Antonio Corral: Automating the First Phases of the Candidate Selection Process in Large Companies

Top 10 Most Influential People in Executive Hiring

The human recruiting process is time-consuming and complex, but it can be boiled down to four important words: searching, screening, interviewing, and hiring. However, today’s enormous global labor force and accessible internet application tools have tarnished the screening stage of the hiring process. For each corporate job opportunity, an average of 250 applications are received—a number that is growing—and it takes an experienced recruiter roughly five minutes to analyze each CV. Furthermore, despite the time-consuming resume screening process, recruiting is still plagued by unpredictability and uncertainty, which is frequently attributable to unconscious human subjectivity and prejudices. Artificial intelligence can assist businesses in navigating a worldwide human resource market that is expected to exceed US $30 billion by 2025, owing in large part to technological advancement. A trained AI system can analyze resumes, extract keywords, score and rank prospects, and even assist with interviews.

After twenty years in the human resources departments of prominent corporations such as Vips, Cortefiel, and Inditex, Antonio Corral and Jon Gonzalo recognized that the initial stages of the selection process were carried out in the same way in all nations. “There is a lot of paperwork and very little efficiency.” A resume evaluation should take no more than one to two minutes. “If you multiply this number by a thousand, it’s nearly impossible to view all of the candidates,” explains Corral. Using the funds they had amassed over their careers, they founded hr bot factory in 2019, a business that aims to accelerate the assimilation of young talent into major corporations via the use of a virtual assistant and artificial intelligence.

The company has a computer system that connects the many channels via which a company might recruit prospects, such as the website, social networks, and emails. When a candidate clicks on an offer, the chatbot begins the discussion, which normally lasts 10 minutes. The robot presents itself, gives you additional information about the work, requests your personal information, and asks you questions, placing you in the precise circumstance of your future employment and providing you with numerous reply possibilities to characterize it. “It’s like WhatsApping with a recruiter who offers you a series of games to evaluate you,” Corral says.

Joining the Entrepreneurs League

Antonio Corral and Jon Gonzalo formed hr bot factory and quickly agreed on how to divide responsibilities. They were fortunate since they both form a perfect binomial. Jon is more contemplative and creative, whereas Antonio is more impulsive and regimented, and their present roles reflect this.

As CEO, Antonio is now in control of the company’s strategy, structure, and financial responsibilities. One of the more time-consuming areas is the fundraising procedure. He says, “If you’ve been involved in this, you know how much time you have to commit, and it’s impossible. If you don’t have a partner that puts the rest of the firm behind you to allow you to perform your task, that’s why we make such a good team!”

Antonio lived in a plane 5 days a week and traveled ceaselessly before creating the firm. In a worldwide corporation (Inditex: Zara, Massimo Dutti…), he was in charge of 15 countries. For Antonio, life was likewise interesting and hard, but he knew he needed a change!

A Constant Learning from Surroundings

Antonio thinks humility and “learning by doing” marked the beginning of his career. He recalls, “I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to advance my career in the retail industry by a large corporation. Starting as a sales associate at the age of 20, I was able to learn from my superiors. The majority of them were folks with little academic education but a lot of common sense, and I learned rapidly from them.”

After a few months, he was in charge of a team of 20 employees, all of whom were older than him. This shaped Antonio’s mentality and aided him much in his future responsibilities. “When you have mentors with these principles, it’s something you can’t forget,” he adds.

Years later, Antonio is grateful to have crossed paths with this group of individuals who appreciate how much he meant to them at the time. What they don’t realize is how much Antonio learned from them and how essential it was for him.

The Inception Story

“hr bot factory began at a terrace bar in Malasaña (a hipster neighborhood in Madrid) with my partner and co-founder, and from that moment, we began to develop our dream: “transform the way the world recruits people,” explains Antonio.

This may appear overbearing, but it has always been the duo’s objective, and it helps them stay focused. When they determined how they were going to achieve it (using virtual assistants), the duo worked on constructing and designing the product for around 9 months. Surprisingly, a similar procedure was carried out in another coffee shop. In this case, it was at the Google for Start-ups bar in Madrid, and it was quite beneficial to them!

Having the MVP, Antonio started doing “homemade marketing campaigns” to spread what he and his partner were doing, and this was great. He recalls, “Big companies knocked on our door to see our solution because they needed to automate their recruitment process and the dreams came true! But a few months later, COVID changed our lives and our company too!”

Businesses must digitalize and automate their recruiting processes even more than before as a result of this new paradigm, and hr bot factory is assisting them in doing so! Hundreds of users from various industries (retail, dining & dining, delivery, contact center, etc.) are now utilizing the firm’s service in more than six different nations, and the number is rising.

hr bot factory

hr bot factory is a firm that brings technology innovation and AI closer to human resource management. They digitize the recruiting and selection processes with the assistance of virtual assistants and a robust and adaptable ATS, automating chores and allowing professionals to give actual added value to the business while also boosting applicant and professional experience. Its technology gives businesses quick and simple access to pre-screened candidates, with whom they communicate via virtual assistants, allowing them to manage their selection processes. This pioneering solution in Spain is intended at firms with a high volume of contracts or with recurrent profiles such as retail, logistics, health, transportation, call centers, fashion, and so on.

hr bot factory is a SaaS that optimizes the staff hiring process with chatbots and an ATS (Applicant Tracking System), reducing the processing time by up to 9 times and the associated costs by 70%.

The software used by hr bot factory analyzes resumes, interviews candidates through a chatbot, and offers the option of doing video interviews. It plans interviews and offers an information storage system.

Practice to Believe in Yourself

There is no success without failure, and if you don’t believe that, you’re probably wrong. Fortunately, Antonio did not have many failures, but these were valuable lessons learned for the rest of his life. One of them is related to “intuition.” After each failure, there were always warning signs that made him believe, as he put it, “something tells me that this is not going to turn out well,” and it was true. So, after he learned that lesson, he relied on his instincts the most. He urges everyone to use it in the same manner.

Balance Life and Work

It is tough to detach when you run your own company. Antonio believes it is utterly impossible. “If you don’t want to be alone in the world (there are many examples of entrepreneurs suffering from stress, anxiety, and depression), you must make an effort to balance your business and personal life,” he adds.

Antonio attempts to go to the gym at 7 a.m. (otherwise impossible) since he has set aside time in his schedule only “to think” (which is really accurate) and he tries to create hobbies that help him cope with his misery. “A dog in your life is a terrific method to upset you!” he says. She even comes to work with me every day!”

All these activities, Antonio tries to encourage his team to do it in their way but to do it finally and the benefits you can perceive in the company: happy and balanced people in your company.

Success for Antonio

Antonio believes that success is a simple word with many connotations. Success in his situation is linked to “build” and “passion.” He discovers that there are no examples of success without effort, tenacity, and enthusiasm for what you do!

From a business standpoint, Antonio believes that a leader must inspire and guide his team in order to achieve their goals and that this dose of passion and the ability to connect with one another is critical to success. This construction process is quite comparable to your personal and emotional life. “You must work hard to maintain every element under control while conveying and encouraging others to achieve success,” Antonio explains.

In his twenty years of corporate background and almost four years of this entrepreneurial adventure, Antonio has seen these “success moments” and in all of them, there were examples of “build” and “passion”.

The American Dream

As Antonio sees it, the future of hr bot factory is the United States of America. He says, “We understand that we must be present, but we also understand that in order to succeed in the United States, you must be prepared! As a result, we will launch a new market (UK) in 2023, and with all of these lessons learned, we will be able to begin our journey in the United States. By doing so, we reduce risk while simultaneously increasing growth.”

In terms of personal goals, Antonio recently married. Therefore, he sees himself making some big plans since even an entrepreneur can accomplish such things. Taking all of this into consideration, he always encourages others to start their own businesses. He feels it is crucial to understand that this is an experience in which you will find yourself doing things you never thought possible and learning new things every day, but it will keep you interested and enthusiastic about adventure.