbots can pre-screen candidates based on your chosen criteria or keywords. They scan resumes and applications for the skills and experience you need and send the top applications to the hiring team for review. For example, you may use the chatbot to scan for terms or mentions of specific software, such as “Adobe Photoshop” or “project management.”

Encourage a better candidate experience

Prompt, continuous communication helps establish a positive candidate experience. For the 27% of businesses that don’t have enough time to dedicate to hiring, chatbots can be an effective solution. They maintain open lines of communication, responding instantly to candidate requests.

These fast, automated responses help ensure candidates choose your company over other employers. Job seekers can speak with the recruiting chatbot outside of business hours, which creates better flexibility for applicants with an existing full-time job.

Considerations for recruiting chatbots

Chatbots need to work with your hiring workflow. Consider these aspects before incorporating a chatbot into your process.

Maintaining a positive impression

Although advanced technology powers chatbots, you need to carefully train them on inclusive hiring practices and appropriate responses to queries. The way the chatbot speaks with candidates can positively affect their first impression of your brand.

Monitoring your time and money

Chatbots require an upfront investment, including hours of labor for setup, testing, training and integration.

Someone on your team likely also has to regularly review interactions, test different strategies, find ways to improve and gather feedback on the chatbot’s success. If you don’t have an employee with the necessary technical skills, you may need to hire a professional to manage the system.

Considering human qualities

Unlike human recruiters, chatbots can’t accurately assess whether the candidate has a strong work ethic or may be a positive culture addition to your team. Human involvement can help you consider context beyond application materials. For example, you might discover an applicant has transferable skills from a non-traditional background, leading you to consider a more diverse applicant pool.

When to use a chatbot in the hiring process

Chatbots can improve efficiency throughout the recruiting and hiring process. Consider the various stages you might use your chatbot:

Pre-screening candidate applications

Once a candidate applies for a job, you can use a chatbot to automate the pre-screening process. The bot can ask candidates a list of questions about their work experience, skills, areas of interest and previous employers.

After the chatbot gathers information and reviews each person’s resume, it determines whether the candidate should move forward in the hiring process. It can present the hiring team with a shortlist of top candidates to review.

Scheduling interview dates and times

Advanced chatbots can access your calendar, check your availability and schedule interview dates, times and locations. You can streamline these conversations with a chatbot. For example, if you’re coordinating a panel interview, the chatbot may contact professionals on your team and select an available time on each person’s schedule.

Answering candidate questions

Chatbots are available 24/7, so candidates can interact with them during their free time. By answering questions about salary structures or company culture, a chatbot can help candidates determine whether your company aligns with their needs. Immediate answers and easy access to information can also help you engage candidates without monitoring chat systems, replying to emails and answering phone calls.

How to use chatbots

Here are some best practices for using recruiting chatbots to improve the hiring experience and get to know candidates.

Oversee the process

Chatbots still require human oversight to work effectively. For example, if the candidate asks a complex question, the chatbot can contact a human recruiter. You may also offer your phone number or email for job seekers who prefer to speak with a person.

If your company uses a chatbot, being transparent with candidates can build trust. Disclose to the candidate when they’re speaking with a chatbot so they can adjust their expectations accordingly.

Establish the correct tone

Make sure your chatbot’s voice and tone align with your company’s values, mission and brand voice. For example, you might allow the bot to send GIFs or emojis if you have a fun, relaxed culture. For a more formal organization, you might train the chatbot to use a professional tone.

Consider customizing the name of your chatbot and humanizing its tone to avoid impersonal interactions with candidates.

Track chatbot performance

After launching a recruiting chatbot, you can monitor its activity. In the beginning, consider extensive human oversight. If the chatbot is pre-screening applications, you might manually review its decisions to ensure they meet your hiring needs. Then, you can adjust the system to improve performance.

Once the system works as intended, you can monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as:

• Chat engagement: The number of candidates who have exchanged messages with your chatbot
• Bot messages: The length of conversations between candidates and your chatbot
• Rate of confusion: The number of times your chatbot is confused by unexpected messages
• Failed requests: The number of questions it passes to an employee
• Quality of applicants: The number of chatbot-recommended candidates who make it to the interview stage
• Conversion rate: The percentage of people visiting your company’s career site that convert into your ATS

Recruit a chatbot to support your hiring strategy

Strategically incorporating recruiting chatbots into your hiring process can help you save time and fill open roles quickly. With the right training, testing and adjustments, your chatbots can create a better experience for job seekers and encourage them to continue in the hiring process.