Bots as Reinforcement of the HR Team

Experience and bounce rate: If a potential candidate finds his way to the company website, the chatbot offers him a unique experience because it can address him directly and arouse further interest in the company. The interaction keeps the candidate happy and can significantly reduce the bounce rate. If users do not find the information they are looking for immediately, they tend to leave the site again quickly. A chatbot can make candidates feel comfortable on a website and provide a positive experience. This contact with candidates can be an important factor in the «candidate experience» and the company remains positively in the minds of potential future employees! The bot could also ask the user if they would like to leave their contact details and indicate what kind of job they are looking for - this way, they can be proactively contacted by the HR team as soon as a suitable position becomes available.

Simplified application - for both sides:The chatbot collects all the necessary information HR needs from applicants in a chat to complete the first step to applying. This way, there is no need to create an extensive dossier or fill out a boring form to express interest in the job, and the HR team already has the information they need to see if someone might be suitable for a position or not at all. In many industries and roles, traditional applications via PDF or even mail are passé anyway - often a well-maintained LinkedIn profile is all that's needed to find out if there's potential or not.

In this way, processes are streamlined. The chatbot can be used to pre-screen applications and can sort out unsuitable candidates by answering questions before the actual, time-consuming application process takes place.

Forbes on the subject: «The ability of AI to streamline the hiring process — especially the beginning stages of sourcing and filtering candidates — will allow HR teams to spend time on more valuable tasks like getting to know the person behind the resume or online profile.» So, with the help of AI, the chatbot could immediately answer many of the questions that candidates usually have about a job in real time and, of course, around the clock. This way, HR team members would have time to focus on more urgent and complex inquiries and devote their attention to more important points within the hiring process. Chatbots are even quite capable of independently guiding applicants through the entire application process, ensuring the accuracy and completeness of application materials.

A well-constructed chatbot can also provide application support, help fill out forms, answer any questions about the job or the company, or even set up a first interview appointment. Waiting times for HR to get back to you are eliminated. Forbes on the topic: «Gone are the days (and weeks) of waiting for recruiters to personally contact each candidate with the necessary information to simply move forward with the next step in the application process.»

Live chat: As mentioned above, you can also include the option that the chatbot connects interested parties live with an HR employee if he or she is not able to get further on his or her own. This has a very innovative effect and the applicant feels taken seriously and valued. Of course, the necessary infrastructure must be created for this - not that the desired wow effect has the opposite effect.

It can be a real challenge for the HR team to be asked for the same information over and over again, whether that's by email or phone, and to get it to employees. For a chatbot, this is not a problem.

Onboarding process -Once a company has decided on a new employee, the hiring process and onboarding follow with many different processes. The company needs the employee's personal information, and the employee needs information about internal regulations and guidelines, perhaps also internal ID cards and the like. Here, too, a chatbot can be wonderfully harnessed as a helper. This relieves HR employees of many administrative drudgery and standard tasks and allows them to concentrate intensively on personal contact with the new additions to the team and give them a proper welcome. Right from the start, the new employees receive all the information they need to get started immediately and become productive. By relieving them of standard tasks, this increases the productivity of everyone involved.

Employee support -The chatbot can also further support the HR team in the daily work routine. Modern chatbots are compatible with traditional systems and can be integrated and embedded into existing processes and systems. For example, they can be involved in performance monitoring, e.g. linked to reward system and promotion, or in the learning and development area. Of course, they can also help employees to quickly access the necessary forms and information they need, e.g. for an accident/illness report, for entering vacations, expense regulations and the like, or for questions about internal and external events.

It can be a real challenge for the HR team to be asked for the same information over and over again, whether that's by email or phone, and to get it to employees. This is no problem for a chatbot. It is virtually predestined for such tasks and is happy to answer the same question 100 times a day, thus relieving the team.

Learning & development as already mentioned, is also an ideal field of activity for chatbots. Even companies that allocate huge budgets to learning management systems (LMS) often struggle to ensure that employees actually use them. Traditional LMS systems are nothing more than a database of information and media, and often not very visually appealing. Only recently have efforts been made to make them more attractive. HR chatbots can make learning easy and even fun by breaking up videos and tutorials into smaller bites that are easier for employees to digest. In multiple-choice mode, the employee can check for himself or herself what he or she took away from the learning module. If desired, the chatbot can even send updates to the team or supervisors about who completed which module and who did best. It can also send employees information about a new learning module that will soon be available or even make suggestions for improvement. This interactive approach makes learning and training much more effective overall.

Performance management –Here, too, chatbots can provide support. Since employee performance evaluation and management are based on predefined and measurable parameters and target values, HR chatbots can use data from performance management systems to automate an objective measurement of performance and integrate it into the reward and evaluation process (recognition of performance). For example, if an employee meets the sales target within the specified timeframe, the HR chatbot can confirm this with the supervisor, send a congratulatory message to the employee or group, earmark (mark) the employee for the performance bonus, and update his or her file in the Management System module accordingly.