Using AI-based chatbots for employee engagement, businesses are changing the face of interaction with employees for the better. This includes developing strong interaction with employees, answering every query from an employee flawlessly, and building a bond of trust and transparency.

Did you Know? According to IBM, “Chatbots present the option to reduce 24×7 staffing expenses or even eliminate after-hours staffing costs.” Organizations are now trusting AI tools for various tasks including administrative ones. One such task where AI is making its mark is the implementation of chatbots for employee engagement. 

In this blog, let’s understand what we mean by the term chatbots for employee engagement, what are the use cases of a chatbot for employee engagement, and how to choose the right chatbot.

What is Chatbot for Employee Engagement? 

Employee engagement chatbots are AI-powered tools that use natural language processing to create human-centric interaction with employees. They take up the role of HR to engage with employees on a day-to-day basis thereby assisting them with any query.

For instance, if an employee wants to know about their pending vacation days, they can ask the chatbot and get an instant reply, instead of going back and forth with the HR or portals. It can also assist with questions like company policies, employee benefits like insurance coverage, and others. 

Moreover, if we talk about the HR perspective, it saves a lot of time and energy by automating receptive tasks. This saved time can then be utilized for other productive activities. 

Use Cases of Chatbots in Employee Engagement

Expecting HR executives to document each employee’s details in a particular format. If the HR department is focusing on big-picture initiatives like strategy formulation and employee benefit programs, they can’t focus on repetitive and minor tasks. To minimize the workload and divert their energy onto more productive and urgent tasks, it is crucial to integrate chatbots for employee engagement. However, which tasks we can implement chatbots for is something that we have covered below. Let’s take a closer look at each of these:

Screening and Recruitment

Recruitment processes can take too much time, and sometimes the whole process can even take days or even weeks to be completed. Using a chatbot can reduce the days for the primary screening process by cutting down the talent pool.

For instance, let’s suppose a company receives hundreds of applications for the position of software engineer,  the chatbot can conduct the initial rounds of screening. This can be done by asking candidates about their experience, pay scale expectations, and other job requirements. Based on this, the chatbot can assess whether the candidate fits the criteria or not. In case the candidate passes the first round, the chatbot can also administer a quick 10-minute test. This will narrow down the search to only double digits in many cases. 

This seamless screening process will help the HR team focus on more important tasks like interviewing the candidate at later stages. Moreover, this will also improve the quality of candidates being hired by aligning the job role with the right fit. 

Employee Onboarding 

Onboarding is another important but repetitive process with HRs helping the new employees get accustomed to company policies. This can get hectic and take up a lot of time, with HRs preparing PPTs and modules to help the candidate become familiar with the new environment. Chatbots, on the other hand, can help the employee with this process, by providing instant query resolution. 

According to arabot.io, “AI chatbots can analyze user data and behavior to create tailored onboarding paths for each new customer.”

This can give HR more time to build a healthy employee relationship and create a welcoming environment. 

Employee Support

Often, employees need instant query resolution in matters like leave balance or appraisal date. Otherwise, going back and forth with HR can be exhausting and time-consuming. On the other hand, AI chatbots can give an immediate response to any such query. In the long run, this enhances employee satisfaction and gives the HR department time to prioritize other important activities.

This can be ascertained by the fact that as per resolve.ai, surveyed companies save up to 80% of costs by reducing the time spent on HR tasks. 

Employee Satisfaction

Even though many organizations are still using annual surveys to gather employee feedback, these often produce outdated results that do not align with long-term goals. HR Chatbots are an effective way to reduce dependence on HR departments by gathering real-time employee feedback, job satisfaction, training needs, and work-life balance. 

By providing 360-degree assistance, chatbots enhance employee engagement and the employer-employee relationship, producing effective results. It’s even better if you are using a AI chatbot that gives intuitive responses and can connect with employees in a human-centric manner. 

Offboarding 

When we talk about employee offboarding, sometimes the employee may need to join another organization immediately after the notice period ends. In this situation, the back-and-forth with the HR department regarding, clearance forms, final settlement, and other documents can be tiring. 

Chatbots for employee engagement minimize this situation by generating and delivering documents automatically without any back and forth. They can also assist the employees with the offboarding process via automated email reminders. This helps in a smooth offboarding which leaves the employee with a positive impact. 

How To Select the Right Chatbot for Employee Engagement?

We know that chatbots for employee engagement can resolve numerous day-to-day queries seamlessly. They can act in a precise and fast manner thereby fostering a good employer-employee relationship. But how do you know if you are choosing the right chatbot for your business needs?

It is vital to note that every company has its own set of requirements, whether it’s improving workforce efficiency, automating HR processes, or resolving routine queries. Identifying these needs is crucial for you to choose the right chatbot for employee engagement. 

Once the requirements are clear, you can start exploring the right chatbots and then make an informed choice. Let’s understand a few factors that you need to keep in mind before choosing a chatbot for employee engagement:

• Customization: Make sure to opt for a chatbot that is scalable and can adapt to ever-evolving employee needs.
• Query resolution: A database of predesigned questions for instant query resolution.
• Advanced AI-powered capabilities: Features like machine learning, natural language processing, and AI-powered analytics offer seamless interaction with employees. 
• 24/7 Availability: All-round support for employees to provide instant query resolution. 

Conclusion

In this world where employee engagement and satisfaction are the two most important pillars of a balanced corporate life, taking care of both these factors in an efficient manner is extremely important. This may be achieved by integrating AI-powered chatbots with employee engagement, thereby supporting HR departments efficiently and maintaining team collaboration as well as productivity.

As we move forward, better chatbots with more advanced features can be expected and for that effective integration needs to start today. This will pave the way for a more scalable HR infrastructure, ensuring efficient innovation.