A guide to AI prompting & ChatGPT for HR

AI is transforming HR, and it's no surprise — over 80% of HR leaders use AI at work several times a week (sometimes even daily), and 83% of managers and People leaders report greater efficiency as a result.*

Artificial intelligence now powers critical HR functions, helping teams streamline decision-making and automate tasks. Beyond traditional applications, many HR professionals are turning to generative AI tools like ChatGPT to expedite daily admin tasks — boosting productivity by up to 40%, according to the MIT Sloan School of Management.** 

Chatbot-style AI engines are great resources because they facilitate plain-language insights, much like a conversation with your smartest colleague. However, to make the most of these AI tools, prudent use is essential. In fact, performance can actually drop by 19% if employees rely on generative AI for tasks that are outside of a tool’s capabilities.**

The secret to effective generative AI usage is prompt engineering, or the process of soliciting the best possible response using carefully crafted messages. In this guide, we’ll discuss why prompt engineering is so important, provide examples of HR functions that AI can help with, and list several useful sample prompts for each function.

*Leapsome’s Workforce Trends Report, 2024

**The MIT Sloan School of Management, 2023
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What is prompt engineering?

Prompt engineering involves crafting, testing, and refining inputs to AI models like ChatGPT to get the best possible results. ‍

By “best possible results,” we mean the most high-quality, accurate, and helpful responses.

Because generative AI chatbots rely on natural language processing (NLP), their responses are fluid and often quite human-like. But learning to leverage AI productively still requires a considered approach — or at the very least, trial and error.

Think of it as creating well-thought-out interview questions; thoughtful prompts enable ChatGPT (and other tools) to better understand your goals, producing more relevant and actionable responses. 
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Building effective HR prompts for ChatGPT

In general, the more information you can provide ChatGPT with, the better. Consider the following pointers to impact the quality of your results:

• Purpose — What are you trying to achieve with your prompt? Once you’ve outlined your goals, tailor them to address specific organizational and team needs.
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• Context — ChatGPT has access to lots of data, but that doesn’t mean it’ll immediately understand your business needs. So, provide information about your company’s unique culture, values, and objectives up front. Just remember not to share sensitive employee data with ChatGPT or any other language model.
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• Audience — Who will ultimately read or interact with your ChatGPT output? Provide this information so the language model can make adjustments accordingly. 
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• Format and tone — If you know what format you’d like your output to be in (e.g., bullet points vs. long-form content vs. a table), communicate this expectation. Then, provide some context about the tone you’re expecting. Some situations may call for a formal tone, while others might be more casual. 

When in doubt, rely on the PACT (purpose, audience, context, and tone) framework to contextualize your prompts:

• Purpose — Explain the reason behind your work and make your desired results clear.
• Audience — Specify the target group for the content.
• Context — Provide any context that might help ChatGPT understand the situation or context.
• Tone — Describe the desired tone of the result.

 🤔 Did you know?

Everyone prefers to be treated kindly — even language models!

Practice politeness in your messages with ChatGPT by integrating “please” and “thank you” into prompts, and you might receive more favorable and positive results.

And this is not just from anecdotal experience: recent research has confirmed that politeness improves AI performance.

7 top use cases for ChatGPT in HR (plus example prompts)

ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can automate repetitive tasks, sift through large amounts of information, and help guide you in the right direction. All of these actions and more can make your work more productive and boost your human resources team’s results over time. 

These are the top ways we’ve seen HR departments use ChatGPT and other generative AI tools so far.

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1. Employee onboarding

An effective employee onboarding process sets new hires up for success from day one. But onboarding can also be tedious and repetitive, so devoting ample time and resources to it may prove challenging for some HR teams.

ChatGPT can help by generating welcome messages, compiling relevant information into FAQ documents, and developing interactive onboarding checklists. If you distribute employee surveys after onboarding, you can also plug those results into ChatGPT to learn how to improve for new hires down the line.
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Example prompts

Consider using the following prompts before, during, or after onboarding:

Create ten onboarding evaluation survey questions and include at least one question about manager feedback.

Purpose: Develop a concise, actionable survey to evaluate the onboarding experience, focusing on clarity, engagement, and manager support.

Audience: New hires completing their onboarding process

‍Context: The organization is assessing the effectiveness of its onboarding process. Questions should cover overall experience, clarity of expectations, training quality, cultural integration, and at least one question evaluating the new hire’s manager support.

‍Tone: Clear, structured, and employee-focused.

Evaluate this feedback from recent new hires. What common challenges and suggestions do they highlight, and how can we address them?

Purpose: Analyze feedback from recent new hires to identify recurring themes, challenges, and actionable suggestions for improvement, leading to an optimized onboarding experience.

Audience: HR leaders, people operations teams, and onboarding program managers.

Context: The feedback was collected as part of post-onboarding surveys or focus groups. Key challenges might relate to clarity, manager involvement, training gaps, or workplace culture. Insights should lead to actionable recommendations.

Tone: Analytical, insightful, and solution-oriented.‍

2. Learning and development

Sometimes, selecting the right employee development method can be overwhelming. But HR professionals can use generative AI to narrow down their options based on factors like organizational culture and employee values. For example, they might rely on ChatGPT to create template learning paths for different roles.

Again, be careful about the information you plug into ChatGPT. Additional context may improve the quality of the language model’s outputs, but it can also expose sensitive employee data.

If you’re interested in safely exploring advanced AI tools to improve your learning and development (L&D) processes, consider a comprehensive software solution like Leapsome Learning, which can host and parse employee data natively and securely.

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Market leaders use Leapsome’s suite of data analysis and AI tools to boost mission-critical HR processes like L&D and employee engagement.

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Example prompts

Iterate on your L&D and employee development programs with prompts like:

Create a training program for [topic X] that includes five engaging learning modules for beginner, intermediate, and expert levels.

Purpose: Design a comprehensive training program for [topic X], structured into five learning modules that progressively address beginner, intermediate, and expert levels.

Audience: L&D professionals, trainers, and employees participating in the program.

Context: The program should be engaging, interactive, and outcomes-focused. Modules should cater to different proficiency levels and include elements such as learning objectives, activities, assessments, and resources.

Tone: Structured, engaging, and instructional.

How can we evaluate the return on investment (ROI) for our employee training and development initiatives?

Purpose: Provide a framework for measuring and evaluating the ROI of employee training and development programs to justify investments and demonstrate impact.

Audience: HR professionals, learning and development teams, and senior leadership.

Context: The organization invests in training initiatives but needs a structured approach to measure ROI. Consider metrics such as employee performance improvement, retention rates, productivity increases, and financial benefits.

Tone: Strategic, data-driven, and informative.‍

3. Performance management

According to our 2024 Workforce Trends Report, HR leaders cite feedback and performance reviews as their number one use case for AI. ChatGPT can support continuous feedback and evaluations by generating performance summaries and offering constructive insights. HR teams can also design prompts to assist managers in framing review conversations or setting personalized goals.

If you’re seeking more comprehensive performance management assistance, consider options like Leapsome’s Competency Framework feature. With minimal input and the power of AI, it helps you build complete matrices that match your company’s needs, saving days and even weeks of critical time for resource-strapped teams.

Example prompts

The following prompts are great places to start if you want to use ChatGPT to elevate your approach to performance management:

List strategies to make performance reviews more meaningful and constructive for employees.

Purpose: Outline actionable steps to ensure performance reviews are impactful, actionable, and serve as opportunities for employee growth and development.
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Audience: HR leaders, people managers, and organizational leadership.

Context: Many employees perceive performance reviews as overly formal or disconnected. Strategies should focus on continuous feedback, coaching, goal alignment, and ensuring reviews are two-way, supportive conversations.

Tone: Constructive, actionable, and employee-focused.

Sugggest strategies and best practices when creating a performance improvement plan (PIP) that’s both supportive and results-oriented.
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Purpose: Provide strategies and best practices to design performance improvement plans (PIPs) that are fair, supportive, and focused on achieving measurable performance outcomes.

Audience: People managers, HR professionals, and team leads.

Context: PIPs are often perceived as punitive. The strategies should ensure PIPs are collaborative, clear, and encourage employees to improve their performance with support and accountability.

Tone: Supportive, results-driven, and empathetic.‍‍

4. Workforce planning

In addition to supporting talent acquisition and the recruitment process, strategic workforce planning is essential to build high-performing teams that help organizations achieve their most ambitious goals.

ChatGPT and generative AI are useful here for collecting broad insights into potential talent gaps or overstaffing based on industry trends. This can help your team make informed, data-guided decisions.
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Example prompts

Try out the following prompts to identify new opportunities in workforce planning:

List five strategies for leveraging workforce data to support strategic decision-making.

Purpose: Suggest five actionable strategies for using workforce data to inform and enhance strategic decisions related to talent management, resource planning, and organizational growth.

Audience: HR leaders, workforce planning teams, and senior executives.
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Context: Workforce data can include employee performance, engagement surveys, turnover rates, skills gaps, and hiring trends. Strategies should focus on using this data to drive decisions about hiring, retention, learning initiatives, and organizational priorities.

Tone: Analytical, actionable, and strategic.

Share relevant steps for creating an employee succession plan. Afterwards, design a template.

Purpose: Provide a step-by-step guide to creating an employee succession plan to identify and prepare future leaders. Additionally, design a practical, customizable template for implementing the plan.
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Audience: HR leaders, senior management, and organizational development teams.
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Context: Succession planning ensures business continuity by preparing internal talent to fill critical roles. Steps should include identifying key roles, assessing high-potential employees, providing development opportunities, and monitoring progress. The template should be structured, practical, and adaptable.

Tone: Detailed, practical, and results-oriented.‍

5. Retention and engagement

A positive employee experience is critical for retention — which, in turn, impacts your company’s bottom line. Still, brainstorming new ways to collect and integrate team members’ feedback can be a daunting task. 

Generative AI can help cut through the noise by providing suggestions for employee sentiment analysis, helping HR teams respond to perspectives and concerns more efficiently. Once you’ve gathered all your data, ChatGPT can suggest new opportunities to improve employee engagement.

💡 HR platforms like Leapsome also leverage the power of AI and help People teams with sentiment analysis, data collection, action plan generation, tailored recommendations, and automatic summaries.

Example prompts

Jumpstart your employee retention and engagement strategy with these prompts:

Based on our latest survey results, which top three initiatives would you recommend to improve engagement levels?

Purpose: Review recent survey data to identify key focus areas and propose three prioritized initiatives to enhance employee engagement.

Audience: HR leaders, people operations teams, and company leadership.

Context: Our employee engagement surveys have revealed insights into areas such as communication, career growth, recognition, or work-life balance. The goal is to recommend impactful initiatives to improve engagement levels that align with survey findings.

Tone: Data-backed, actionable, and results-driven.

What type of analysis can we conduct to identify what motivates different teams and individuals within our organization?

Purpose: Suggest types of analyses (qualitative and quantitative) to uncover motivational drivers for various teams and individuals across the organization.

Audience: HR teams, managers, and organizational leaders.

Context: Motivation varies based on roles, teams, and personal preferences. Analyses could include pulse surveys, interviews, focus groups, or performance data reviews to gather insights.

Tone: Methodical, thoughtful, and tailored.‍

6. Compensation and rewards

Great company culture and employee engagement are important for retaining team members, but compensation is another critical element of ongoing recognition and job satisfaction. AI tools like ChatGPT can help out by conducting audits to ensure fair compensation practices or forecasting the necessary budget for certain compensation changes. 

If you’re looking to supercharge your AI strategy, leverage a compensation benchmarking tool to better understand how to compensate top performers based on real-time industry standards.

Example prompts

These prompts can help you use ChatGPT to improve your compensation strategy:

Outline strategies and best practices for conducting a comprehensive pay equity analysis within an organization.

Purpose: Provide a detailed step-by-step guide on conducting a pay equity analysis to identify and address compensation gaps within an organization.

Audience: HR leaders, compensation specialists, and DEI teams.

Context: Pay equity is crucial for fostering fairness and building trust. This analysis involves evaluating salaries to ensure fairness across gender, race, and other demographics. The guide should touch on data gathering, job benchmarking, statistical analysis, legal considerations, and communication of findings and solutions.

Tone: Expert, methodical, and compliance-focused.

List ten non-monetary ideas for employee recognition.

Purpose: Suggest ten impactful and creative non-monetary ways to recognize employees, fostering motivation, engagement, and a sense of value within the organization.
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Audience: HR teams, managers, and team leads.

Context: Not all recognition needs to be financial. Ideas should focus on personal acknowledgment, growth opportunities, visibility, and workplace culture to create meaningful recognition experiences.

Tone: Positive, creative, and practical.‍

7. Feedback and culture

People-centered organizations should nurture a supportive work environment based on a culture of continuous feedback. 

ChatGPT can help by identifying ways to implement feedback and even providing managers with suggestions on how to handle tough conversations with their direct reports. Furthermore, equipped with the right data, language models can provide insights into how equitable, diverse, and inclusive your company is.
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Example prompts

The following prompts can help you identify opportunities to improve your organizational feedback culture:

Name tips and suggestions for mastering a hybrid workplace approach and avoiding typical pitfalls.

Purpose: Offer practical tips to help organizations and employees effectively navigate hybrid work models while avoiding common challenges like communication gaps, lack of inclusivity, or imbalance in team dynamics.

Audience: HR teams, managers, and organizational leaders.

Context: Hybrid workplaces blend in-person and remote work, presenting challenges such as unclear expectations, unequal experiences, or lack of structure. Strategies should include communication norms, flexibility, collaboration tools, and fair treatment.

Tone: Actionable, balanced, and solution-focused.

Propose ten tips for managing workplace conflicts.

Purpose: Provide practical, actionable tips to help managers and employees effectively resolve conflicts in the workplace.

Audience: People managers, team leaders, and HR professionals.

Context: Workplace conflicts can disrupt team dynamics, productivity, and morale. The tips should focus on communication, active listening, empathy, and collaborative problem-solving.

Tone: Practical, constructive, and encouraging.‍

Use ChatGPT & other generative AI tools to boost HR efficiency

Word to the wise: Experimentation and prompt engineering help HR teams maximize ChatGPT’s potential. 

Combining AI with structured tools, such as Leapsome’s AI-powered HRIS and people enablement features, ensures quick, data-informed decisions and enhances processes across all HR functions.

Our software with advanced AI can help you make quick, informed decisions and work more efficiently — empowering your HR processes and boosting your people enablement strategy in one go.
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