Who would have thought that 20 years ago, we would be able to create content without much need for human intervention? Now we are living in an age where Siri and Alexa remind us of our shopping list, Google provides answers to everything and ChatGPT can help with the kid’s homework and create business content for us.

Like it or not, artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT are already changing the way many businesses create content and automate tasks, and HR is no exception. Many HR teams are using it to streamline their recruitment processes, and save time communicating with their employees, but how effective is it? 

Here at 1850, we’ve come to understand the potential benefits and drawbacks of using AI-powered chatbots. In this article, we explore whether ChatGPT is HR’s new assistant, or is it a liability?

What is ChatGPT? 

Chat GPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. It is an artificial intelligence chatbot that can process and create humanlike content on demand.  It includes any type of written content, such as articles, social media posts, essays, and emails, harvesting information from across the web about a wide range of topics and delivering the answers in a concise and conversational manner.

How is HR using ChatGPT? 

HR teams can utilise the AI tool to increase productivity by generating all kinds of content, from recruitment adverts, onboarding new employees, interview questions company-wide emails, and even to create HR policies. 

Let’s look at some of the ways we’re seeing businesses use ChatGPT in a HR context: 

Create job descriptions

We asked ChatGPT to create a job description for a Data Analyst and this is what it produced: 

ChatGPT can provide a good starting point for creating job adverts, but it still needs much more context to make sure it’s aligned with the business and the specific requirements of the role. If you want to attract the right talent to your organisation, you will need to spend time curating a compelling job description that sells the role and isn’t just an ‘off-the-shelf’ description of a typical job role. 

Using ChatGPT for HR policies

Companies should approach ChatGPT with caution when using it to write company HR policies. It also does not fully follow the requirements of the ACAS code of practice, nor will it be able to create clauses that are bespoke to the way in which your business works.  HR policies can be a tricky thing to write, so using AI to generate ideas can be a good starting point, but human intervention is required to add organisational context and ensure the most up to date legal compliance. 

Candidate screening

ChatGPT can be used to preliminary screen and filter candidates by asking basic questions and provide information about the job to determine if the candidate is a good fit. This will allow you to ‘score’ each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, saving you time in the recruitment process. 

However, when it comes to assessing a candidate’s soft skills, such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving abilities, we recommend that this be done person to person so that important behavioural skills can be evaluated effectively. 

Performance management 

Chat GPT could assist HR teams in conducting performance reviews by providing relevant questions that may help to facilitate conversations between managers and employees. Again, these can provide inspiration for managers, but they should be tailored to your team and the projects they are working on. 

HR chatbots

For larger organisations, many chatbots are powered by AI, allowing employees to get instant support for common HR-related questions about things like benefits, policies, or payroll.  This can save time by signposting employees to further help via a company’s intranet. 

CVs generated by ChatGPT

Companies should not base their recruitment decisions on eloquently written CVs and covering letters that are so obviously generated by ChatGPT or other AI tools. If writing is an important aspect of the job role, we recommend conducting a written test in the interview process so that skills can be assessed accurately. 

There’s no doubt that ChatGPT can simplify and automate many aspects of HR, but ultimately it can never replace a lot of the valuable work HR. It can’t replicate or replace relationship-building which is a key focus of managing and developing your people.  HR is often known as ‘people and culture’, and no matter how good the technology is it’s no replacement for people.

If you are considering using ChatGPT in your organisation to help with HR-related issues, speak to a HR Consultant at 1850 first to ensure you are adopting it for the right reasons and find out where we can support you with some of your HR-related issues.