How do you maintain candidate experience when there are over 5,000 applications a week?
This is a typical situation in peak hiring when many companies are looking to fill thousands of seasonal roles each year. This holiday is no different. What is different for talent teams is that they have better technology than ever that makes it possible to maintain experience while automating large volume processes. During our show last week, Ben Gledhill revealed how the team at Yodel is doing exactly that with chatbots.
Before diving into chat, Ben took the time to understand his audience and collect data to build personas. During this process, Ben learned a lesson about generic, generational marketing advice.
“I have a big problem when people say, ‘millennials only look for jobs on this channel or older people work for people.’ I was speaking to a 16-year-old a couple of weeks ago and when I asked her where did you look for a job? I was expecting Instagram, I was expecting SnapChat. She said Indeed because it’s a jobs board. I think we need to be a little bit more realistic and talk to people.”
These conversations helped add detail to the personas. Eventually, it also helped determine the acquisition strategy and use of text recruiting and chatbots.
But high-tech wasn’t always the answer. In fact, his most successful campaign for drivers was using a cup warmer/cardboard. “We would print onto cardboard using the printer. We aren’t pushing the boundaries of innovation here. But when people would buy a cup of tea or coffee, they’d notice the paper and visit this website.”
Transitioning To Tech: Chatbots For Screening
With over 5,000 resumes coming in each week, the Yodel team needed tech after identifying a problem securing interviews at scale. Naturally, it was hard to connect and interview that many people. Chatbots made that process more seamless. Candidates are now able to schedule their own interviews and complete the pre-screening process online.
Most importantly? Candidates loved it.
“97% gave us a smiley first simply because they can do it when they want. Recruitment is a 24/7 thing today.”
Ben believes the candidate experience is simple. “It’s about giving people choices.” Technology is creating new options for them to connect with jobs. We all agree that our role is to enable that connection – to test new things and make the connection possible. Ultimately – and Ben said it best – “I don’t think candidates are scared of technology. I think we are.”
If that wasn’t enough, below Glenn shares more:
