When looking at technology impacting recruitment, conversational AI-chatbots are at the forefront. Gone are the days where chatbots could only provide basic information. Now we live in the digital age; engaging with chatbots purpose-built to solve complex issues. While providing near-human levels of interaction. But what does that look like in recruitment and how is it impacting the industry? In short; it has revolutionised recruitment, providing more opportunities for growth and earning. In this article we look at how digital worker bots have changed the recruitment game. If you haven’t already incorporated AI-chatbot tech into your processes, you’ll find out why you can’t afford not to.

A Week in the Life of a Recruiter (Pre-Chatbot Incorporation)

To look at how AI-chatbots are impacting recruitment, we need to take a retrospective look at the traditional working week of recruiters. Needless to say recruiters are juggling a lot at the same time. Often managing multiple clients; each with a unique set of needs. Screening a huge number of clients for the various roles they are managing. Building the all-important client-candidate relationships. And doing all the endless admin tasks that come with these aspects of the job. Furthermore, Time-to-Hire is everything in recruitment. So recruiters are aiming to work at 100mph at all times to keep clients happy. This means they can only dedicate so much time in their week for each task. Now how recruiters maintain this fast pace is subjective. But the average recruiter may have working week that looks something like this:

Monday-Tuesday:

The beginning of the week could be dedicated to the Top-of-Funnel tasks of recruitment. In other words the most mundane, repetitive and least fulfilling aspects of the job. CV sifting, candidate scoring, ATS management, database updating etc. Not exactly thrilling parts of the job, but no less important than any other stage of the recruitment process. How many hours do recruiters spend on these tasks? Enough, to take away from other areas that could benefit from more dedication.

Wednesday-Friday:

The remainder of the week may be utilised for the more engaging and rewarding sides of the job. The client and candidate-facing side of recruitment. This time could be spent meeting with clients. To discuss what roles the recruiter is looking to place, what are the requirements of the role and how best could candidates be sourced. Then there is candidate engagement where recruiters can get to know the faces behind the applications. Using their experience and industry expertise to determine the best candidate-client match.

It’s clear to see why recruiters would enjoy the Mid-of-Funnel and Bottom-of-Funnel of recruitment. It’s where they stretch their own skills and put their experience to desired use. The benefits and rewards of these tasks are likely the reasons they got into recruitment in the first place. Knowing how and where best to find candidates when the client is outlining what they want for the role. The opportunity to meet all manner of different personalities when engaging with candidates. The fulfillment when a candidate is placed, knowing you have met the clients needs. While enabling the candidate to take that next step in their career. Unfortunately, recruiters can only afford to spend so much time in their week doing the tasks they love. This is not only about enjoying your job though. It’s about what recruiters and recruitment agencies could be missing out on because of this constant time-crunch. But that is all changing…

Digital Recruiter Bots for a Digital Age

The recruiter working week has been the same for so long that it is practically the status-quo of a recruiter’s life. In a recent article, CEO of The Protocol Group Amir Qureshi said that: “FE (further education) recruitment hasn’t changed in 20 years”. But you could make the same argument for most other areas of recruitment. He also goes on to say why chatbots are going to make recruitment more efficient. But also why this technology is going to enable a more human experience:

“Smart chatbots can offer more efficient and effective engagement, and AI and machine learning have the potential to save time and cut down on tedious tasks. In this way, embracing AI could in fact allow more resources to be committed to running a personalised and engaging service.”

He’s hit the nail on the head, make no mistake! Once upon a time chatbot served as a basic tool for answering simple queries. But more often than not would provide a frustrating experience for users. With the advanced evolution of AI technology we now have conversational chatbots that are on a different level. A combination of AI and machine learning has produced digital recruiter bots. These AI powered workers are doing exactly what Mr. Qureshi is saying. They are saving recruiters time and optimising them to run a more engaging and personalised service for clients and candidates alike.

Welcoming the Chatbot Takeover in Recruitment

Given this new technology, we can now expect a much different setup in how recruiters do their job. For one thing, if we look back at the recruiter working week example, it will now look very different. No longer will recruiters have to spend two days or more, dedicating their time to Top-of-Funnel tasks. Those tasks will now fall to conversational AI-chatbots. Who are equipped to do these tasks, not only as good as humans but better and the reasons why are simple.

Chatbots don’t sleep, they don’t get sick, they don’t have days off and they don’t need to rest. What does this mean? It means they can engage candidates 24/7, 365 days a year. Many passionate recruiters have spent out-of-work hours checking emails or responding to candidate queries. When they shouldn’t be. All because they’re worried about potentially missing out on the best candidates. Now these fears are alleviated. Thanks to conversational chatbots, recruiters will never miss out on the best candidates. While out of hours a digital recruiter bot is offering candidates an engaging experience. Analysing these conversations, it is scoring the candidates against jobs surfaced from the ATS. Then books candidates in with the relevant recruiter by checking their calendar.

To top it off, the chatbots can then update the database with the necessary information. And take care of the remaining tedious recruitment admin tasks. And voila! The entire Top-of-Funnel is now automated. Recruiters now have two to three fifths of their week freed up for other tasks. So what does all this extra time mean? For one thing, it means recruiters can manage more clients and candidates. However, it also means recruiters can focus on providing a more personalised and engaging experience.

Recruiters and their Digital Recruiter (Chatbot) Assistants

This is where recruitment was missing a trick. Time-to-Hire is such an important selling point. Neither recruiter or client thought it necessary to build a deeper relationship. As this would waste valuable time that slows down the hiring process. If they did have this time, they could spend more time working together to do a deeper dive into the client’s needs. Recruiters could use their experience and expertise to perform potentially vital business need assessment on their clients business.

The results of these assessments could be that the proposed candidate criteria isn’t what the client actually needs. A recruiter could realise this and save their clients untold costs by giving an informed opinion on what they do need. This was once classed as a separate service that clients may not want to pay for. It had to be this way for recruiters to dedicate their valuable time to do it. Now they have the time, it could become a basic task that a recruiter can easily perform. Recruitment then becomes more than a necessary process. But one that has the potential to improve a business’s overall performance.

This is also a great way for recruiters and recruitment agencies to improve their reputations. They will have stronger relationships with clients and provide more value adding services. But thanks to chatbot technology their recruiters can also manage more clients. And place more candidates in far less time. This primes recruitment businesses for dramatic growth and enables recruiters to earn more.

This is what recruitment in the digital age looks like. The digital duo of human recruiters and their chatbot assistants. Working together to streamline the recruitment process. Chatbots take care of all the boring Top-of-Funnel tasks and the outcomes they can produce will be far more valuable. Recruiters get to focus on the work that fulfills them; they get to do more engaging tasks and on a deeper level. This will result in more earning potential and growth for recruitment businesses.