At TSR Czech Republic, they are convinced that digitalization belongs to HR. They started using Arnold to help them with onboarding.
Over thirty branches in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, over 400 employees and more than 30 years on the market. TSR CR is a leading processor of scrap metal in the Czech Republic. They employ people mainly blue-collar workers. However, dozens of administrative workers also take care of their operations. And it’s these newly-arrived colleagues that the Arnold chatbot regularly speaks to during the probation period.
According to a preset timetable, colleagues always receive a set of questions on various topics related to onboarding and its evaluation, such as the recruitment process, cooperation with supervisors or understanding the company culture. In the beginning, we used predefined sets of questions, but after about two months of real use, we changed about 5% of the questions, or even added new ones according to our needs.
Tereza Čuříková
The information that the chatbot reveals can be further worked not only by the HR department, but above all by the leaders of individual teams. “Most of them use the findings from Arnold and consider him a good support tool. Thanks to him, they learn how the newcomer perceives the adaptation process and can further follow up on this information during a personal conversation with the employee,” adds Tereza Čuříková.
However, she admits that the one hundred percent use of the chatbot by managers and employees didn’t happen overnight and there was a need for thorough preparation and communication.
“First, we introduced Arnold to the team leaders at the company’s quarterly meeting, where he was also supported by our management, for which we in HR were very grateful. Later, the team leaders received a summary email regarding Arnold and his functionality with all the explanations,” explains Tereza Čuříková and adds: “However, we appealed to leaders in the sense that the chatbot will not replace personal contact with newcomers, but is only a supportive assistant in communication during their probation period.”
In addition to the team leaders, the new employees were also informed about the conversation with Arnold in advance.
Thanks to Arnold, TSR CR also verified the high quality and sophistication of internal training within the company. “During our adaptation program, even administrative staff do not stay only in offices, but visit selected premises throughout the Czech Republic, and some even in Slovakia, where TSR Slovakia is based. And it was this opportunity that the new employees praised a lot in their conversation with Arnold,” says Tereza Čuříková.
According to her, the return rate on responses was almost one hundred percent. It was certainly helped by the fact that conversations with Arnold take newcomers from three to ten minutes.
At TSR CR, the chatbot is a trailblazer when it comes to using digitization in HR. Tereza Čuříková is convinced that it has a undeniable role to play. She believes that companies that follow this path will very soon feel a significant benefit not only for their HR teams, but also for the operation of the entire enterprise. “We are talking, for example, about standardizing systems in companies, electronic signatures for documents, and about an on-line absence approval workflow.”
However, extending interviews with Arnold to all new TSR CR employees, most of whom are taking up blue-collar positions, is not yet realistic, according to the HR manager, as not everyone has access to a computer or email address. “However, we are considering the future implementation of electronic kiosks within individual premises so that we are able to systematically ensure the digitization of HR elements for each of our employees regardless of their job title, something we are looking forward to in HR,” Tereza Čuříková summarizes.
