Chatbots are being used in various industries and have proven to be successful in the HR industry as well. They take care of routine HR tasks with ease like scheduling interview, sending reminders etc. Chatbots are a great way to simplify pre-screening process being convenient for not only the HR professionals but also the applicants.
The pre-screening stage happens right before scheduling interviews and further evaluating the candidate. Pre-screening entails shortlisting candidates from a pool of resumes per the role at hand. It also determines if the applicant is qualified to do the job the company is hiring.
The filtering in the pre-screening process decides if the candidate moves to the next round of the interview process. Pre-screening helps and employer prepare for the interview and also gather information about the applicant. This saves both time of the applicant as well as the HR.
It allows the applicant understand the roles and responsibilities of a job and also provides access to the compensation package, benefits, nature of work, or any additional information about the organization. Pre-screening is important as it ensures quality candidates on board
Challenges faced by HR on pre-screening process
Pre-screening is a time-consuming procedure. In a time when most job interviews are offline, pre-screening with the traditional methods is proving outdated. With the pandemic, the demand for talent has gone up as well. In such cases with the old screening methods, HR tends to spend a considerable chunk of their time doing repeated tasks, increasing the overall hiring time. Below are some of the challenges faced by the HR during pre-screening processes
- Managing high volume talent pools
Recruiters hire year long, to manage incoming applicants is a tiresome process. During pre-screening the HR needs to filter out candidates from a massive number of applicants. This leads to either the right talent being lost in the database.
- One on one calls
To initiate the screening process HR often have to call each candidate and ask the same questions on loop, which becomes a time-consuming process. This extra time that the HR uses to call each candidate can be used for fulfilling day-to-day KPI’s and KRA’S
- Filtering the right candidates
Often times finding the right candidate from the pool of resources is a challenge faced by the HR. Having taken the screening call and asking set of questions seems like a waste of time if the applicant is not competent for the job role.
Challenges faced by applicants during pre-screening process
Manual pre-screening not only comes out as a hassle for HRs but also becomes challenging for candidates. From going through a job description and applying for a job to getting shortlisted, candidates go through many waiting periods and uncertainty. Here are some of the challenges faced by job applicants
- Lack of communication
Timings of HR and candidates often lack coordination, and this leads to lengthened HR processes. It is impossible to be available at either time of convenience, so communication gets hindered.
- Lack of Engagement
Anyone looking for a job has several things in his mind regarding the new organization, its work culture, compensation structure, job responsibilities, and more. HRs fail to give adequate time to the applicants instead of their day-to-day tasks. Their queries remain unanswered, which is why they lose interest and leave the application mid-way.
Chatbots for reducing Hiring Time with Pre-Screening Tools
One way to ensure continuous improvement and non-stagnation of hiring process efficiency are by implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is where chatbots come handy. Chatbots are AI powered chat interfaces that allows human-like conversations. In HR processes chatbots are a hassle-free, time-efficient and more engaging source in form of automation which not only solves the HR problems but also enhances applicants’ experiences.
- Custom questions
An AI powered chatbot has the ability to create custom questions which can help screen candidates in a conversational manner. This in turn helps HR through the screening and filtering of the candidates. If a candidate does not fir the job role the resume is automatically stacked of the talent pool for use later.
- General FAQ’s
For the calls that the HR has to make for the screening process, they can send in a link to the candidates requesting to connect to the chatbot. It would have all the questions that are prerequisite for screening. That way HR can screen multiple candidates at one go.
- Easy collection of data
Because the chatbot is personalized and conversational candidates feel at ease communicating with it, which means there is higher possibility of a candidate completing the conversation. This allows for complete data collection at one go.
- Handle bulk data
One major benefit of the chatbot is that it can handle bulk incoming data. Rather that screening through a million applicants it gets easier for HR to filter through candidates based on experience, ready to work, notice period etc.
How to Design Effective & Responsive Chatbots for Your Business Needs?
Designing an effective chatbot for HR with Talkk is pretty simple. Talkk’s chatbot platform is a no code, minimal effort chatbot making platform that allows you to deploy and run a chatbot in under 30 minutes. With over 100+ templates and customized templates for HR processes, creating a chatbot is a breeze. Create a chatbot in 1 2 3! Talkk to our experts to know more on HR chatbots.