Chatbots. Discuss

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By James Coyle

A time-saving technical advance or a depersonalised obstruction – chatbots can divide opinion. But Yodel were keen to discover if using a chatbot on their careers site could deliver results for them.

Yodel attract a high volume of candidates to their careers site, with some confused by the number of different driving opportunities they can choose from. The aim of introducing chatbot technology was to ease this user journey.

The chatbot works like a ‘match-me-bot’. So rather than candidates taking a wrong turn on the careers site, the chatbot walks (or talks) them through the available opportunities. It asks applicants set questions to help define their career choice and matches them to the driving opportunity that most suits their skills, experience, circumstances and ambitions.

It really works.

It’s improved the candidate experience

The chatbot enables people to select or deselect themselves for various driving opportunities based on the questions they are asked and the answers they provide, giving candidates a greater understanding of the roles available to them. Importantly, as the chatbot is available 24/7, applicants can (and do) interact with it at times suitable to them. Be that before work, after work, or in their lunch hour. Added to which, if their application goes further, a ‘selection-bot’ means that candidates can input their answers to selection questions online, in their own time, rather than over the phone at a pre-defined one. Making the whole process more flexible and accessible.

It saves recruiters time

An incredible amount of time. As recruiters don’t have to get involved in the application process until a much later stage, when candidates have a clearer understanding of the role they are applying for. And this greater up-front understanding results in less drop-out further down the process too.

It’s delivering great results

In the first 7 days of introducing chatbot technology, Yodel had 1,032 screenings via chatbot with a fantastic 97% positive user experience ratings. And, if you work on the basis that each chatbot screening takes, on average, 15 minutes, then in the first 7 days alone Yodel saved just over 32 working days in applicant screening time.

So, chatbots…a time-saving technical advance, or a depersonalised obstruction? For Yodel, the results speak for themselves.