Artificial Intelligence Will Help Hire Employees

Rising employment costs in call centres? AI, Chatbots and Voicebots as the answer to recruitment problems and growing hotline costs

Rising employment costs in call centres?

Rising minimum wage, falling unemployment, problems with recruiting consultants – these are just some of the reasons driving up the costs of hotlines and call centre departments in companies. Customer service is becoming more and more expensive. The remedy lies in solutions that increase consultant productivity or automate the handling of the most common issues. Chatbots, which are also relevant here, also help in recruiting agents.

According to a Forrester Research report, as many as 87% of CEOs want to modernise their workforce using artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, McKinsey experts point directly to employment-related matters and estimate that around 22% of HR functions are already ready for automation. Time tracking, employee attendance or payroll matters are the simplest to automate, followed closely by archiving and reporting. HR departments, by delegating part of their work to HR Chatbots, can focus on strategic planning and building employee relations, where the human factor is key.

Virtual Advisors – Chatbots and Voicebots – are most often discussed in the context of customer service – they provide enormous support for the team and allow companies to optimise costs. However, it is worth highlighting their capabilities in internal processes – recruitment, onboarding new employees and conducting periodic training.

Relieving the hotline through automation of even 15–20% of recurring issues translates into a genuinely lower cost of employment

Relieving the hotline through automation

Leading global brands are introducing automation solutions – for the hotline, forms and chat alike. The goal is to support consultants, not replace them. Their knowledge and soft skills guarantee high service quality and the so-called customer experience. Artificial intelligence supports specialists in repetitive tasks that do not add greater value to the company, e.g. do not increase conversion or sell new products or services.

Companies are currently struggling with issues related to the so-called employee's market – there is a shortage of willing candidates, they often have excessive expectations, and their salaries are rising at a drastic pace. All these issues are particularly important, especially in mass recruitment at large corporate Call Centres or outsourcing companies. This is precisely where Virtual Assistants – Chatbots and voice assistants – Voicebots – are the solution to the problem.

Increasingly widely used Chatbots conduct conversations using automatic chat – text only. Voicebots (Voice Chatbots), thanks to the development of voice technology, recognise users' voice commands and respond to queries using both voice and text.

Omni-channel agent consoles minimise switching between screens and increase productivity

Omni-channel agent consoles

The screen on which an agent works and the intuitiveness of call centre software have a significant impact on their productivity.

A few years ago, agents worked with 1, at most 2 channels – the hotline and a form. Today it is at least a voice channel, text channel, social, sometimes video, while simultaneously needing to monitor the customer card or shopping basket.

When considering hotline automation, it is worth working with a software provider that will also equip consultants with the right tool for handling queries and viewing Chatbot or Voicebot conversations. Omni-channel Support is a multifunctional interface – CRM, customer card, store stock levels, a tool for handling the hotline, forms, chat – all in one place, on one screen. Consultants no longer have to use different programs and click between screens. Companies still often use multiple systems, fearing integration – unnecessarily, and implementing AI for customer service is a good moment to also streamline other customer contact channels.

Faster consultant onboarding

Faster consultant onboarding

Millennials, but not only them, who form the core of today's hotline teams, reject training through traditional manuals and expect engaging content and attractive materials, video, efficient searching across company resources. This forces companies to present knowledge and key information differently – no longer in the form of long scripts or PDF documents, where finding the answer to a question takes time and a lot of patience. Dedicated applications supporting employees in providing instant answers to queries in real time, intelligent information search through Conversational AI systems or semantic search engines guarantee fast onboarding, knowledge acquisition and can help reduce consultant turnover.

Automation in recruitment partially neutralises the turnover problem

Artificial intelligence in recruitment – what benefits does it bring?

With the problem of rising pay (including the minimum wage), HR departments have their hands full – hiring new employees and ongoing care for the rest of the team is an extremely time-consuming task. Especially in a Call Centre, which needs many consultants, largely students, and many of whom simply do not want to work on the phone.

Nowadays, young candidates learn differently, quickly lose interest and expect instant answers and results. What Chatbots offer us:

1. Guiding candidates through the documentation required for recruitment.

New employees must complete the basic documents required for employment, such as tax forms and sometimes also a range of other agreements, e.g. confidentiality agreements. Recruitment Chatbots/Voicebots can guide candidates through all the formalities and answer questions about how to complete forms if any ambiguity arises.

2. Introducing them to company policy.

Part of the paperwork also includes introducing employees to company policy – documents related to HR policy on leave or standard operating procedures for the new team of employees. Thanks to Virtual Assistants, an employee can save time and ask the application about all sorts of sometimes trivial matters – instead of asking a colleague or the HR department.

3. Familiarising them with the history of the team and the company.

Learning about the achievements of the company and the team, future projects and goals is a critical part of the recruitment process. Employees can ask questions about their team's place in the company structure and the role it has played over the years.

4. Managing working time and shifts in the company.

Chatbots or Voicebots can also check employees' progress in the onboarding process or the required level of knowledge about projects. They can also serve as a virtual time clock, e.g. for employee shift handover on a mobile device.

5. Surveys and training.

Virtual Assistants also work well for surveying or upskilling employees – they can, for example, anonymously check opinions about working at the company and internal processes, or initiate quizzes refreshing knowledge on security or data protection issues.

Recruiting a team of consultants will not get any easier – increasing consultant productivity and automation will help maintain margins and the costs of help centres

AI in HR, artificial intelligence will accelerate employee onboarding, as it allows the format of conveying long PDFs, manuals and service books to be refreshed – next-generation search instantly connects threads and suggests solutions and answers to employees' burning questions. Virtual Assistants are an effective self-service solution that increases work efficiency both within the company and in customer service, by reducing the number of recurring queries. AI makes it possible to modernise the HR department and fully leverage investments in HR infrastructure.

Summary

Automation using chatbots and voicebots responds to rising employment costs and recruitment problems in call centres, relieving consultants of repetitive tasks and supporting internal processes such as recruitment and onboarding. Virtual assistants guide candidates through documentation, introduce them to company policy, manage working time and survey employees.

McKinsey experts estimate that around 22% of HR functions are ready for automation, which allows HR departments to focus on strategic planning. Companies that implement AI in customer service can also streamline other contact channels, gaining an advantage in the employee's market.