Chatbots Are Revolutionizing the Hiring Experience

By Joshua Brennick

​It’s no secret that the hiring process can be a tiring process and that's not even including making sure you hire the right candidate for the job. An important point to remember is that it can be the same experience from the applicants point of view too.

Often times, this process can leave applicants feeling burnt out due to the application process. It doesn’t help that during this process, 65 percent of the applicants have reported never or very rarely receiving any notice on their status. Due to this old school job application process that many businesses use, it can cause a lack of communication can leave people feeling like a “number” rather than a potential asset to a company, it was eventually make them feel fatigued and finally, it can also leave the applicant with a negative view of the company. As we know today, a negative view of your organization is always risky business due to the many review outlets that are available online today. Their negative opinion which could have been prevented will not only most likely leave them from interacting with the organization in the future but there is that chance of them sharing their experience with others which has a lot of weight in terms of the research someone does before they take an action such as applying to work at your organization. For example, nearly three-quarters of candidates who have experienced a poor application process say that they later shared information about that experience online or with someone in their personal life. 

Don't worry, the scary part of this article is over and now it’s time for the good news. As technology has improved along with our understanding of the applicant experience evolving, so has our ability to utilize these improvements to update the recruiting process and fill those pipelines with quality candidates. 

Decreasing Burnout and Creating a Positive Experience
A first step to improve your hiring process is mitigating wasted time for you. As a business owner, you are most likely with the saying that “time is money” and know that your time is certainly worth money and there is only so much time in a day. In most cases, job applicants 
can spend multiple hours applying to a single job depending on how the company sets up the application process. Once an applicant has taking their time to do this, there is a very solid chance that to not hear back from that potential employer will come off as a severe lack of respect for the candidate’s time. Due to this very understandable feeling, job candidates who are not informed about their application status end up three-and-a-half times less likely to ever re-apply to that company. You could be missing out on a very valuable future asset due to a simple lack of communication. 

In a perfect world, recruiters would always be able to reply promptly but it isn’t always possible with the overwhelming amount of applications some companies get for open positions. The answer that many companies have added to solve this small but very important problem is adding a chatbot into their hiring process. While there are many advantages to using chatbots, one of the most popular feature is their ability to give fast and consistent feedback and status updates. One study showed that 92 percent of applicants felt the most significant advantage to chatbots was the speed of their responses and reactions. 

These artificial intelligence tools often can give immediate screening feedback to a candidate. They can also be used to answer frequently asked questions, keep updating a user on their application status and assist in scheduling an interview. Many of these bots can integrate with a recruiting team’s work calendar to give an applicant the ability to choose an open time slot that works best for them. These features allow for both recruiters and candidates to save an immense amount of time in the application process, as they don’t have to play phone tag, recruiters don’t have to sift through as many resumes and candidates don’t have to fill out lengthy and repetitive application forms. These higher levels of responsiveness are also associated with up to 71 percent increases in overall application-engagement, leading to a larger pool of qualified candidates. 

Making the Job Application More Accessible 
Often times, job applicants feel like they have to jump through hoops to submit an application. It isn’t uncommon to hear complaints about someone customizing a resume for a job opening, and upon uploading it, immediately having to input this same information into a form. These long applications (and soon to be outdated) can cause more than half of candidates to feel like they have had a negative experience. Many of these application layouts are hard or even impossible to access without a computer and often are very one-dimensional in terms of accessibility. 

Due to this application process experience, there has been a dramatic increase in preference for mobile- and conversation-based job applications. Rather than filling out multiple pages of forms to apply to a new role, job seekers can submit an application in minutes by answering a chatbot’s questions over text message. Indeed found that 78 percent of candidates would apply over their phones this way if they could choose. By not providing that option, you may be losing potential engagement and again, a potential future valuable asset to your organization. 

Enabling a candidate to use whatever communication platform they feel comfortable with (be it text, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.), not only conforms to what today’s society wants and is becoming increasing adapt to but it also and more importantly immediately allows them to feel more at ease with the overall process. These features can also help candidates with specific needs, such as screen readers or other accessibility tools, to converse with you without issue. 

Changing Opinions On Your Company 
As you learned in earlier in this article, having a better candidate experience can increase engagement and bring in the desired higher-value applications. Updating your job application process can also help change the public opinion of your organization. One study showed that candidates with a bad application experience are likely to take action on it. Fifty-nine percent of those interviewed said that they would tell others not to apply to the company, and 42 percent would no longer support the company’s products or services. These are some serious numbers to consider not just for finding the right candidate but how this can make an impact on your overall bottom line. They are reported that this experience also can lead to negative public reviews on sites like Glassdoor. Now from the other perspective, if the candidate had a positive experience, 88 percent would be likely to tell other people to apply to the company, and 71 percent said they would be more inclined to support the company by purchasing their products and services. Additionally, 80 percent said they would attempt to apply to the company again, while 60 percent would tell others to apply. Who doesn’t love when they find that perfect candidate AND increase profits? It’s a win-win for everyone and can be very easily accomplished! 

So, what does all of this data mean? It shows that the candidate experience can have a lasting effect on your organization and the association people have with it. Negative experiences can lead to dramatic implications, but positive experiences can secure you more future candidates and lifelong brand ambassadors. Having a candidate-focused mindset when designing your recruiting pipeline is essential, especially in a time where competition for top talent is fierce. By integrating new technology such as artificial intelligence, you can cut down on repetitive tasks for recruiters and allow them to focus on making human points of contact have a high impact. 

Happy hiring, everyone! 



JBrand Media was founded in 2013 by Joshua Brennick, 2019 recipient of  The Nashua Telegraph "40 Under Forty"  award, with the purpose of helping educational institutions and businesses utilize digital marketing to achieve their marketing and sales goals. Since the launch in 2013, JBrand Media has provided successful services to many clients and has gained recognition as being considered your outsourced Chief Digital Marketing Officer.