Today, technology is advancing faster than the speed of light. It’s no surprise — HR professionals are turning to chatbots for a helping hand. These AI-powered bots are more than a trendy addition to the HR team – they’re a game changer. With the ability to automate everything from onboarding and training to performance evaluations and benefits inquiries, HR chatbots are freeing up valuable time for HR professionals to focus on what truly matters – their people.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the top benefits of HR chatbots and provide five simple steps to creating an HR helpdesk chatbot for your business. We’ll also cover common use cases and the best platforms for HR chatbots.
Let’s start with the basics:
What is an HR chatbot?
A Human Resources (HR) chatbot is a virtual assistant that can easily replicate human interactions. You can quickly interact with job applicants, new team members, or current employees. This cutting-edge technology offers automated solutions to many of the time-consuming tasks associated with HR, including candidate screening, interview scheduling, employee onboarding, and more.
These digital assistants serve as a bridge between employees and the HR department. They help to streamline processes and improve communication.
Companies are making massive strides toward investing in HR technology and artificial intelligence (AI) over the next two years. In fact, an overwhelming 97% plan to increase their investments, with nearly half of them channeling it into AI.
But why are they so important?
Automate Your Work
Capacity’s enterprise AI chatbot can help:
- Answer FAQs anytime, anywhere
- Find relevant documents within seconds
- Give surveys and collect feedback
They can save valuable time and resources. HR chatbots can handle routine tasks for you. Let an HR chatbot schedule interviews, update employee records, and answer frequently asked questions. Plus, they are available 24/7, meaning employees can access HR services outside regular business hours. It’s like having a personal HR assistant at your fingertips! Chatbots can provide a more personalized experience. An HR chatbot can offer tailored solutions by learning an employee’s preferences. With all these benefits, it’s no wonder HR chatbots are the future of modern HR.
Let’s dive into the benefits in more detail.
Top benefits of HR chatbots
Some of the most notable advantages of using HR chatbots include:
Increased efficiency and accuracy
Chatbots automate mundane and repetitive tasks. The bot can schedule interviews or book conference rooms for your team. This then frees up HR personnel to focus on more strategic tasks. In general, this improved efficiency allows organizations to operate more smoothly and cost-effectively.
Chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) to understand employee requests and provide accurate information in real-time. This eliminates the possibility of human error and saves you time and money.
Improved Communication
With an always-available chatbot, employees can quickly get answers to FAQs without waiting for a response from the HR team.
HR chatbots are great at communicating with remote or geographically-dispersed teams. They also provide a secure and reliable platform for employees to access HR services any time — day or night.
See how Capacity’s HR and Finance team uses the platform to automate time-consuming tasks.
Enhanced Employee Experience
HR chatbots can offer personalized solutions. They analyze an employee’s past interactions, preferences, and feedback. And then, with this info, they create a more intuitive and satisfying user experience.
HR chatbots are the perfect tool for making the employee experience more efficient, productive, and enjoyable. Gone are the days of mind-numbing email threads and boring phone calls to HR reps. With modern chatbots, employees can access important HR information with just a few clicks, no matter where they are.
Improved Recruiting Processes
Are you tired of sifting through a mountain of resumes to find a few qualified candidates? Fear not! HR chatbots are here to revolutionize the recruiting process. HR chatbots help connect recruiters with potential candidates to assess job qualifications quickly.
Chatbots offer a more efficient means of communication. But their true potential lies in how they can help improve the recruiting process. By implementing chatbots, you can streamline communication and collect data on potential candidates. Ultimately, you’ll make quicker and better hiring decisions.
Increased Engagement
Chatbots may seem like a simplistic, hands-off approach to HR communication. However, they can significantly impact how teams interact. The increased engagement that comes with using HR chatbots means that employees have access to prompt and accurate information. Everyone can stay on the same page.
Not only does this improve communication and efficiency, but it also empowers employees. Allow your team to take control of their own HR needs. There’s no need to wait on hold for hours only to receive a generic response that doesn’t even answer your question. Chatbots enable HR teams to focus on more pressing issues. In the meantime, you can still give every attention the time and attention they deserve. Plus, who doesn’t love a quick, witty response from a chatbot? It’s like having a helpful colleague who never gets tired of answering your questions.
How to create an HR helpdesk chatbot in 5 steps
Creating an HR helpdesk chatbot is a great way to streamline employee-HR communication and improve the overall efficiency of your organization. Here are five simple steps to get started:
1. Define Your Chatbot’s Goals
The first step is to define the goals and objectives of your HR chatbot. Think about the tasks that you want it to be able to handle and how you want it to interact with employees. This will help guide the design process and ensure your chatbot meets its intended purpose. Here are some questions to help jog your brain:
- Which tasks take the most time to complete?
- What are some of the most frequently asked questions my team receives?
- What groups are involved in each process?
2. Choose a Chatbot Platform
There are many different chatbot platforms to choose from. Researching and selecting the one that will best meet your needs is essential. Some things to consider are the platform’s integration capabilities, pricing, and customer support.
Hint: We list several great options at the end of this article!
3. Design Your Conversational Flow
Once you have chosen a platform, it’s time to design the conversation flow of your HR helpdesk chatbot. This includes setting up dialogues with users, developing workflow automation systems, selecting appropriate language and phrases for responses, and more.
This may sound overwhelming, but HR chatbot platforms like Capacity make it easy to configure complex processes.
4. Train Your Bot
After you have designed your conversational flow, it’s time to train your bot to handle employee queries. Provide the AI chatbot with a catalog of potential questions and responses. Then, let it learn how to respond in different scenarios.
5. Implement Your Bot
The final step is to implement your chatbot into your HR system. This step includes connecting it to existing systems, such as an applicant tracking system (ATS) or customer relationship management (CRM) platform. You’ll want to set up user access controls and launch it on company websites or other channels. Once implemented, you can start testing your chatbot and ensure it works correctly before rolling it out to employees.
HR chatbot use cases
Here are a few of the most common HR chatbot examples:
Recruiting and Onboarding
HR chatbots can automate the recruitment process. They gather information from job applicants, schedule interviews, and provide feedback in real-time. Additionally, your team can use your chatbot to onboard new employees more quickly and efficiently. With HR chatbots, automate processes such as collecting employment documents or giving virtual tours of the office. An overwhelming majority of employees (88%) feel their onboarding program needs more resources to set them up for success. Intelligent chatbots can help solve this problem.
Employee Retention
HR chatbots can offer personalized tips and guidance to employees. Use bots to help them stay engaged and motivated throughout their employment. They can then identify potential areas of improvement, track performance indicators, and recognize employee achievements.
Automate Your Work
Capacity’s enterprise AI chatbot can help:
- Answer FAQs anytime, anywhere
- Find relevant documents within seconds
- Give surveys and collect feedback
Benefits Administration
HR chatbots are an excellent way for employees to quickly access information about their benefits package. Employees then won’t have to contact HR directly. They can also provide real-time updates on policy changes and help employees process claims more efficiently.
Employee Self-Service
HR chatbots can make it easier for employees to access the information they need when they need it. For example, maybe an employee wants to check their PTO balance. A chatbot can give that info, help them request time off, or submit expense reports.
Employee Engagement
HR chatbots are fantastic for encouraging employee engagement and collaboration. They can facilitate team conversations, generate feedback on projects or ideas, and provide personalized recognition messages. This can help employees feel more connected to their team and the organization.
Compliance
HR chatbots can be used to ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulations. They can provide timely reminders about deadlines or training requirements, keep track of employee records, and even flag potential risks that may require additional action from HR personnel.
HR chatbots are quickly becoming an essential tool for modern businesses. Not only do they save valuable time and resources. They can also improve communication, engagement, and employee experience across the organization.
Best HR chatbots on the market
The best HR chatbots on the market are efficient, user-friendly, and offer a range of features to help streamline employee recruitment, onboarding, and retention processes. Here are a few of the top ones:
Capacity
Capacity is an AI-powered HR chatbot platform that can be used for recruitment, onboarding, and employee engagement. It uses NLP and conversational AI to understand user requests and provide accurate information in real-time. Capacity can answer over 90% of FAQs for HR professionals, freeing them up to focus on more strategic, relationship-building tasks. It integrates with popular HR tools like ADP, BambooHR, and others.
Capacity offers a customizable dashboard to track progress, create automated workflows, and measure results. Plus, you can try it for free!
PolyHR
PolyHR is an AI-driven HR platform that offers real-time support for employee queries. It utilizes machine learning to answer questions accurately and provide personalized recommendations. Additionally, use bots to automate key HR processes such as onboarding and benefits management.
Unilever Bot
Unilever Bot is a conversational AI assistant designed to help employees with recruitment, onboarding, engagement, and more. The bot uses natural language processing (NLP) technology to understand user requests better and offer tailored solutions based on their preferences.
Workato
Workato is a chatbot platform designed to simplify and automate HR processes. It offers powerful features such as automated onboarding, interview scheduling, and candidate screening.
Want to automate over 90% of your tedious HR tasks? Try Capacity for free today!
