Speaking to hundreds of candidates during the recruitment process is difficult and expensive, and can lead to candidates dropping off if they receive slow or inconsistent responses. It takes 36 days on average for recruiters to fill a position, so the process can definitely be arduous, but it is important to maintain the reputation of your company despite this. Some 65% of applicants report never or only very rarely receiving any notice on the status of their job application - meaning that they’ll likely have a poor view of the company in question. This isn’t just a pet peeve - 48% of all job seekers say that the biggest issue for them with the hiring process is waiting to hear back. 

The use of chatbots is an AI solution to this issue, aiming to make sure that candidates are up to date on their application without needing to have a human being on the other end of the chat, freeing up your recruitment team to do more productive things. In this article, we’ll be explaining what chatbots are and how they can help you optimise your recruitment process. 

Why have chatbots become more popular? 

Recent advances in artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP) tech, has made it possible for chatbots to be a big part of recruitment strategies. Previously, limitations to the technology meant that responses could come across wooden, as they could only provide a limited number of pre-written responses. Now chatbots can learn from each interaction, and get better and more natural with time. 

In fact, it was previously estimated that by 2022 35% of organisations would make use of natural language processing technology in the recruitment process at one stage or another. Chatbots have the ability to give quick feedback and updates on the status of a candidates application - 92% of applicants, in one study, felt that the biggest strength chatbots had was the speed of their responses. And the speed of chatbots isn’t one sided - by replacing email interactions with text ones, they can also encourage candidates to reply faster. This means that both applicants and recruiters can save a lot of time, letting you do more with the pool of recruiters you have available to your business. 

Chatbots can also aid your business by making the application process more tailored to each applicant. While having to input pages and pages of information into a form can be arduous for job seekers, chatbots can be used to replace this process with a conversation via text message. A previous study by Indeed found that 78% of candidates would rather apply this way if they had the choice, so choosing to move to this format could substantially improve your recruitment experience. Moreover, if you can cut down on the time your application takes, you can access a wider pool of candidates, making it more likely that you’ll find the right talent. 

What are the limitations of some chatbots?

Though chatbot technology has greatly advanced in the last few years, there are problems with a lot of chatbots. Some chatbots can struggle to understand emotions like humour when communicated via text, which can leave a bad taste in some applicants' mouths if they feel they aren’t being understood. Moreover, because different candidates will speak in different ways, some chatbots struggle to understand different dialects and varieties of English as well as a human being would. inploi’s chatbots are customisable, meaning that they can be targeted for the parts of the application process where they will work the best, and replaced with human beings elsewhere. The results of this are clear - when Compass Group UK&I used our conversational chatbot apply flows alongside a custom job search page, they saw a 33% increase in visitor / applicant conversion across the business. 

So, if you’re looking to use chatbots to improve your candidate experience and optimise your recruitment strategy, inploi’s convert module can provide you with a best in class candidate experience. Our service features customisable chatbot apply flows as well as a first-class careers hub, search engine optimisation for your content, and continuous updates which are adapted to your needs. If you want more information on Convert, look here. And if you’ve enjoyed this article and want to keep up to date with the latest business news and tips, check out inploi’s community page, which is updated weekly.