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March 18, 2021 
12 min read
Chatbots (or digital assistants) are certainly nothing new, but lately, these AI-automated software robots are getting smarter and smarter while improving candidate experience. The bots are gaining increasingly better capabilities around job recruiting tasks like answering job seekers’ questions, pre-screening candidates, scheduling interviews, and more. The use of chatbots has soared, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, and is expected to climb higher in years to come.
One of the most valuable features of chatbots is that they’re able to recruit 24/7. Unlike their human counterparts, AI software doesn’t get tired and is available any time of the day or night to connect job seekers with positions that best match their skills, experience, and interests. Particularly useful for global companies, chatbots are always available for international candidates, regardless of geographic location and time zone.
Let’s take a look at some of the most effective and innovative ways for your company to harness the power of recruiting chatbots and improve candidate experience. We’ll dig into some key takeaways on chatbots like:
The first-ever chatbot, dubbed Eliza, dates back to 1966. Yet, it took decades for the technology to develop well enough to attain widespread use. It wasn’t until 2016 that Facebook began allowing software developers to put chatbots on Messenger. Big brands then started creating their own digital assistants. Software vendors entered the ring with specialized tech, also known as “conversational AI.”
Why the sudden boom in popularity? With the rapid advances in machine learning (ML) technology, AI now “learns” from its own experiences, becoming more “humanlike” and valuable to businesses. In a report released by Deloitte in March of 2020, near the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic, 63% of company leaders surveyed already saw AI as “very” or “critically” important to their business success, a number expected to grow to 81% within two years.
Chatbots are also making great strides in human resources. As far back as 2016, 58% of surveyed job seekers said they were “fairly to extremely comfortable” interacting with chatbots to answer questions during the application and interview process, according to SHRM.
A recruitment chatbot—sometimes referred to as a “conversational agent”—is a software application that mimics human conversation during the recruiting process. Candidates may engage with the chatbot directly on a career site, asking questions or selecting options to complete certain tasks.
If your company isn’t already using chatbots for recruiting, it’s something that you should consider doing soon to stay competitive with other brands in your industry and improve candidate experience. Integrating digital assistants into your talent acquisition strategy can:
If your company isn’t already using chatbots for recruiting, it’s something that you should consider doing soon to stay competitive with other brands in your industry. Integrating digital assistants into your talent acquisition strategy can save time and money for your company, bring you quality candidates, deliver insights into candidate behavior, and enhance the hiring experience for both the job hunter and the recruiter.
Many people assume that chatbots are found only on websites. But a chatbot can text with candidates too. You can find a chatbot in the following spots:
To make the most productive use of chatbots for recruiting purposes, you need to figure out where your candidates spend their time online and where your chatbots should live, keeping in mind the preferences of the job seekers you’re targeting. If you already have chatbots, you can do some test runs of bots on the web as well as on text and other platforms and compare response rates.
Third-party tools like Google Analytics can help you determine how candidates find your career site and what they do once they get there. Do they come in through job boards or Messenger? Do they hit the “apply” button after reading the job description or go to your “contact us” section to send an email asking for more info before applying?
A more straightforward approach? Ask the candidates. Use your bot to tell job seekers that you’d like to stay in touch. Ask whether communications by text, email, Messenger, or WhatsApp are most convenient for them. If you don’t have chatbot tech underway yet, but you’re planning on implementing it, pose a question along these lines in your job application.
Industry statistics can help here, too. A total of 75% of millennials prefer texting over talking if provided with a choice of only one format, according to Human Resource Executive. However, Indeed’s research shows that most millennials, Gen Xers, and baby boomers all conduct much of their job search activity from mobile devices. Research from Gallup shows that, overall, Gen Zers spend more time texting than older folks.
Three of the most widely discussed ways to use your chatbot in recruitment are answering frequently asked questions, pre-screening candidates, and scheduling interviews. But there are other ways you can leverage them that are less obvious. Here’s a quick lowdown on seven reasons why your HR organization needs a chatbot.
Just 38% of consumers want to talk with a human when engaging a brand, and 69% of them prefer to use chatbots because they can deliver quick answers to simple questions, according to statistics gathered by Salesforce.com. Much as in customer service, job hunters favor chatbots because they can obtain basic information quickly.
What are candidates’ most frequently asked questions? Generally speaking, the most common questions asked of iCIMS’ chatbot are about applying for a job, specifics about a position, salary, and their application status says Joe Essenfeld, iCIMS’ vice president of strategy.
But since the pandemic began, new questions cropped up on topics like Covid preparedness, remote and work from home policies, and medical and personal leave paid benefits.
Here are some of the specific questions you might consider when training your friendly software robot. For example:
Your AI-enabled digital assistants can rapidly pre-screen candidates based on job applications, resumes, and other written materials, as well as on pre-recorded video interviews submitted by job seekers.
Your recruiting staff will then be free to focus on functions that require a human touch, including following up with the most qualified applicants with live interviews conducted either virtually through two-way video or in person.
Pre-screening is just one of the routine recruitment processes that chatbots can handle for you. Think automation of processes like background checks, skills assessments, and routing requisitions for approval.
You can add interview scheduling to that process automation list, as well. Companies need to make the most of their HR staff, giving recruiters more time to work on sourcing and building relationships with in-demand talent.
Looking at our community of more than two million users worldwide, we saw a 9.5x growth in virtual interview scheduling with recruiting chatbots in the first quarter of 2020, compared with a year prior.
Be sure NOT to overlook the golden opportunity your chatbot presents for placing a shimmering halo around your brand. Brand reputation matters to job seekers. A total of 39% of women rank company brand as a “very important” factor when deciding to apply for a job, while 33% of men say the same, according to Glassdoor.
What’s more, your chatbot can help you boost your company’s bottom line. Data from LinkedIn demonstrates that strong employer branding results in an average 43% drop in recruitment costs.
Potential candidates can get turned off when companies don’t get back to them ASAP. In one study from 2020, 52% of job hunters named “a lack of response from employers” as their biggest frustration.
In fact, according to iCIMS data, 76% of people say not hearing back from an employer after applying for a job is even more frustrating than not hearing from someone after a first date!
Chatbots can do much more than initiate engagement by welcoming newcomers to your career site, asking how they can help, and answering FAQs. When you capture job seekers’ contact info and other data, you can keep your candidates engaged by:
Chatbots can help source job candidates in a variety of ways:
As far back as 2015, McKinsey reported that companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians.
Companies today strive for diversity across regional and national borders, race, gender, and age.
In 2020, 77% of talent professionals agreed that diversity will be a crucial factor in the future of recruiting, also according to LinkedIn. Researchers also predicted that the increased remote work options due to the pandemic will help to raise geographic diversity.
Many chatbots, including iCIMS’ digital assistant, are multilingual. Chatbots can also be used to help prevent unconscious bias during candidate pre-screening.
We realize most of us aren’t experts in AI and how it works. It can feel overwhelming. That’s why we designed our AI to be transparent and easy to setup. Here are a few things to know before you get started:
iCIMS’ digital assistant can recognize and reply to almost 100 candidate questions. The questions and answers come pre-scripted and are fully editable. Here is an example:
Question: What is your turnover rate?
Answer: We have a low employee turnover compared to our industry peers. We like to think it’s 100% our culture, but it probably has something to do with our competitive compensation and benefits package as well.
All questions and answers are entirely customizable using simple logic. If you want to make an update, open the script and make the changes. If you wish, you can write your own Q&As.
The personality of your bot is customizable as well. You can even change its name. Grocery store chain Dierbergs Markets calls its chatbot Ellie. RPM Pizza, the largest Domino’s franchise in the U.S., named theirs Dottie, a play on their logo.
RPM, which operates more than 180 stores in five states, is one excellent illustration of an employer that’s customized their chatbot to act as an extension of their brand. Dottie is cheerful, courteous, and highly competent.
Dottie is also a true expert on pizza trivia. Dottie’s applicant tracker was built to mirror Domino’s pizza tracker, displaying your order’s status in real-time.
But Dottie has a serious side, too. She’s patiently cooperated with the addition of custom screening questions about age and driving status. In her first year on the job only, the multifaceted chatbot managed to send out more than a quarter of a million texts. That’s because she knows many of RPM’s target candidates are millennials and GenZers who are rarely without their smartphones.
With Dottie’s help, RPM Pizza has increased applicants by 66%. She’s also reduced application time by 50% and time to hire by 80%.
To explore iCIMS’ digital assistant, check out our AI-powered recruiting solutions.
and receive free tips on how to attract, engage, hire, & advance the best talent.
