Natural Conversations with candidates right on your pages

Last couple of years has seen a constant buzz about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and how or not it applies to Human Resources. From completely re-imagining a machine led future to a self comforting “Human touch is not for machines”. The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between. AI is still evolving and likely would morph into more of a pragmatic assistant role just like most of the machines have been in the last 2 centuries.

So, why the noise when it comes to Talent , Recruiting and Candidates?

Turns our there are good reasons. For one there is lot of optimism because some of the fundamental challenges remain in spite of technology; the problem of search and time to close.

Search and qualification

Job boards solved the search problem to a great extent. As a marketplace it became rather easy to list and be found. It’s success also meant that there were too many people searching and too many listed. To solve that came in Boolean search, etc but still failed to fundamentally broken because they are solving the problem of match and not one of fit. What’s the difference?

Match is primarily based on words in a resume and job description. Fit on the other hand is broader and often goes beyond the stated words.

And that’s the gap. Any amount of sophisticated search or machine learning models is unlikely to solve what is often an unstated requirement that comes up only when we dig deeper or get into a conversation. Be it checking for good team player or critical thinking, none of these are easy to figure out at the match stage.

Of course interviews are meant for figuring that out but turns out that slows down the process. So, can’t be a guided process? Like ecommerce where no one is trying to make a match. User self selects!

There are problems with self selection and in accurate self assessment but then resume is a self assessment statement anyways. A little deeper into topic reveals a different limitation. The limitation of time and ability to connect and converse with candidates to figure out if there is a good “FIT”.

Enter “Virtual Recruiter Bots”, that are capable of short conversations to enrich data, collect supporting information and at the same time guide the candidate to self select.

Take care of the routine

Typical open position in Tech, Sales & Marketing or similar roles take more than 40 days to close. When about 3–4 hrs are actual interview time, it means a lot of time things are waiting on someone. Be it waiting for calendar slots for interview or interviewer feedback or documentation etc. it is still mostly waiting. This happens and most cases unavoidable to umpteen other priorities on the plate.

Why don’t we let Virtual Recruiters (VR) take care of the mundane / repeat

Human Touch matters. But then what matters more is speed of closure. Given a choice between a week to close with interactions supported by VR v/s 4 weeks with occasional interactions with the recruiting team. For most the choice is obvious. Speed matters which explains why fast food works.

NLP on the job

Web and mobile apps did make real time, self service interfaces work just fine. Recruiting however has been a challenge due to variability of types of conversation one needs to be have. It isn’t like buying a shirt where you select size, color and style and that’s it. The variables involved are many and there requires richer capability to guide the interaction. Natural Language Processing (NLP) checks in right here. Machine Learning based models make it possible to understand user messages and invoke suitable actions. Last couple of years we have seen how smart speakers have shaped user interactions driving through simplicity. NLP models make that possible and same applies to Talent conversations as well.

See how Emploai Virtual Recruiter can deliver just that kind of experience for you to find the fit cases and close fast. It is advantage business.