Welcome back to another episode of the process and automation podcast with the automation guys. Last week we had a very, interesting episode about the five most valuable use cases for chat bots within companies. And we had a lot of feedback from you. Thank you very much.

And this is why we’re doing a very focused episode on internal, use cases, internal processes and use cases for chat bots. That’s what we do now, we have captured few, isn’t it Arno? Yes, that’s right Sascha, and we decided to really focus on the, on the internal use cases, because of course there’s external facing use cases as well.

And just briefly for the listeners in case you missed our previous episode, um, internal use cases are, are generally a chatbot that’s hosted with insight. Your internal organization. And this is a chat bot that deals with, let’s say human resource queries or, um, you know, help desk queries, uh, for, for, for, for users, perhaps there’s, uh, a management chat bot that could, um, you know, help with your CapEx or OPEX queries or approvals, uh, maybe there’s a virtual assistant for your sales team.

So, so these are all use cases for. You know, for internal chatbots that you deploy within such an organization. Um, and of course there’s external chatbots as well. Um, and that’s more, you know, for financial services, for example, when there’s a loan request or for healthcare where it’s, uh, uh, online triage.

Um, for, for retail, you know, it might be product information. So I think, you know, from a classification perspective that that’s kind of the two boxes we’ve put in or the chatbot categories in. Um, so, so we’re going to focus today on, uh, Uh, the internal chatbots and, um, where we see chatbot adoption for this internal use cases is, is, is specifically in HR.

Um, so you know, one of the, the, the, the, the popular use cases we see is, um, where a employee has got a. Uh, HR admin chat bot, um, uh, available to themselves. And, you know, this is all in the realm of self service and the employee, um, you know, might ask for, um, you know, specific certificates to be generated.

So this could be, I don’t know, um, uh, a letter of employment, for example, um, you know, somebody is, uh, opens a bank account and they need a letter of employment or, uh, employer reference. So since these are. Good examples of where a chatbot can actually generate that certificate, uh, for that, uh, employee, um, as a self-service send them the PDF, no HR involvement whatsoever.

Very, very good, very flexible, um, you know, excellent use case for, um, you know, for internal HR chat bot. Yeah, I think that there’s, there’s really a lot for the self services and then certificates is just one. Um, but, um, I think a very, very common one I think is also, um, Yeah, you get married. Someone gets divorced, all these different things and the circumstances are changing and, and lives and, um, uh, address, uh, address changes all these things.

Um, you usually have to communicate to your HR department because you’re. Payslips and all that stuff need to be up to date. Was your address, et cetera. And, um, uh, yeah. So this is where you could use the self-service chat bot as well. So to update your personal data, um, no new phone number, certainly, uh, next of kin is different.

So there are so many different things which are usually flying around by email and then back and forth. It’s not really the most efficient way chap. What can just take that? And, um, Yeah. And updates the backend systems. Yeah, exactly. And that’s key, right? Because I think how many companies have got sort of different places, different areas where they save employee data.

And this is key where if that personal data is updated using the chat bot interface, it is actually mirrored across all of the systems, you know, which obviously reduce, um, multiple data entry into these various systems. So excellent use case. Um, so let’s do that one on. In our list is, um, employee leave requests.

So again, part of the self-service chat bot, um, employee what’s going on, um, holiday paid time off, um, and they booked their holiday requests using the chat bot and the chatbot we take care of when the holiday starts, when it ends, make sure the employee has got sufficient leave available. Um, to, to book the particular request, part of the chatbot might actually engage the manager real time to say, you’re happy for this person to, to take holiday, to manage there might say, well, um, I will have to check my schedule.

For example, I’ll get back to you. Um, once the manager jumps on again, that conversation resumed until there’s a conclusion, very, very perfect use case for, for, for chatbots. Um, you know, no emails flying around, filling out a forms just straight to the point. Absolutely. So if you don’t have that kind of system available yet, I think some companies are still running some of these processes, like the leap request still on Excel sometimes.

And then that’s a. PDF and sent and scanned and submitted. So I think if, if you, if you have a backend system, was your HR records and you don’t have a user interface yet. Uh, there’s a really good chance for, for everyone. Who’s looking to improve that specific self-service process. You just get a chat bot in and, and get, get this stuff done.

And then obviously it opens up opportunities far more than, than that. And I think one thing we, uh, w w probably should mention here as well, these, this self-service, um, chat bots they can, or they can, um, they can be added into the intranet portal. Or one of the most attractive one recently is to really add these self-service chatbots into Slack or into Ms teams.

So where your employees already, uh, add any way quite a lot during the day. So you just go to a different channel and then start chatting was the, was the surf. So it was bought and, um, all that stuff is sorted. So I think it couldn’t be really easier. Um, And, um, you know, you don’t need to build his web applications anymore, isn’t it?

Because the chat bot can take care of those things. Yeah, that’s right. So, yeah, that’s, that’s really, really interesting point. And, um, you know, if, if we, um, look at the next one, um, which is time sheet management, and again, for time sheet management, um, you know, that’s, that’s the, the 40 years use case in, in, um, in a self service.

Um, sort of category and that’s all to do with, with your time reporting, um, you know, uh, time sheet, uh, submissions for each of the projects. Um, the registration of that, um, you know, we all dread filling out these time sheets, but you know, if a chat bot has got access to obviously the project system, uh, to Workday system, depending on, you know, what sort of backend system you use, you know, very easy to.

To, to enter your time sheets, um, and especially true for Fianna where, you know, Fiennes are probably quite critical to enter their time sheets. Um, so if there’s a really, really easy communication channel or means to do so then obviously their time sheets will, will be submitted timely accurately. And, you know, there’s this, this less, less risk of obviously leakage with inside the business where perhaps their time is not billed against the project.

And I think that’s, I think that this is very, very, very powerful, especially the reminding elements or the shepherd could really in a normal way sort of start to, to, to, to get your, your staff to really fill out these time sheets very often. Um, yeah, this, this, this, this, this is very important for businesses.

So the reminding part and just confirming, it’s so easy and we all use to all this WhatsApp stuff. So it’s very, very handy. Um, Same as, um, internal feedback conversations. So, um, One-on-one reviews or general feedback on internal services. So all these, all these things can be captured was the self service, um, bought as well.

So, um, you don’t need to have sort of war documents. People are filling in, then they will be sent back. Um, I think that that’s the very often, yeah, just sits up at the bottom of your to-do list to, to do, because it’s quite cumbersome, but, um, uh, yeah, doing that kind of stuff, um, internally with the chat bot.

Yeah, I think you get to get far more interaction and engagement to do those kinds of things. This is all, you know, employee satisfaction and collecting back from employees. Um, you know, and, uh, you know, it’s a very good channel to do so, and then to take that feedback and obviously, um, focus on HR centric, things like.

Uh, improving satisfaction rather than managing these forms to capture the satisfaction ratings. Um, another example in, uh, um, in the self-service category for this internal HR bot is, um, of course a FAQ section. So this is all to do with internal business regulations and policies. Um, you know, we’ve all seen a staff handbook.

Um, it’s quite a dreaded document. Um, Uh, and you know, lots of pages on the different things. Um, so this is a very popular use case to take that employee handbook and really build a chat bot in front of it. That’s very interactive and you can ask or answer, um, you know, these FAQ’s on, on. Particular business policies, um, which get straight to the point, um, you know, again, high employee satisfaction, no HR involvement, um, you know, excellent use case for deployment of, of, of a chat bot for, for this particular use case.

Yeah. Very good. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think we have to do. That as well internally. So now we’re talking about this, I think it’s fast too, to do the first step on this one as well. It’s a long document. Yep. Um, account three 60 is a, is another, um, self service, um, uh, use case. So everything which is related to your, um, um, sort of employee account, um, everything can be, can be, can be done with this chat bot.

It could be permissions. It could be the similar things like, um, yeah, really, really everything, joiner, leavers, that kind of information actually accessing the systems. Yeah. Yeah, again, I think this is kind of, um, you know, from a self-service perspective, um, you know, which accounts do I have access to? Oh, this my password expired for this particular account.

Um, use the chat bot to help you enable that again. Chat bot checks. Do you have, um, permission to that particular system? And of course, you know, that that could be determined during your onboarding as part of your onboarding record. Very easy to, to, to build a chat bot then to, to service these types of requests.

Right. Yeah. And it’s a, it’s a very common, uh, it’s a very common use case, especially with the password reset. I think in some organizations you can’t just simply reset and you get just a message very often. It’s a, it’s a lengthy process was several security checks in between, but that could be easily offloaded to the, to the chat pod indeed.

And it’s a, it’s a huge time saver and money saver. Yeah, exactly. So the eighth one we’re already on eight use cases, um, in, I guess, less than 10 minutes. And this is all to do with payroll. Uh, very interesting one self-service again, all elements to do with payroll and renumeration. Um, you know, can go as deep as pension, pension contributions, uh, pay and benefits, taxation.

Um, very, very good use case for self-service HR bots. Um, high degree of employee satisfaction, because again, it’s 24 seven, um, no need for HR to email around potentially confidential. Um, Uh, information of an employee, uh, with regards to their, uh renumeration. Um, so in my opinion, you know, worth mentioning that this, this is also a very, very popular self service, um, HR bot, um, that, that people opt to implement.

Right. So yeah, lots of self service topics. Um, but HR is a, it’s vast, it has other areas as well. Another big area is in general compensation and benefits. Um, um, and um, there we see a few, um, few use cases you could use chatbots. So it’s, it’s really, yeah. It’s not a self-service anymore. So it’s making the life of, um, HR staff easier.

Um, Interacting with insurance providers, um, and, um, backend systems of insurance providers to do certain tasks, um, uptake, updating policies, um, that kind of stuff. You have new employees, everything when it comes to join us and leave us, that kind of stuff can be easily. Um, um, um, Sit around this, this, in this area.

Um, or you, you want to extract him for information as well about these insurances, um, you, you pass on to your employees. Um, so all that knowledge, similar, like an FAQ, all that stuff could sit in there as well. So, um, yeah, very, very. Important and generally, um, um, we’re management, heavy, um, not management, heavy, but activity, heavy, um, uh, area, um, where we’re chatbots can, can help once it’s set up properly, it can be very useful for the team.

Yes, exactly. And I think, you know, it all, again, comes on there, compensation and benefits. Um, you know, you might have a health claim that, um, the employee needs to go through. Um, again, that whole process can be quite cumbersome. Um, you know, by using chatbots. You could, you could really streamline that, um, that experience, that whole experience, uh, try and conclude that as quickly as possible.

So again, you know, very, um, a very popular use case, um, in, in this sort of the HR arena, especially like I said, for, for compensation and benefits. And, you know, then of course, you know, we mentioned payroll, um, But if you’re close to retirement or you are thinking about retirement, or you want to look in the future and look at your retirement benefits, you know, again, that that’s something that’s, um, that could be automated using a chat bot, quite a chatbot can talk to you about it.

Uh, Pat show your pension contributions and potentially what you would you’ll package with. It looked like right. Absolutely. So all these, um, um, yeah, in this area, all these things, compensation and benefits, uh, Yeah, we’ll, we’ll definitely, uh, um, lead to lots of, uh, employee satisfaction, um, as well as this next one, rewards and recognition.

Um, so you can use chatbots as well to, um, to deal with that area of the business and, um, to, um, to send messages to your employee. If there was a specific project may be, um, very successful and then there’s some element of rewards, um, in it. And they, they. They then sort of need to accept certain things and, um, sort of that kind of stuff, um, can then flow back into the HR department easily.

Um, but, but I think some, some, some elements of that are still, um, very human, human based. Uh, these are just. Obviously sections of this whole process. Um, uh, it doesn’t mean that we now doing the whole recognition process by a bot, uh, but it can support the HR department, um, um, in, in these areas. Yes, exactly.

And I kind of leads us to, um, the recruitment element, um, and you know, this could be internal or external recruitment and, you know, the whole recruitment. Process as a whole from, you know, pre-screening available job positions, um, you know, the actual application process to upload of CVS. Um, Interview booking, um, you know, text alerts and notifications to say, you know, w when your, um, your actual interview is so, so that, that whole, um, sort of recruitment process and the interaction between the candidates, um, the employee wants you onboarded the HR department, um, and, you know, potentially also your, your, your manager to be in all of that can be actually wrapped up.

In, in a, in a chat bot, um, sort of conversation and, you know, that could flow really, really nice, very, very eloquently. Um, and also, you know, what, what, what a great use case to demonstrate the. Progressive employer by, by automating all of this in a, in a, in a very, very, um, eloquent way. Very user-friendly great satisfaction.

This one from a prospective, um, employees perspective. Yeah, absolutely. It’s a very, very powerful and to do the whole recruitment process really, um, or supporting the whole recruitment process really was chatbots. Yeah. There’s always units. You talk about recruitment and then I think about a couple of other ones, you know, um, you know, if you look at.

Um, another example is, um, you know, onboarding of employees, um, you know, and this is either before or after employment. Um, and that’s all, you know, digital contract signatures, for example, the creation of the employee accounts. Um, you know, so that, that, that’s something that, that the chat bot can do as part of this process.

Um, and you know, after you’ve been onboarded, perhaps a reminder of your mandatory training, um, perhaps even work celebration is your, you know, uh, um, nursery, uh, you know, um, happy work anniversary, just, just those kind of. So soft benefits. Um, of course, you know, after onboarding, um, you know, it could, um, send out, uh, important alerts on intern, internal processes or changes to processes, and this could all be sort of job specific and.

You know, off-boarding as well. That’s the other side of the equation where, you know, it could manage your exit interview. Um, you know, it could manage your employee exit checklist, for example, make sure all of those activities are completed. Um, so again, very, very, um, sort of, uh, uh, robust use case, um, you know, for HR.

Well within the realm of recruitment. And then of course the recruitment process itself, you know, the, the job posting internal advertising, uh, I touched on, you know, scheduling of interviews, um, employee screening, blacklisting of employees, uh, you know, all of these things are, again, just, just adds to the benefits to a business.

To deploy the chat bot, you know, with the inside HR talking, you know, for best part of 15 to 20 minutes, you know, and, and already, if you look at the use cases, just, just for a sort of self-service and, and the recruitment process itself, you know, that’s almost 20 and you know, and we’re not even, we’re not even done with HR, you know, w you know, what about training?

What about appraisals? Um, you know, all of these kinds of use cases, that’s just sort of very, very popular ones that organizations choose to automate using chatbots. Absolutely. Yeah, it’s really, really a vast area and we are really scratching you on the surface, but it should give you a really, really good idea of what is possible.

Yeah. You mentioned talent management. Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s very important. Once, once you have done all this onboarding, uh, it is really important that you retain ideally your talent as long as possible, as long as they, they like to be, um, what’s your business, of course. Um, but, um, but you can obviously.

Contribute to that a lot while you are the employer. Um, and, um, I think. Getting getting the right training, the ongoing training and all that stuff in places is important. And sometimes it is, it is a hurdle, um, too much, uh, too much your sort of activities, um, uh, done old fashioned. Um, so, so then there’s not enough training.

So on a chat bot and a nice, um, Obviously, um, the logic behind that chair pod can, can engage, um, was, was your employee to maybe look back into the LinkedIn learning courses again. So once a month, give it, give them a notch, maybe check in how is this training going? How’s that going? How are the generally going?

And, um, I think it goes a little bit into the feedback, um, self service, but this, some, some of that stuff really comes to it’s initiated by the employee. But, um, when it comes to you to tell the management and tell them performance management, um, and, uh, these areas are sort of practically driven by, by the, the talent management team and, um, a chat bot can then support in that, in that area a lot.

Um, I think appraisals, I think, yeah, supporting just the appraisal process as well. Um, probably the real appraisals you would still do. Face-to-face with your manager, but collecting the feedback maybe from when you think about a three 60 review, um, during the appraisal process, you will, you will collect a lot of feedback from maybe fellow, um, uh, team members and, and they will.

They will give a feedback on a certain employee. And if you, if you manage that process easily, as well via via chat bot, everyone is engaged and likes to give feedback instead of logging in somewhere, going to a spreadsheet on a, so now this is nice controlled and, um, uh, and enjoyable actually to work with.

And, um, I think that that really supports the whole talent. Um, um, Retention, isn’t it? Yeah, absolutely. And you know, if you look at performance management, um, you know, you look at your career planning, Performance reviews, coaching tips, um, the goal management, um, you know, uh, guided action planning. So since these are all things that potentially managing that chatbot can be deployed, of course, when human interaction is required, then human actual human actions should be available with your line manager.

But it’s all kind of just. Peeling away though. There’s, there’s, there’s layers of, um, uh, you know, um, obstacles to, to really make a whole sort of HR function, um, operate in interest of an employee. And, you know, the way to do that is to really, to, to, to take these mundane activities away from the HR managers.

So, so they can, you know, look at. The true HR function itself and that’s employee well-being and looking after the talent. Right. And I think that that’s really the, sort of the goal for, for these, for these use cases to get to that point. So I think the next one is more like a very admin centric, uh, HR area reporting.

Uh, so HR needs to do a lot of reports. Uh, everyone really needs a lot of reports as it seems. Um, but, um, yeah, similar, like we had to, um, in another episode, um, in manufacturing logistics, so obviously the chatbots can support, um, uh, was creating reports and. Correct. Getting the output key KPIs, um, from, from, from systems, um, through chatbots.

So there’s this, um, um, instead of being bombarded with lots of data, you might be just interested in a very specific KPI. So you can ask a chat bot to go into the reporting backend and get that information out. And the same, same, uh, really applies to. Um, measuring process performance, um, and those kinds of relevant key, key KPIs.

Um, yeah. And was, there was a communication, you get the relevant information and baby based on that information, you can pass something back to the chatbot, to, to, um, to apply certain new thresholds new targets for the day, uh, all that kind of stuff. Um, um, to make your life easier in the, in the, in the global, your human resources.

Yes, exactly. And that goes hand in hand, like, like you’re saying, you know, kind of measuring these processes because of course, as the chatter goes on, um, you know, from, from a, uh, engagement perspective, you can collect all of these, these data points and, you know, from a HR reporting perspective, uh, again, provide the chat bot that could then surface these reports for.

Uh, for leadership. So, so they can actually. Um, look at the, the numbers around, um, you know, staff attrition or staff turnover, tension, you know, all of, all of these things, that’s really important. Um, you know, also, um, you reports on, um, you know, sick leave, um, you know, paid time off. Um, you know, so all of, all of these, these important sort of metrics that you can make available again, 24 seven.

Um, you know, on, on, on the, on the chat board. Yeah, that’s, that’s, uh, you know, that’s really a long list. Um, and, uh, I think that that’s, um, yeah, I think it’s it’s is it for the, um, the human resources section? Um, I hope this, uh, this list really gave you a good, uh, inspiration of what can be addressed in your business.

And, um, uh, we happy to discuss, um, all these things with you. Um, just ping us on, on all the social media networks, um, and, um, And, uh, yeah, and beyond, and, and probably over the next two weeks, we will cover cover more. I think this was just one, one, really a human resources, part of internal chatbots. Um, but, uh, there, there will be, um, more scenarios on the sales side of it, the management side of it, the help desk and claim management.

So, so many areas we will, we will address them going forward in the next episode. And, um, yeah, so as always give us feedback, um, and, um, uh, on our website, the automation highest on net and, um, we will be, we’ll be a couple of picking up these, this new topics you’re suggesting. Um, yeah. Thank you very much for listening.

Unfortunately, that’s it again with this episode of the process and automation podcast. If you liked this episode, please give us a five-star rating and don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast. So you don’t miss any upcoming episode. We hope you will tune in next time. And until then, Let’s automate it.