How Can Chatbots Modernize HR Processes?

The Human Resources (HR) cycle, which includes preparing, sourcing, screening, selecting, hiring, onboarding, and evaluating human resources, is an on-going process. Recruiting, planning and managing workforce processes take up valuable time from an HR department.

This makes it imperative for every HR department to implement an integrated automation tool that can optimize their talent acquisition procedures and efficiently streamline the entire HR cycle. Embracing the future of automation, through technologies like chatbots, allow HR departments to modernize their processes, freeing up resources and optimizing results.

Recruitment Process Standardization

Recruitment can take up a lot of time and resources from your HR department. In fact, it can take more than 22 days for the entire recruitment process, according to a Labor market efficiency report. When you have the right chatbot flow you’re able to standardize processes to speed up the recruitment process, assisting in freeing up time for your HR department.

Simplifying and Standardizing the Application Process

A significant amount of time goes into sorting through applications for an open job position. Using a chatbot can ensure that all applicants get to answer the same set of standardized questions and complete the same assessments, enabling the HR department to evaluate candidates faster and more effectively. Hence, your HR department becomes more productive and meritocratic in comparing applicants. By using standardized criteria and procedures to evaluate applications, you are also optimizing the candidates you choose to join your business. This ensures that the best suited candidate is selected. 

Automated Communication

Communication with applicants and new recruits can take up alot of time from an HR department and can be very repetitive. A chatbot can easily and efficiently automate this process and free up time for an HR department. Once a decision is made by the HR department, or an applicant wants to check on the status of their application, the HR team’s decision-making process can be reflected in the chatbot and candidates are informed accordingly. Instead of spending time to manually notify applicants each time they progress to the next step of the recruiting process or when they have been selected or rejected, automated updates can be sent to inform them about their application’s status.

Following the hiring of a candidate comes the collection of the necessary documents, which forms part of the onboarding process. Using an automated notification process, for instance a chatbot, HR departments can save time and energy by opening up direct communication between the HR person in charge of hiring and the new employee to instantly gather the required paperwork in a more efficient way.

By modernizing your recruitment process through the use of automation tools like chatbots, you could enhance your company’s organizational growth by acquiring a highly qualified workforce at the optimal operating cost. As chatbots can optimize the acquisition process, the right person fits in the right job role, leading to minimizing and even eliminating workforce micromanagement and improved employee performance, retention and satisfaction. The use of chatbots in the recruitment process can also assist in speeding up processes that can take up a lot of valuable time, freeing up your HR department to complete more tasks and use their skills on less repetitive tasks. 

Empower Employees

Embracing automation tools, like chatbots, can enhance the Business to Employee (B2E) channel beyond talent acquisition. Chatbots can assist with employee retention and development by providing automated training sessions and assisting in conducting the evaluation of performance assessments per time-period or job description.

Many HR standard operating procedures (SOPs) consist of routine processes that, when performed manually, take lots of valuable time from the HR department. Chatbots can be used to take over procedures, and free up time for staff. Easy and flexible dynamic recruitment questionnaires, assessment forms, and other HR SOPs, such as staffing policies, benefits and compensation, training, annual reviews, employee wellness programs, and many more can be automated and communicated directly via a dedicated chatbot, saving the HR department valuable time. 

Communication between the business and employees becomes an open channel when using a chatbot and can improve response time, empowering employees by instantly providing them with up to date and valuable information. By improving and optimizing the B2E communication channel through the use of a chatbot, your HR department can enhance its employee productivity, co-operation and retention rates. While at the same time, freeing up time for your HR staff. 

Ensuring Data Compliance

As companies are required to conform to privacy policies, chatbots can ensure the protection of personal data, while also protecting the HR personnel who manage this sensitive information. Through using an automation tool to ensure your HR department is protecting personal data, your business becomes compliant with international and European data protection laws without the need to spend on extra resources to ensure compliance. Chatbots are a great tool for centralizing data and ensuring that your HR department, and your company as a whole, instantly keeps data protected and updated.

Chatbots can revolutionize your HR department by modernizing some of the processes that take up valuable time and resources. By employing a modern solution, tasks that used to require time from the personnel in your HR department can be taken over by an automated solution and may even be optimized. Recruiting the perfect candidate, providing a seamless onboarding experience, providing instant and valuable information to your employees and ensuring data compliance are some of the benefits an HR department can gain from using an automated tool, like a chatbot. Taking advantage of chatbot technology with its powerful features can provide your HR department with many benefits and can help your business grow in more modern ways. 

Creating a chatbot can also be very easy, especially if you select the tool that’s right for your business. Using WayMore’s innovative Chatbot Solutions can help you harness the power of chatbot technology with built-in, ready-to-use templates and scenarios, which can directly be used or easily customized to perfectly fit many business needs. Create your chatbot flow using WayMore’s visual drag-and-drop components and flexibly connect with third-party apps using our simple API.

Soti Vayena, Senior Digital Marketing Manager for Routee, a business unit of AMD Telecom