4 Reasons why you need a chatbot in your volume recruitment process

Many organisations depend on volume recruitment.  This could be for an annual intake of staff (such as a graduate scheme), expansion or for seasonal requirements.  At this time of the year, many organisations increase their workforce to take into account the demands on their business that the festive period can create.  In fact, the top four industries that hire more people in readiness for the seasonal period are retail, hospitality, tourism and media.

However, volume recruitment and seasonal hiring create many challenges to the recruitment process that many organisations experience year on year, time and time again.

How can a chatbot help conquer those challenges?

Challenge #1: Managing a large number of applications

According to Career Arc, 65% of candidates never, or rarely, hear back from a company after an application.  Conversely, those same candidates are 3.5 times less likely to re-apply to that same company and 72% will also share that negative experience online or with somebody directly.  Over time, this will erode and weaken your employer brand. If prospective employees hear from their friends and colleagues that your hiring process is generally unresponsive, some of the best candidates may simply not apply.

In the world of recruitment, it is a challenge for employers to communicate well with all their candidates.  Especially for high volume recruiting, where this would require communicating with thousands of candidates, in addition to a recruiter’s normal screening functions and other duties.

Using a recruitment chatbot can take away the strain of managing and communicating with a large number of applicants.

Each and every applicant will have an immediate engagement with your organisation, via chatbot.  In real time, a recruitment chatbot can:

  • collect information from candidates such as their contact information
  • ask screening questions about candidates’ salary expectations, availability, location and skills/experience

What's more is that this can be done with thousands of candidates all at the same time.  Instantly taking the heavy lifting out of the top funnel of volume recruitment and improving the candidate's experience with your brand.

Challenge #2: Managing a talent pool of previous temporary workers

Do you have the same temporary staff that work for you every festive season?  How about the same students that work for you every summer when home from university?

Being able to activate and mobilise a large number of candidates from your database takes time and moves recruiters away from their other activities.

Using a recruitment chatbot, you can instantly connect with thousands of candidates within your talent pool or database to advertise that the recruitment process has begun and ask if they are available to work.  A chatbot can then update any profile information to ensure you have the most update to date details within your database.

Better yet, a chatbot allows you to engage and capture candidates throughout the year in anticipation of the holiday season and maximise referrals from your current talent pool.  All without a recruiter having to lift a finger.

What if you could come to work every morning and receive a list of candidates that your recruitment chatbot has had a conversation with the evening before, who have been screened and are available and ready to be placed into an open role?  That is the reality of life when using a recruitment chatbot.

Challenge #3: Communicating with your candidates at a time and place that works for them

Nine out of ten candidates expect to be able to communicate with you via messaging and social platforms.  That is the way of the world.  Yet less than half of organisations are equipped to handle this type of communication.  Your talent pool lives on their mobile devices. When the time comes to recruit for the holidays, you’ll need to be where your candidates are already spending all of their time – on their phones.

A recruitment chatbot will be able to engage with candidates on their mobile phones.  Whether this is via a messaging platform, such as Skype, or a social network like Facebook.  The best chatbots are omnichannel and can communicate seamlessly via a desktop or mobile platform.

The best recruiters work as many hours as needed to get the job done, but there is still a start and end time to the working day.  The best recruiters also know that a large majority of candidates are not available to talk during the working day, preferring evenings and (sometimes) weekends. A chatbot is available 24/7, so a candidate can engage with you and your recruitment process at a time of their choosing.

Randstad found that 82% of job seekers believe the ideal recruiter interaction is a mix of innovative technology and personal, human interaction.  The majority of candidates are receptive to interacting with a chatbot.

Allowing candidates to do so and a time and on a channel of their choice increases the chances of them experiencing a positive recruitment process and, therefore, increasing your brand's reputation.

Challenge #4: High turnover of seasonal temporary staff

Due to the fleeting nature of seasonal positions and the fact that those same industries tend to have higher-than-average turnover, it can be difficult to retain temporary staff when you need them the most. The major factors that contribute to seasonal turnover are a lack of goal-setting, lack of recognition and plain old boredom.

While a chatbot can be seen as more useful during the initial stages of the recruitment process, a chatbot can also be used to increase staff engagement while they are carrying out work for your organisation.

Imagine being able to brief your temporary staff across your organisation, all at the same time, to update them on important issues or to set some goals.  Why not have a chatbot-based conversation with them to find out how they are getting on and garner some feedback about their time with your organisation?  

High turnover doesn’t have to ruin the holiday season for your organisation.  People buy from people, and what better person to buy off of than one that is happy and treated well, even if only in their position for a short amount of time.

If you’re sensitive to the temporary nature of seasonal positions and make a genuine effort to dispel preconceptions while giving seasonal workers tangible goals and plenty of opportunity for engagement, you’re going to find higher retention follow suit.

Key Takeaways:

Your candidates are receptive to communicating with your organisation via chatbot.  In fact, 9 out of 10 candidates expect to communicate via messaging.

Using a chatbot solution will:

  • Increase candidate engagement levels
  • Create memorable experiences with your brand
  • Reduce the burden on recruiters
  • Provide the tools to communicate with thousands of candidates at the same time
  • Reduce turnover and increase on-the-job satisfaction and happiness

Are you recruiting or planning on recruiting in volume? Get in touch with RoboRecruiter to find out how our chatbot solution can support you and your organisation.  Have a chat with Robo on our homepage now, or email us at info@roborecruiter.ai.

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Martyn Redstone is RoboRecruiter's Sales Director for the UK and Europe.  He is a member of the Institute of Recruitment Professionals. For the past 15 years, he has been working with organisations to improve their recruitment processes.  Martyn lives in London with his wife and two daughters, has a keen interest in current affairs, enjoys travelling the world and watching the latest films at the cinema.

Martyn is a keen user of social media. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here, or follow him on twitter here