According to a study conducted by the German University of Bamberg in 2020, nine out of ten top-1000 companies and also nine out of ten IT companies expect HR chatbots to be used more and more frequently in the area of personnel management. According to this study, candidates themselves have similar expectations. The majority of candidates believe that chatbots in the HR field will enable faster application processes compared to the previously common procedures by mail, e-mail or form. Around 40% of candidates also think that the use of HR chatbots will make the application process easier and more comfortable.
Areas for the deployment of HR chatbots
Chatbots are small applications that interact with humans mostly via a little live chat window. In most cases, a knowledge database is stored for answering questions. This should be adapted to the particular company in which the bot is used. It is possible for such virtual assistants to be equipped with artificial intelligence and to learn continuously through interaction with users. In the field of human resources, chatbots are used in various areas and processes.
- Recruiting, Applicant Tracking System
Chatbots can support the application process in many areas. They can answer standard questions from candidates around the clock, guide the applicant through the application process, assist with scheduling interviews, and much more. The virtual assistant can provide information related to the application process. For example, data recorded by the candidate while chatting with the bot can also be automatically transferred to an applicant tracking system. Four out of ten candidates surveyed in the above-mentioned study think that it is a good way to ask questions about the company via chatbot.
- Onboarding
In onboarding, a virtual assistant can help quickly and easily, for example, with answers about the right contact person for IT problems, information and work materials, maps, documents, or even reserving rooms for a meeting or such things. Asking a chatbot a question, several times again, is usually less unpleasant for new employees than asking a real colleague a second or third time.
- Education and training
Chatbots can be used in education and training, for example, to repeat learning content. Virtual assistants can easily check learning content that has been conveyed and perform a test or repetition.
They can also assist in advising on career or training opportunities or provide information on job offers. In the area of seminar management, chatbots can be used as a source of information for dates and free places and support booking processes.
- Compliance
In the area of compliance, there are usually numerous employee questions that are asked again and again and that can be answered relatively easily and quickly by a chatbot. These can include, for example, answers to questions about invitations from customers or gift acceptance from customers, etc. The virtual assistant can then usually also immediately display the relevant passage of the company policy. It is also possible for a chatbot to name the appropriate contact person for the compliance problem or to immediately forward the relevant question to the person in question if a corresponding knowledge database is available.
- Employee Services
HR Employee Services such as absence reports, vacation requests or travel expense reports can also be mapped by means of a virtual assistant. A bot could easily answer the question about remaining vacation days, etc. For example, in the case of a sick leave notification via the system, a bot can automatically inform the responsible employee for the duty roster. Questions and answers about interim reports, application deadlines for parental leave, etc. can also be stored.
This improves the employee experience and increases employer branding at the same time.
- Employee Engagement
Chatbots can also be used in the area of feedback. They can prompt employees to provide feedback, collect feedback, and provide it to the person in charge.
What are the advantages of a chatbot?
- 24/7 availability
- Improved communication with employees and candidates
- Improved employee service
- Saves time for employees and candidates
A key advantage of virtual assistants is their 24/7 availability. A chatbot is not off work at 5 p.m. when an employee wants to submit a vacation request, or is not out on the weekend when an applicant has questions about the company and the job posting. As the first point of contact, a bot is always available.
Chatbots can communicate with candidates quickly and easily from the very first contact. At the same time, the use of a virtual assistant improves employee service and ensures time savings through leaner processes.
Employees in the home office have a contact who is available around the clock and can ensure a positive employee experience if the virtual assistant is of the right quality. In addition, the hurdle or inhibition threshold to briefly ask a bot something is usually relatively low.
Disadvantages or weaknesses of a chatbot
The virtual assistant naturally lacks emotional intelligence during "conversations" with candidates or with employees. Standard questions can of course be answered quickly and correctly, depending on the size of the knowledge database. If the question is too complicated or the answer is not available in the database, contact should be made with a human employee (human handover). This applies to the use of bots in recruiting as well as in all other areas of application. When used in recruiting, there is also a risk that suitable candidates will be sorted out of the process too early if they do not use the desired, predefined keywords.
Chatbots or the correspondingly stored databases must be continuously kept up to date. Quality assurance for the bot is thus a major challenge.
Conclusion
The possible uses for chatbots are continuously becoming more diverse, and at the same time they are also being used more and more in the HR area in companies and supplement the communication channels. The use of virtual assistants offers a whole range of advantages, but chatbots will still not be able to replace real contact with an HR employee for more complicated questions. As a supplementary "assistant", however, an up-to-date bot with an appropriately extensive knowledge database is a good support.