Will ChatGPT Change the Way We Manage Talent, HR?

Managing talent has always been a challenge for organizations, but as the world becomes more complex and diverse, the task has become even more daunting. The old ways of recruiting, training, reviewing, engaging, and retaining employees are no longer enough to keep up with the demands of modern workforce. The rise of AI in all its manifestations, including chatbots, purports to deliver interesting advantaged. The latest in this AI craze is ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that can interact with employees in natural language, providing personalized solutions to various HR-related issues. It’s based on GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), a machine learning model pre-trained on vast amounts of text data to generate natural-sounding responses to user queries. With its potential to automate tasks, predict employee behavior, and enhance the employee experience, ChatGPT appears poised to change the game for HR professionals.

However, in spite of the rave reviews and seemingly incredible features, this chatbot also has several disadvantages. Therefore, if you’re a business leader, an HR executive, or an employee, this blog post will help you answer the question of whether you should be worried about the rise of ChatGPT or not.

How Will ChatGPT Change the Way We Manage Talent?

The following are ways this AI chatbot can help talent managers:

Crafting Job Descriptions

It takes time and effort to write a good JD that spells out everything applicants need to know before applying. If well written, a good job description will help attract the right talents, while a bad one will make the hiring process stressful. Crafting a befitting job description is one of the challenges many in HR face. With ChatGPT, hiring managers can wave goodbye to the stress that usually accompanies this part of the hiring process.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), this chatbot allows you to create a good job description quickly. All you need to do is to type the title of the vacant position, the required experience, and any other relevant information. For example: “Write a job description for a software developer with 7 years of experience in python development.” In seconds, ChatGPT would spit out a job description you could paste into your Applicant Tracking System.

Generating Interview Questions

One of the most critical steps in hiring talents is interview process. Since a great is dependent on the quality of the questions you ask, you can understand how fraught this process can get. Asking appropriate questions can reveal the skills and capabilities of an applicant, but drafting such questions takes time and energy. However, ChatGPT has changed this narrative, as you can generate endless interview questions quickly. For example: “create interview questions on marketing management.”

Developing Performance Reviews

Yes, we know. Many of you simply don’t want to take the time to reflect and write personal performance reviews for your reports and team members. Like most things today, folks prefer ‘suggested’ responses to put down in their reviews. We get it. For those inclined to do this, there are plenty of AI resources to help you generate questions and evaluation entries. It also can be used to generate ideas for your own self-assessment entries. While we can stop anyone from using ChatGPT for review suggestions, do take the time to edit the entries to actually suit the person you are reviewing or evaluating.

Enhanced Employee Experience

This chatbot helps to provide personalized support to employees by answering their questions and providing training and development opportunities. It analyzes employee data, including skills, job roles, skills, and career goals. This helps them stay engaged and grow in their respective positions and careers. A report by McKinsey found that companies using chatbots or other AI-powered tools to assist employees in their work have seen significant improvements in employee productivity and satisfaction.

Other ways ChatGPT helps to enhance employee experience include:

• Improved communication: Employees can communicate with this chatbot to get answers to HR questions. Some employees might feel reluctant to ask specific HR questions from HR professionals, but with AI-powered chatbots, they can get quick and consistent responses without too much stress. This also helps to reduce the workload on HR personnel.
• Recognition and rewards: AI-powered tools make it easier to track employee performance. The traditional method of monitoring employee progress leaves room for bias and favoritism, as HR personnel may focus more on the progress of some employees than others. While some bias can be detected in some AI systems, on balance, they are designed to reduce bias and level the playing field, so to speak. AI chatbots like ChatGPT can also provide real-time feedback, recognition, and rewards. This can help inspire employees, improve their productivity, and boost job satisfaction. Regardless of which side of the AI coin you fall on, people, success platforms like eLeaP provide a reliable and easy-to-use platform to monitor your employee progress.
• Health and wellness: Supporting employees’ health and wellness has become easier now than ever. With ai-powered tools like ChatGPT, employees can now get support for their mental health challenges. The chatbot can help with stress management, creating a healthy and supportive work environment, and improving the employee experience.

Predicting Employee Behavior

ChatGPT can help HR managers identify potential red flags when it comes to which employees are more likely to leave the organization. While no system is 100% foolproof, intelligent systems can use data and analytics to pick up on retention signals that can then be acted on. It can also identify the factors contributing to low engagement and suggest ways to boost employee satisfaction. It does this through the following analysis:

• Text analysis: this chatbot could analyze text-based data sources, including chat logs, comments, employee surveys, social media posts, and emails, to identify common trends, sentiments, and language patterns. Analyzing information from these sources can help predict certain employee behaviors.
• Natural language processing: HR managers can leverage ChatGPT to analyze written or spoken language to find cues related to employee behavior. For instance, it can help detect language patterns that suggest employees’ dissatisfaction with their jobs. Information like this can help HR managers and business leaders to take proactive steps to address issues before they become problems.
• Predictive modeling: This Chatbot can utilize the insights obtained from natural language processing and text analysis to develop predictive models that identify the likelihood of certain employee behaviors occurring. For instance, HR managers can create a model with this chatbot to predict the probability of an employee engaging in unethical conduct or achieving high levels of job performance.

Caveat: Note that most or all of these examples are based on existing research which can itself be influenced by stakeholders looking to drive agenda. It is important to consider these with a healthy dose of skepticism. While the promise is great, we know not everything is as it appears. To this point, we attempt to present the other side of the argument.

The Current Downsides of ChatGPT

Some of the ways ChatGPT can affect business leaders and employees include:

It makes people lazy to think

Critical thinking is an essential tool for organizational growth. Unfortunately, ChatGPT has come to steal that away from people as it provides shortcuts to almost everything. If business leaders rely on machines to think for them, creativity and critical problem-solving skills will begin to fade away. This can lead to catastrophic results and consequences.

The information they provide may not always be correct

ChatGPT cannot distinguish between reliable sources and opinions shared on social media. Therefore, some of the answers it provides aren’t always reliable. This is a major flaw that could negate the “time savings”  factor of the chatbot for HR teams, as they need to double-check its claims and information.

It only leverages data from before 2021

According to AI Multiple, ChatGPT only leverages data from before 2021. An article by Harvard Business Review, titled Generative AI Won’t Revolutionize Search — Yet, also confirmed that ChatGPT was trained on a massive dataset with an October 2021 cut-off. This means it can’t give updated and accurate output in some cases. For instance, in areas like law and regulations. If there are any changes to employment laws or regulations after 2021, relying on the chatbot to help in such cases might be catastrophic and put your organization in legal jeopardy. The HBR article further expanded on this point. According to the article, “as far as ChatGPT is concerned, Russia hasn’t invaded Ukraine, FTX is a successful crypto exchange, Queen Elizabeth is alive, and Covid hasn’t reached the Omicron stage. This is likely why in December 2022, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “It’s a mistake to be relying on [ChatGPT] for anything important right now.”

Conclusion

The introduction of ChatGPT into the world of HR is just the beginning of a new era of talent management. With artificial intelligence at our fingertips, it is possible to unlock new possibilities in creating a happier, more productive, and more inclusive workplace. ChatGPT has the potential to streamline HR processes, reduce bias, and improve overall employee engagement and satisfaction. It can also enable HR professionals to focus on higher-value tasks that require more complex decision-making and creativity.

On the other hand, while ChatGPT has proven to be a valuable tool, it is crucial to recognize its downsides to HR, employers, and employees. As with any technology, there are limitations to what it can do and the risks it poses. HR and employers must be aware of these downsides and take steps to mitigate them, such as providing clear guidelines for using ChatGPT and ensuring that employees can access human support when needed. Ultimately, it is up to us to strike a balance between the benefits and drawbacks of ChatGPT and other technologies in order to create a workplace that is both efficient and supportive of humans.