A candidate experience platform is the software that runs a large employer's career website, answers candidates through a chatbot, schedules interviews automatically and keeps in touch with past candidates. It sits on top of the applicant tracking system (ATS). The ATS records each application. The candidate experience platform handles everything the candidate sees and reads.
It has four parts. The career site recommends jobs to each visitor, based on the jobs they look at or the CV they upload. The chatbot answers common questions at any hour, such as the location of a job or the stages of the hiring process. The scheduler books interviews without emails back and forth. The talent CRM keeps a record of every candidate who did not get a job but might suit a later one. CRM means customer relationship management. A CRM is the system in which a sales team records its customers. A talent CRM does the same for candidates.
Consider a candidate in Madurai who visits the career site of a large IT services company. She uploads her CV. The site reads it and shows her three jobs for Java developers with two to four years of experience. She asks the chatbot whether one of the jobs, based in Chennai, allows working from home two days a week. The chatbot finds the answer in the job description and replies. She applies.
Two days later, a recruiter shortlists her. The scheduler reads the recruiter's calendar and sends her three free slots on WhatsApp, through the WhatsApp Business API. She picks Thursday at 11 a.m. The scheduler books the slot in both calendars and sends a reminder an hour before.
She does not get that job. But the talent CRM keeps her profile, tagged "Java, 3 years, Chennai". Four months later, a similar job opens. The CRM finds her and sends her a message inviting her to apply.
Why do employers pay for this? A large employer may receive thousands of applications a week. Without a chatbot and a scheduler, recruiters would spend much of their day answering the same questions and arranging calls. When a business sells to its customers or serves them inside a chat in the same way, this is called conversational commerce. Staffing companies were among the first users, because their recruiters handle thousands of candidates at once.