How to Utilize Chatbots to Engage Your Remote Workforce

Technology enables today’s workforce to become increasingly mobile. This has been underscored dramatically with the alarming spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The ups and downs of remote work have been debated repeatedly, but believe in it or not, we have entered an age where substantial populations of employees will be working from home or in remote offices. And with that reality, organizations need to find ways to help them be successful.

A chatbot can be an effective tool to engage remote employees. Users interact with chatbots because conversational interfaces are effortless and they deliver immediate responses to questions without the delays of needing to wait for another person.

The best ways to leverage a chatbot include:

1. Onboarding. New hires have a lot to learn such as how to do their job, creating relationships with colleagues, learning new terminology and processes, and so on. One industry study shows that 20% of new hires leave their jobs in the first 45 days, costing their employers thousands of dollars per lost hire. Chatbots can help orient new hires to their  surroundings. A chatbot can be programmed to send simple daily tips, reminders, suggestions and best practices designed in a way that spreads out the information over time, making the information more digestible than it would be in a single orientation session. Chatbots can also alert managers when they sense new hires are at risk, thus helping organizations reduce  turnover.
2. Training. While most people think of chatbots as passive (e.g. waiting on a user to initiate interaction), chatbots can be programmed to push out scheduled messages in order to train and teach, especially via mobile messaging channels like SMS and WhatsApp. Training professionals understand that effective learning is more of a journey than a single event;   a programmatic chatbot can be an ideal delivery mechanism for learning modules, videos, exercises, articles, quizzes and more..  
3. Timely announcements. As email continues to decline in effectiveness, chatbots are a great alternative to send out timely announcements. The chatbot experience feels just like messaging a friend or colleague--thus driving higher engagement rates. How much could your business improve if product announcements, touch points, reminders, and everything else could be sent directly to users on a high-engagement channel like SMS or WhatsApp? 
4. Answers. It’s common for large organizations to have information stored in multiple knowledge bases, intranets, LMS systems, CRMs, etc. This complex web of data sources can make it surprisingly difficult for employees to find even the simplest  information. A chatbot can be a much more friendly initial interface for employees to find what they are looking for, whether it be questions about HR policies and benefits or information about customers and clients. 
5. Coaching. Coaching is an extremely valuable practice that can drive performance for individuals and teams. And yet, personalized executive coaching is considerably costly and difficult to scale across an organization. Chatbots can be programmed to be a personalized coach by automating nudges, tips, motivational messages, and holding people accountable to deadlines and goals. 
6. Collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams. Chatbots can be anywhere messaging is available. For many worksites, collaboration platforms like Teams, Slack and Facebook Workplace are wonderful ways to keep people connected and working together. Each of these platforms enables chatbots to be another “colleague” to interact with. As a company, you may be trying to move your collaboration and tools into the same platform, so why not bring chatbots in the mix? Having your training, coaching, company FAQs, announcements, or onboarding bot in the same place you collaborate can bring more simplicity to your team’s daily workflow. 

Whether your organization is moving to a more remote working culture because of COVID-19 or you just want to improve the capabilities of your current remote workforce, consider a chatbot as part of your strategy to address the challenges that come with this dynamic. And if you are interested in seeing Mobile Coach’s chatbot platform and some of our existing chatbots for the workplace, please reach out to schedule a demo! You can reach me at [email protected]