Improving the Candidate Experience with Conversational AI
- By Harri Insider Team | July 6, 2023
Conversational AI is receiving that much more attention from the mainstream media with each passing day for good reason. Every day people mistakenly yet understandably assume conversational AI is exactly the same as a conventional conversational AI chatbot. In reality, the two technologies have slight substantive differences as detailed below.
Conversational AI is proving especially effective in the context of hospitality industry employee recruitment. This technology enhances the candidate experience from the beginning of the hiring process to the end. Conversational AI can facilitate interactions between hiring managers and job candidates in real time, creating a 24/7 candidate engagement bridge.
Moreover, conversational AI is also beneficial as it streamlines the application process, making the hiring journey that much easier for both employers and employees in the hospitality industry.
Understanding Conversational AI
If you haven’t read about conversational AI or have only heard about it in passing, rest easy with the understanding that you are not alone. Conversational AI chatbots are playing an increasingly important role in the recruitment process through the simulation of human conversations with natural language processing, referred to with the acronym of NLP.
NLP is an AI field that empowers computers to better understand and process language used by people. In short, this technology is an informative means of engaging in dialogue between computers and job-seekers or other human parties depending on the context.
Though conversational AI has been used for years in the context of customer support assistance to foster strong client relationships, it has rapidly evolved into something much more complex. It is now possible to have conversations with computers that resemble those that occur with actual human beings. Conversational AI accomplishes these seemingly miraculous achievements with the processing of data in mere milliseconds.
Conversational AI chatbot technology is also powered by machine learning that replicates human interactions. The underlying aim of conversational AI chatbots is to solve problems by providing answers to user inquiries in a manner that imitates a real person, essentially creating the impression that the technology’s user is engaging in conversation with an intelligent being.
As is often said, the most efficient way to understand or learn something new is to ask a party that already has the desired knowledge. Instead of tasking your experienced human resources representatives, hotel or restaurant manager, or other professionals with interacting with job-seekers in question-and-answer sessions, you could ask software such as Harri’s Carri Chat & Apply do the work. Carri helps business owners and managers succeed in connecting with difference-making candidates willing to work hard in a more efficient way than traditional job application processes.
We would be remiss to skip over the substantive differences between conversational AI chatbots such as Carri Chat and virtual customer assistants. Such virtual assistants are powered by complex conversational AI technology and strategically integrated into back-office systems for personalized and contextualized experiences that benefit employees as well as customers. Virtual customer and employee assistants are built with an overarching purpose, often highly specialized and automated to the point that they streamline highly specific operations.
Real-time Interaction through Conversational AI
Conversational AI is unique in that it engages in intelligent discourse with candidates in real-time, meaning on a second-by-second basis. Such real-time dialogue makes candidates that much more interested in the open position as well as the company itself.
Gone are the days of playing phone tag and waiting for hiring managers to return emails. Conversational AI chatbots such as Carri engage in immediate interactions with candidates that ramp up interest in the open positions with an immediate influx of helpful and insightful information. This technology automates the pre-screening process to shine the spotlight on the most qualified candidates. The technology filters through applications, resumes, and text from conversations for mutually beneficial matchmaking that saves time for both employers and potential employees.
Conversational AI chatbot technology is advanced to the point that it helps job-seekers transition to through the hiring process stages with minimal or even no human resources intervention. The end result is a liberating of hiring managers and recruiters to square their focus on more challenging endeavors.
Conversational AI: Beyond Immediate Response
Conversational AI technology has quickly advanced to the point that it personalizes candidate experiences. AI collects and studies industry-relevant data to tailor communication that helps both restaurant owners and managers as well as employees. A fully personalized candidate experience made possible by conversational AI prevents candidates from enduring frustration during the hiring process.
Make the shift to conversational AI and you’ll find job descriptions are crystal clear and hiring deadlines are properly set and understood for mutual benefit. If you are on the fence as to whether conversational AI is worth the small investment, consider the fact that more than half of all job-seekers look elsewhere when job ads lack meaningful information. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of job-seekers move on to other opportunities mid-application if the process is too time-consuming or complex.
Let conversational AI take on the monotony of recruiting and you’ll find the applicant experience is enjoyable to the point that your business not only finds the best contributors but also keeps them on board for the long haul.
Streamlining the Application Process with Conversational AI
Timing is everything in life and work. Time equates to money, especially when it comes to finding, hiring, onboarding and retaining hospitality industry employees. Streamline your application process with conversational AI, highlighted by Carri technology, and you’ll whittle down the pack of candidates to those who are the optimal fit for the open position. Conversational AI is trained to ask highly specific and relevant questions, respond to inquiries with accurate information and ultimately streamline the application process.
As an example, Carri Chat & Apply helps hospitality businesses add staff through unbiased dialogue. Our technology is a golden opportunity to hire quickly and ultimately preserve your managers’ time and effort. Ask hotel and restaurant owners and managers about the merits using of conversational AI in their hiring process and you’ll find they testify that it has revolutionized the hiring experience. This conversational AI tool humanizes the journey of hiring, empowering candidates to commence the application experience with messaging, scanning or texting.
The application and communication cycles are easily managed through text messages, chats on the web directly from your company’s careers page, or even social media messaging. Carri is more than a basic chatbot in that it transmits messages that prompt candidates to take action, ultimately facilitating mutually beneficial social interactions. This technology pinpoints the best possible talent for your open roles so you don’t end up wasting time pursuing unqualified candidates.
Carri questions can be tailored to your unique brand, specific restaurant/hotel locations, and the nuances of open roles. Carri also simplifies the coordination of interviews by handling the entirety of the underlying scheduling and logistics for informative interviews. The technology automates everything from reminders for interviews to communication with candidates and more. The end result is a significant savings of time, effort, and money.
Moreover, Carri also lends assistance after interviews, collecting information from candidates to grease the wheels of the hiring process. In short, Carri efficiently transforms applications into actual conversations that don’t chew up hiring managers’ time and energy. It simply doesn’t get any more efficient than that.
The Transformational Impact of Conversational AI on Recruitment
Fast forward a couple of decades into the future and you will find conversational AI and AI as a whole are the defining characteristics of the recruiting industry. This technology paves a path toward timely and efficient hiring that benefits both hospitality industry employers and employees.
Give our Carri Chat conversational technology a try and you’ll find it provides your business with a meaningful competitive advantage, helping you connect with “rainmaker” employees who are a significant net positive and add that much more to the bottom line.
Harri: A Partner in Elevating Hospitality Management
Harri’s employee experience platform was strategically designed for the hospitality industry’s frontlines. If you own, manage or hire for a hotel or restaurant, you will greatly benefit from our platform including Carri Chat. We make it easy to surmount the hurdles of talent acquisition, tracking applicants, onboarding new additions, scheduling, and enhancing employee engagement.
We proudly serve more than 20,000 hotels and restaurants that employ nearly five million employees across the globe. Contact us today to request a demo of our technology.
