When it comes to recruiting and hiring, the one thing we continue to harp on time and time again is communication. Communication is the foundation and infrastructure that keeps businesses moving forward, while a lack of communication is what can bring any business down. This holds true for recruiting and hiring as well. Communication tends to be a pain point for candidates because they’re not getting the responses they need, while recruiters struggle to find time to engage with candidates. In this article, we’ll go over the 5 benefits of conversational recruiting, specifically in the terms of conversation AI, to explain why communication is paramount for recruiting and hiring.
1. Allows Recruiters to Focus
AI-backed technology, such as chat bots, help streamline the recruiting and hiring process through automating the sourcing and screening process. This helps free up recruiters’ times to focus on engaging on a deeper level with candidates who are further along the hiring process, rather than stretching them thin and forcing them to put only a fraction of the effort into various administrative tasks.
2. Keeps Candidates Engaged
Responding to candidates in near real-time should be a top priority for businesses. Whether they’ve just submitted their resume today or they’ve just finished their last interview, no matter how far along a candidate is in the process, they deserve to get their questions answered.
Conversational AI can help keep candidates engaged through chat bots. With chat bots, the AI pulls from a bank of pre-defined questions and answers to converse with the candidate, providing the information they need right away.
3. Levels the Playing Field by Removing Unconscious Bias
Traditionally, recruiters play a critical role in every single step of the hiring process—from sourcing to evaluating resumes to screening candidates. However, humans will carry some form of unconscious bias with them as they go through these various processes. Whether it’s unintentionally sourcing candidates who have similar experiences as the person who recently left the role or comparing future candidates to another well-liked candidate.
Conversational recruiting through an AI-backed chat bot can help reduce these biases by sourcing and screening candidates based on pre-defined parameters, focusing solely on a candidate’s skill sets and experiences rather than how they look, how old they are, or who they know.
4. Improves your candidate pipeline
According to CareerBuilder, 78% of respondents said the overall candidate experience they receive is an indicator of how a company values its people. Candidate experience is the first impression candidates get of the employer. If candidates feel like they’re getting ignored due to unresponsiveness, then they’re more likely to have the assumption that that employer treats their employees in the same fashion.
By engaging and conversing with every candidate that comes through, it leaves candidates feeling valued. And there’s a higher likelihood that they would consider applying to another role with the company, even if they didn’t land the role they originally applied for. This leaves you with a pipeline of qualified candidates that you can draw from once additional roles open up.
5. Ultimately improves your candidate experience, end to end
From the moment an employer receives an application to when an offer is extended, there is some form of two-way communication that needs to happen. For example, employers should acknowledge when an application has been submitted and keep the communication line open for candidates to ask questions as they come up. Recruiters need to keep candidates fully engaged from start to finish to drive a positive candidate experience.
Conversational recruiting isn’t about going through the motions of accepting applications and responding to emails here and there. Conversational recruiting is about keeping candidates engaged from the very minute they submit an application to the very end when a decision is made on whether to move forward or to decline a candidate. Keeping candidates engaged not only helps improve the overall candidate experience, but also helps improve your candidate pipeline and levels the playing field for candidates.
