Chatbots, automation greet candidates scouting for jobs

Chatbots might well be a gateway to jobs as more companies embrace new hiring strategies and automation to assess behavioural traits of candidates before recruiting them.

From the traditional practice of sifting through stacks of covering letters and formal candidate profiles, the recruitment process at many a company are slowly shifting to individual interactions, either personally or digitally, before extending offer letters, according to experts.

Experts said companies are adopting various new implicit hiring ways like chatbots being used to conduct text interviews, recruitment with the help of virtual reality, crowd sourcing platforms or 'market place' where employers have live interactions with prospective candidates.

Generally, chatbots are computer programmes that interacts with people through audio or text messages.

Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) is automating the entire recruitment process wherein candidates are not required to come to meet for assessments and interviews. Shortlisted candidates are interviewed through Skype or any other recruitment-specific video software.

"These recorded videos help us find out who is a good fit and who isn't. Once we weed them out, we invite them to meet our business heads in person for the final round. This has helped us in saving time and money, resulting in better productivity of the recruitment team," Vice President (Talent Acquisition) at HGS James Job said.

The company also leverages other digital mediums such as social media channels and technology-based employee referral programmes to source candidates for specific business requirements and engage with employees and prospects.

In the last eight months, HGS -- the BPO arm of diversified Hinduja Group -- had over 43,000 registrations and made 3,000 offers through digital sources globally.

Learning company Pearson India Director (Human Resources) Ritu Agast said, "We use artificial intelligence to assess competency and personality of the candidates through psychometric assessment tools like Watson Glazer and SOSIE".

"Recruiting through virtual reality is expected to be one of the new innovation in the hiring space. Especially with the technology disruption in hiring, virtual reality simulations are clearly a much superior way to reveal the excitement of a job and a company," staffing firm TeamLease Services' Vice President (Recruitment Services) Ajay Shah said.

"We are moving away from the traditional hire for a job' to hire for potential'. Finding good talent and securing roles for them is a much better process than the other way around," SapientRazorfish APAC's Vice-President (Hiring) Naveen Narayanan said.

The company is into digital marketing activities, among others.

Dream11, a sports gaming platform said it has a referral programme 'Talent Scouts', where employees refer their friends and previous work colleagues and there are rewards for every successful hire, including trips to France, Spain, Singapore, London and even a Royal Enfield bike.

Ticket booking platform BookMyShow General Manager (Human Resources) Shamita Ghosh said, "At BookMyShow as well, we have always given preference to a candidate's attitude, knowledge, skill set and experience which determines his/ her ultimate potential".