Exploring the Skilled-Worker Crisis: Tech-driven solutions and workforce development for construction, healthcare, and other industries

It’s no secret that on-demand messaging has shifted the way consumers communicate with businesses and brands. To provide superior customer service, more and more organizations are integrating chatbots into their business processes. Estimated to save $8 billion per year in 2022, it’s clear that chatbots are transforming the way businesses connect with existing and prospective customers. In specific industries where high-volume customer interaction is at the center of the business, such as banking, insurance and wellness, chatbots have been complete game-changers.

But new trends are now taking hold with chatbots in unexpected ways—and it’s going far beyond just customer service. Chatbots can facilitate recruitment in targeted industry sectors that require a skilled workforce.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the United States has progressively experienced a talent crisis.  Employers across Arizona and the country are facing worker shortages at record levels and business leaders and chambers of commerce are urging state and national lawmakers to invest in new workforce initiatives to help fill millions of job openings. 

So how exactly can chatbots help businesses, cities and states to overcome worker shortages? This is where Botco’s AI-powered chatbots can make all the difference.

Companies invest thousands—if not millions—of dollars into their workforce development efforts, eager to fill positions in a variety of industry sectors. However, for a fraction of that investment, employers could add Botco.ai’s intelligent chatbot to this recruitment scenario and change the result entirely. 

Greater Phoenix Chamber Workforce Development Manager Paul Sanders recently joined Botco.ai Co-founder and Executive Chair Anu Shukla for an insightful webinar in which they discussed the recruitment crisis in construction, healthcare and other sectors that require a skilled workforce. Sanders shed light on the innovative workforce development strategies and the chatbot technology the Greater Phoenix Chamber has adopted to bridge the workforce shortfall in the short and medium term.

In today’s ever-changing workforce landscape, employers need the tools, technology and best practices to support their talent-development strategies, provide for current workforce trends, and highlight partnerships with educational providers. To address this talent deficit, forward-thinking organizations are using Botco’s AI-powered chatbots as a workforce development strategy to address the talent deficit in such industries as construction and healthcare.

In partnership with Botco.ai, the Greater Phoenix Chamber is one such organization that is successfully using intelligent chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) as a workforce development strategy. The reason is clear—by September 2022, it’s predicted that there will be more than 155,000 vacant construction industry jobs in Arizona.

“The challenge to finding skilled workers has significant economic consequences for not only construction firms, but their customers and vendors as well,” said Paul Sanders, workforce development manager at the Greater Phoenix Chamber.

“This acute labor shortage is preventing existing businesses from growing over the next year, as well as the next decade. In addition, talent gaps also significantly delay construction projects, which mean slower economic growth for Arizona.”

As part of its strong workforce and economic development initiative, the Greater Phoenix Chamber has adopted a multi-layered approach to strengthening Arizona’s construction-workforce pipeline. In order to effectively attract and retain new talent, the Greater Phoenix Chamber incorporated Botco.ai’s innovative chatbot platform to change the traditional recruitment conversation, and illustrate that the construction industry has viable and fulfilling career pathways.

“By adopting Botco’s AI-driven chatbot, we’re effectively reaching our target demographic of those who are in the age bracket of 18-26,” Sanders said. “As we started the chatbot development process and developed the fields of conversation, we knew that we needed to share more than just an overview of what the construction industry generally looks like. We needed to meet potential candidates and recruits where they are, not where we feel comfortable.”

Regarding the success rate of conversation and application completion rate, the Greater Phoenix Chamber has been able to really help navigate skilled workers with the help of Botco.ai. 

The Greater Phoenix Chamber’s Construction Workforce Collaborative—a group of stakeholders that include commercial and residential contractors and subcontractors—is focused on attracting young adults, women, veterans and other demographics to launch high-potential careers and pursue opportunities to earn while they learn. Launched in 2019, the Chamber’s Build Your Future (BYF) Arizona career-awareness initiative works to create a sustainable and skilled workforce by promoting awareness of high-paying construction careers, training opportunities and the mapping of career paths to employment in high-demand occupations.

According to Sanders, 49% of Arizona high-school graduates will not finish college, which present limited opportunities for not just individuals, but also the U.S. workforce as a whole. 

“Without robust talent pipelines, the Greater Phoenix region risks losing companies and high-wage jobs,” Sanders added. “By partnering with Botco.ai, we’re utilizing intelligent chatbots to provide information on specific skilled-trade careers, and highlight entry points to training, education and job opportunities in the construction sector, but in a very targeted and meaningful way.”

And by incorporating Botco’s AI-powered chatbot as a key part of its BYF Arizona campaign, the Greater Phoenix Chamber is providing a personalized experience to illustrate the diverse career pathways available, and to inspire the next generation of craft professionals.

“The key to using AI-powered chatbots is understanding your audience and what they want to know and when they want to know it,” Sanders shared. “Incorporating Botco’s intelligent chatbot into our workforce development strategy saves a vast amount of time and money by eliminating the unnecessary time that it used to take to answer calls and talk to people.”

Companies invest thousands—if not millions—of dollars into their workforce development efforts, eager to fill positions in a variety of industry sectors. However, for a fraction of that investment, employers could add Botco.ai’s recruitment chatbot to this scenario and change the result entirely. 

Sanders noted, “It’s an ongoing challenge for many companies that their HR and recruiting teams are stretched too far already and have limited bandwidth. Adopting intelligent chatbots for recruiting efforts has enabled us to successfully scale communications and to talk to a multitude of people simultaneously, as opposed to staffing a 24/7 call center. The best part is the chatbot’s ability to evolve and improve over time. An AI-powered chatbot is only as useful as you make it.”

Sanders added, “Botco.ai helped us to increase our level of engagement with our target audience and provide on-demand answers in real time. I don’t care how great your website is, you’re never going to be able to provide that on-demand information solely from just an online site. Helping to guide and direct new recruits is the key to our successful workforce development efforts.”

The construction industry is not the only sector that AI-driven chatbots can be used to successfully attract and retain talent. Healthcare organizations, clinics and hospitals also rely on quality talent to deliver positive patient outcomes. Most healthcare organizations were already experiencing a supply-and-demand gap for top talent before the onset of COVID-19. Currently, healthcare executives continue to wage their own battle to address the challenges arising on another critical healthcare front—healthcare recruiting and talent acquisition. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 3 million open nursing jobs in the United States, with a projected growth of 7% between 2019 and 2029.

Healthcare organizations could greatly benefit from incorporating intelligent chatbots into their recruitment efforts to stem the continued shortage of medical workers. Botco.ai can help healthcare brands to not only attract and hire great talent, but also help talent teams to save time, reduce spending, and quickly fill more healthcare positions with the right candidates. 

Intelligent chatbots are also ideal for other areas of the healthcare sector, such as senior living care, addiction treatment, mental care and behavioral health establishments. Smart conversational AI also works extraordinarily well for municipality and government agencies to deliver a human-life experience across the customer journey.

In addition, AI-powered chatbots can also be used for other candidate-experience applications like onboarding, promoting day-in-the-life videos, leveraging third-party validation, and multi-purposing content in a tailored and curated way for target audiences and demographics. Most importantly, you need to be where your customers are. Personalized engagement through intelligent chat will result in something fruitful. 

Chatbots are more than just technology…it’s a marketing tool, a recruitment tool, and your best employee. If you’re not currently investing in AI-driven chatbots as part of your workforce development strategies, then you’re not nurturing your sector’s future. Time is critical for businesses across all industry sectors. With Botco.ai, there are simple ways that intelligent chat can be integrated into your workforce development strategies for increased impact. 

To watch Botco’s webinar replay of “Exploring the Skilled-Worker Crisis: Tech-driven Solutions and Workforce Development for Construction, Healthcare and Other Industries,” visit here.

If you like to learn how to integrate automation and AI technology into your recruitment and education process, or to see a product demo, please schedule a call with our team or email us at info@botco.ai.