Using AI to Boost Engagement in the Pre-Onboarding Process

Using AI to Boost Engagement in the Pre-Onboarding Process

Seamless onboarding during recruiting is essential to organizational sustainability in a volatile labor market. Although artificial intelligence has arrived as a godsend for many business functions, including HR, certain implementations of the process-driven technology aren’t yet airtight.

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According to a recent Sage report that quizzed organizations regarding their willingness to implement the latest HR technologies, 43% of respondents responded by saying that they won’t be able to keep up with tech changes over the next decade. This creates a very alarming outlook, especially considering that a new job opening, on average, takes 42 days to fill.

Although the filtering of prospective candidates is handled by HR experts, the corresponding stages of the onboarding process are explicitly time-intensive. The introduction of AI chatbots for employee onboarding thus can not only improve the experience of the new recruit, but it can also free HR staff to concentrate their efforts on more critical matters.

The Reasons Why AI Matters

From informing candidates of the interview procedure to helping new hires get acquainted with the job role, chatbots can efficiently supplement HR functions without any human intervention. In fact, 24% of companies are already using AI for talent acquisition, while 87% of CEOs wish to modernize their HR processes using AI bots. This upward trend in the increased uptake of HR technology is indicative of a larger organizational shift of companies using AI to simplify the onboarding process for new hires so as to keep their engagement levels at a high.

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The onboarding phases, from interviews to proposals to mediation to acceptance, will tell you a lot about the company you’re going to join. In these situations, onboarding is a key factor that is often overlooked. This can often mean the difference between new employees staying engaged or becoming disengaged.

This is especially true of the suggestible millennials, who are new to the workforce and might have no idea about what to expect. According to a study by Click Boarding, 33% of new recruits leave their jobs as a consequence of poor onboarding within six months. However, the same study also found out that, when provided with a great onboarding experience, as many as 69% of employees stay back with a company for long and also contribute to greater productivity.

How Can We Use AI To Boost Engagement in the Pre-Onboarding Process

AI chatbots can automate tasks, thereby eliminating any need for human labor and speeding up the entire process to make the recruiting process more seamless. Here, we’ll take a look at how these bots can improve engagement in the pre-onboarding phase.

Improved Pre-Joining Experience

As per a LinkedIn report, a slightly negative experience could have an impact on a potential hire’s resolve in terms of joining an organization. Also, the time gap between hires being extended an offer to them joining the organization can be of several weeks, thus worsening the experience of the employee even before joining.

Chatbots can aid HR personnel to maintain frequent communication with new hires and provide them with continuous updates, alerts, and notifications. Chatbots can aid HR personnel to maintain frequent communication with new hires and provide them with continuous updates, alerts, and job & role descriptions to foster a positive candidate experience. This empowers the recruit and induces a sense of belonging within them.

Simplified Administrative Procedures

AI chatbots can facilitate HR functions by streamlining the necessary paperwork processes. These bots can offer a rundown of corporate policies to new hires and provide login credentials for corporate software and portals that are relevant to their job.

Chatbots can also optimize paperwork management so that essential tasks requiring human intervention can be carried out by HR professionals. These bots can monitor whether a document has been carefully read and capture signatures digitally as new recruits go through them, eliminating the need for HR to do this manually.

Streamlined Communication and Coordination

Many organizations often understaff their HR departments and subsequently overburden them, thereby affecting the recruit’s initial experience and the efficiency of the onboarding process. This results in an increased risk of poor information transmission, thus making the whole procedure more vulnerable to error.

In such situations, HR bots can understand the difficulties and ensure a more consistent onboarding process. The capabilities of support and predictive analysis that these bots have can help them identify recurring process problems and chaperone new recruits through the entire process by constantly being in communication with them.


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Enhanced Handling of Queries

Many recruits mostly have the same concerns from the HR department, such as questions about shifts and lunch hours, leave and vacation policies, etc. Having the HR department occupied with such issues can often be a costly affair.

Chatbots, however, can address these FAQs in a precise manner. Employees being onboarded can also feel at ease requesting details on policies such as discrimination at the workplace, childbirth, compensational pay, etc.

Conclusion

AI chatbots for HR have the potential to allow workers to communicate seamlessly through common correspondence channels and legacy enterprise applications. This helps you to reform your HR department and make the most of your current infrastructure.

About the Author –
Srushti Shah - Guest Author Srushti Shah is an ambitious, passionate and out of the box thinking woman having a vast exposure in Digital Marketing. She is working as a Digital Marketer and Content writer at Acquire. Her key focus is to serve her clients with the latest innovation in her field leading to fast and effective results. Working beyond expectations and delivering the best possible results in her professional motto. Other than work, she loves traveling, exploring new things and spending quality time with family.