8 Practical ChatGPT Hacks in HR: Making the Most of This Amazing Tool for People Ops

Have you heard all the buzz around ChatGPT? 

Hard not to. ChatGPT is everywhere right now.

Many companies and professionals have jumped into the generative artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagon and tried OpenAI's ChatGPT. 

Most of them thought the tool was an absolute game changer. 

But we looked around, and few explored its uses in human resources. 

Which might be a missed opportunity.

We know that People Ops have a lot on their plates (especially in smaller companies/teams). 

So ChatGPT can be an extra asset helping you streamline repetitive, admin-focused tasks. As a result, you can focus on strategic people initiatives to enhance your employee experience.

So how exactly can you HR professionals use ChatGPT to supercharge their tasks? We have rounded up eight examples to inspire you.

🤖 What is ChatGPT?

The best way to describe this machine learning (ML) model is to test how much it knows about its processes and capabilities.

According to chatGPT itself, it is "an artificial intelligence language model designed to communicate with humans using natural language.

ChatGPT is trained on vast amounts of text data to generate human-like responses to questions and prompts. 

While ChatGPT's abilities seem impressive, it is critical to remember that it can't understand the nuances of human language and conversation. As a result, its responses may seem a bit shallow or lacking in depth and insight.

The risks of misuse and misinformation are there, so it's vital to be aware of the tool's limitations and weaknesses.

Nonetheless, millions of users - from computer programmers to writers to students - have flocked to test the website since its November 2022 launch. 

The tool reached 100 million users just 64 days after launch. For reference, it took Facebook 4.5 years to hit that milestone. 

Most users have agreed: the age of AI is finally here.

🦾 8 Examples of using ChatGPT for HR tasks

Language models are versatile algorithms that have given us interactive chatbots (Siri/Google Assistant) and query-handling tools. 

But ChatGPT is showing the massive potential of AI's language processing capabilities. 

In this section, we'll discuss how HR teams can take advantage of what this tool has to offer.

❓ 1. Create feedback questions

Performance reviews and assessments are some of the most time-consuming and stressful people processes. One of the main challenges is that it can be very subjective. 

However, by creating prompts that ensure the questions generated are clear, concise, and neutral, managers can take steps to develop more data-based performance reviews. 

Additionally, ChatGPT can create company-wide feedback surveys based on specific topics, such as attitudes toward hybrid work and a 4-day workweek. This practice removes the guesswork of how your workforce will accept a particular policy.

💬 2. Help colleagues phrase their feedback

Writing detailed feedback is not everyone's cup of tea. And again, it can be hard to ensure an objective tone. 

Luckily, chatGPT can write in any style the user specifies (e.g., professional, formal, conversational).

Plus, the tool also serves as a writing guide, suggesting best practices to communicate ideas well. This feature is helpful since many people are doing remote work, and giving feedback is even harder when you don't see colleagues daily.

💪 As your next performance review cycle approaches, are your people ready to give feedback? 

💬 Would you like to share peer review examples with your people? Then, check out our article Peer Review Examples: 50 Effective Phrases for Your Next Performance or Skill Review.

✍️ 3. Write HR policies

When writing HR policies, the model's language processing capabilities are on full display. 

When manually brainstorming for company policies, it can be challenging to ensure that you cover all angles of a particular topic.

However, ChatGPT can write a comprehensive output based on the prompt's parameters (e.g., remote/hybrid work, shift hours, etc.). Plus, the tool will include all related factors to the policy, such as communication platforms and other collaboration tools.

🤝 Are you in need for a ready-to-use Work from Home Policy template? say no more.

📚 4. Curating a list of keywords for a job description

The job market search algorithms are becoming more complex than ever. According to ZipJob, the average job posting has 250 applicants. Chances are, most of these applications are a mismatch. 

As a result, it can be difficult for recruiters and candidates to find each other based on their target keywords.

ChatGPT can list down all related keywords for a specific role. This feature is also useful for applicant tracking systems (ATS) that scan for keywords related to the skills required for the job.

📝 5. Write a job description

Once you've selected the proper keywords, ChatGPT can go the extra mile and write the description, too. 

It will also list all the responsibilities and requirements for the role based on the millions of job descriptions it analyzed as part of its training data. 

Hiring managers can then include additional details, depending on the business requirements. 

Many job descriptions tend to be generic and, worse, merge unrelated tasks into one role. Creating a detailed and accurate prompt will help ChatGPT narrow the description down.

⛓️ 6. Draft a LinkedIn outreach sequence for talent attraction

Messaging hundreds of potential profiles on LinkedIn can be time-consuming. However, chatGPT can craft different messages depending on the specific objectives or tone. 

For example, do you want a message that is casual but professional? 

Go ahead and let the tool draft it for you within seconds. 

Maire O'Connor, a talent researcher at HubSpot, has solid advice on identifying an engaging recruitment message. "The best advice I ever received was to keep the subject line short and punchy. I like to put on my candidate hat and ask myself what would make me want to open a message."

Having a list of LinkedIn candidate messages can be part of a larger HR automation initiative to streamline recruitment processes and cut hiring times. 

🗳️ 7. Collect interview questions

Great interview questions that accurately and adequately gauge the applicants' skills and experience are not as easy to develop as some might think. 

Nothing is more uninspiring than "Tell me about yourself" questions that often have nothing to do with the role. ChatGPT can help hiring managers brainstorm some questions that cover soft and hard skills, including critical thinking, technology adaptability, and problem-solving. 

🚀 8. Creating orientation materials

Putting together an onboarding/introductory presentation for newly created teams or departments can be daunting. 

Team leaders can use ChatGPT to suggest a general outline of how best to introduce the team's role in the business.

Once the outline is approved, the tool can help flesh it out by providing additional details. However, it's important that the manager fully understands the team's function to create adequate and specific prompts.

🙌 Want to create a remarkable onboarding experience? Then, you need more than what ChatGPT can offer. Check out Zavvy's onboarding template gallery, your new hires will thank you.

🛑 Beware the dangers of over-relying on automation

With advanced models like ChatGPT, it's easy to think these tools can take over most of our daily tasks. 

And while that is true to an extent, there is a reason that humans are still needed to oversee these tools (a.k.a. humans in the loop). 

Yes, technology has evolved insanely fast, but it's still nowhere near the human brain's sophistication, creativity, and logic.

There's a reason why chatbots are called digital "assistants."

Unfortunately, they still can't be trusted to make ethical decisions as a default. 

Plus, there is also the issue of the accuracy and validity of the information created:

"These systems are "trained and educated" by the corpus (database) of information they index. The GPT-3 system has been trained on the internet and some highly validated data sets, so it can answer a question about almost anything. That means it's kind of 'stupid' in a way, because 'the internet' is a jumble of marketing, self-promotion, news, and opinion.

Honestly, I think we all have enough problems figuring out what is real (try searching for health information on your latest affliction, it's frightening what you find)." Josh Bersin. 

Instead, we should look at HR automation tools as potential solutions rather than a genie that can handle all our problems. 

We highly recommend driving automation initiatives with employee engagement and satisfaction in mind instead of blindly following the latest trend.

However, staying updated with technology and examining how it can best support our organizations are crucial to resilience and longevity. 

Work technology expert Tim Sackett summarizes this concept well:

"Should you be worried? If your sole reason for living is to do basic HR tasks, yes, you should be worried. HR technology products will quickly be created that will do and produce basic task-level HR work.

In the near future, no human will write an HR policy. No human will write a job description. Instead, we'll tell ChatGPT what we want, it will craft a draft instantly, and then we'll ask ChatGPT to make revisions until we think it's perfect. What might take two or three HR professionals now will be handled by one HR professional and an AI assistant..."

➡️ Find out more about HR automation trends to watch out for.

➡️ Ensure more rewarding employee experiences with Zavvy

Zavvy is an example of an intuitive, all-in-one HR solution suite that streamlines processes without losing the human touch (and control). 

Our solutions have been tried and tested. 

Compliance firm DataGuard uses our employee onboarding software to accommodate their rapid international growth and hybrid work model. The result is that time-to-productivity was shortened by a month across all locations.

Avi Medical is a digitized telemedicine provider that needed a tool to help its healthcare professionals get standardized and ongoing medical training. Zavvy created a scenario-based learning experience platform that is interactive and engaging and that employees seamlessly incorporate into work schedules. The results are reduced error rates and high participation among staff.

We help businesses prioritize employee experience and development through our:

• Employee engagement solutions: Our comprehensive feedback survey system collects quick answers and meaningful insights.
• Performance review system: Collect 360 feedback, get a complete overview of your people's skills with the skills matrix, and single out your top performers and high-potential employees with the 9-box feature. Plus, you will have plenty of customizable templates that make performance management headache-free.
• Career pathing and employee growth plans that boost a growth-oriented high-performance culture.
• Hands-on consultation from our learning scientists. 

Contact us for a demo and learn how we can create the best HR solution for your business.