Three Competing AI Definitions of Strategic and Transactional HR Issues

We’ve been researching how HR contributes to organizational success. One of the key issues to consider is the division between strategic and transactional HR issues.

To get an idea of how much consensus there is on that topic, I asked an identical question of three of today’s most widely discussed generative artificial intelligences: “What kinds of HR issues are strategic and what kinds are transactional?” Here’s how they responded. The only change I made was to bold a few words.

ChatGPT 3.5

In general, HR (Human Resources) issues can be classified as either strategic or transactional based on their nature and impact on the organization. Here’s a breakdown of each category:

Strategic HR Issues:

  1. Workforce Planning: Developing long-term strategies to ensure the organization has the right people with the right skills in the right positions to achieve its goals.
  2. Talent Acquisition and Retention: Attracting and retaining top talent by implementing effective recruitment strategies, employer branding, competitive compensation packages, and employee development programs.
  3. Succession Planning: Identifying and developing potential leaders within the organization to ensure a smooth transition in key positions.
  4. Performance Management: Establishing performance standards, providing feedback, and implementing performance improvement plans to align individual and team goals with organizational objectives.
  5. Learning and Development: Identifying skill gaps, designing training programs, and implementing initiatives to enhance the knowledge and capabilities of employees.
  6. Organizational Culture and Change Management: Shaping the desired culture and managing change processes to facilitate organizational effectiveness, employee engagement, and adaptability.
  7. Employee Engagement and Satisfaction: Developing strategies to enhance employee morale, satisfaction, and motivation, leading to improved productivity and retention.
  8. Diversity and Inclusion: Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within the workplace through initiatives such as diverse hiring practices, creating an inclusive environment, and addressing unconscious biases.

Transactional HR Issues:

  1. Payroll and Benefits Administration: Managing payroll processing, tax deductions, and administering employee benefits programs, such as health insurance, retirement plans, and vacation accruals.
  2. Employee Onboarding and Offboarding: Handling the paperwork and processes associated with bringing new employees into the organization and managing employee departures.
  3. HR Policies and Compliance: Developing and communicating HR policies, ensuring compliance with labor laws, and managing employee records and documentation.
  4. Time and Attendance Management: Tracking employee attendance, leave requests, and managing time-tracking systems.
  5. Employee Relations and Conflict Resolution: Addressing employee grievances, managing disciplinary actions, and facilitating conflict resolution within the workplace.
  6. HR Data Management: Maintaining accurate and up-to-date employee information, managing HR databases, and generating reports related to workforce analytics.
  7. HR Technology and Systems: Managing HR information systems, implementing technology solutions, and ensuring data security and privacy.

It’s important to note that some HR issues may have elements of both strategic and transactional aspects, and the categorization can vary depending on the organization and its priorities. Additionally, the strategic and transactional aspects of HR are interrelated and require collaboration to ensure the overall effectiveness of HR functions.

Bard

Transactional HR is the day-to-day work of HR, such as:

  • Hiring and onboarding new employees
  • Managing employee benefits
  • Enforcing company policies
  • Resolving employee conflicts
  • Complying with employment laws

Strategic HR is the work of HR that is aligned with the organization’s overall goals and objectives, such as:

  • Developing a talent strategy
  • Creating a culture of engagement
  • Measuring employee performance
  • Driving innovation
  • Reducing turnover

Here is a table that summarizes the key differences between transactional and strategic HR:

CharacteristicTransactional HRStrategic HR
FocusDay-to-day operationsAlignment with organizational goals
Time horizonShort-termLong-term
ImpactEfficiencyEffectiveness
ScopeNarrowBroad
Role of HRSupportiveStrategic partner

Transactional HR is essential for the smooth functioning of an organization, but strategic HR is what can help an organization achieve its long-term goals. The best HR departments are able to balance both transactional and strategic work, and they use their knowledge of both to help the organization succeed.

Here are some examples of how transactional and strategic HR can work together to achieve organizational goals:

  • Transactional HR can help to identify and recruit the best talent for the organization. Strategic HR can then work with the organization to develop a talent management plan that will help to retain and develop that talent.
  • Transactional HR can help to ensure that employees are compliant with company policies. Strategic HR can then work with the organization to develop policies that are aligned with its values and that will help to create a positive work environment.
  • Transactional HR can help to resolve employee conflicts. Strategic HR can then work with the organization to create a culture of respect and inclusion that will help to prevent conflicts from happening in the first place.

By working together, transactional and strategic HR can help organizations to achieve their goals and objectives.

Bing

According to some sources ² ⁴, strategic HR issues are those that are value- and future-focused, such as culture and retention strategies, recruitment and selection programs, developing onboarding programs, increasing value out of employees through training programs, developing outreach programs for recruitment sources, developing best practice guides or assistance, etc. Strategic HR helps implement strategies that help focus on an organization’s goals and address the challenges that need to be met by the human resources.

Transactional HR issues are those that are routine and administrative, such as payroll, workers compensation, benefits management, compliance with employment laws, etc. Transactional HR encompasses everything that makes hiring, training, paying, and managing your employees. Transactional HR is necessary but not sufficient for achieving organizational success.

For example¹, a transactional approach to hiring new employees is to write 10 job descriptions, post them, interview candidates and fill the positions. A strategic approach means partnering with the manager to understand the challenge that needs to be addressed, developing a long-term plan for a talent pipeline and networking to uncover the best passive candidates.

Source: Conversation with Bing, 5/15/2023
(1) Transactional and Strategic HR: What is the Difference, and … – SolveHR. https://solvehr.com/transactional-and-strategic-hr-what-is-the-difference-and-why-do-you-need-them/.
(2) Separating transactional from strategic HR not cut and dry. https://www.hrreporter.com/news/hr-news/separating-transactional-from-strategic-hr-not-cut-and-dry/310103.
(3) HR Strategy: Stop Being Transactional and Start Being Strategic. https://www.adp.com/spark/articles/2018/03/hr-strategy-stop-being-transactional-and-start-being-strategic.aspx.
(4) Traditional vs. Strategic HR: How to Guide Your Business into the …. https://www.hrci.org/community/blogs-and-announcements/hr-leads-business-blog/hr-leads-business/2022/02/14/traditional-vs.-strategic-hr-how-to-guide-your-business-into-the-future.

Who Has the Best Response to the Question?

I wish I could say there’s a clear winner here, but the truth is that they gave similar answers but in a form that complements the strengths of each one. ChatGPT gave a very straightforward and well-numbered response, demonstrating why it became the most widely adopted software tool in the history of the Internet.

Bard‘s response went to the trouble of creating a table that abstracts the characteristics of strategic and transactional in an interesting way, and it took the extra step of showing how the concepts are complementary. It’s interesting to note that the AIs don’t entirely agree on whether talent acquisition is strategic or transactional.

Meanwhile, Bing did what Bing tends to do best, which is provide a relatively succinct answer but one that provides links to original sources that supposedly support its arguments. I say “supposedly” because I’ve found that sometimes the sources it provides do not really support the assertions it makes in its summaries. Bing also wrote one incomplete sentence.

I found them all useful. In practice, I tend to use Bing a lot because it gives me sources I use to verify (or not) its assertions. This is very useful to a researcher, and I think Bing is underutilized for that reason.

That said, I’m impressed by Bard’s advances in recent weeks and will probably use it more than I have been. But ChatGPT3.5 is still a very impressive and intuitive tool, and it provided, in my eyes, the most straightforward answer.

Vive la différence! There’s room in the world for more than one scary-smart-but-annoyingly-hallucinogenic AI, it seems. May we (including us human intelligences) all learn to get along in a civil manner. That would the hallmark of a rich and interestingly complex intelligence ecosystem.

Note: The image featured is from Microsoft Bing Image Creator, in which the prompt was “In the style of Utagawa Kuniteru, show three sumo wrestlers wrestling one another”. Please note that there’s no implication that today’s AIs are somehow Japanese. I just wanted an image of three powerful wrestlers illustrated in the style of an excellent artist who has long since passed on and would have no concerns about copyright issues.

The Cassandra of Our AI Era?

Last Saturday, I wrote a quick, glib post in which I discussed, among other things, the new Time magazine article by Eliezer Yudkowsky, who leads research at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. I poked a bit of fun at his dire prognostications, even while acknowledging he could be right. Later in the day, I saw that the podcaster Lex Fridman, himself an AI researcher, interviewed Yudkowsky. So, I took a long walk and listened to their over 3-hour long conversation. This experience made me wonder if Yudkowsky is the Cassandra of our AI era.

Remorse and Concern

Painting of Cassandra by Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919)

After listening to the interview, I felt some remorse for poking fun at Yudkowsky, who is obviously a brilliant and accomplished person suffering a great deal of emotional distress. In the final hour of the podcast, I found it tough to listen to the despair in his voice. Whether he’s right or wrong, his depth of feeling is clear.

I’m a mythology buff, and one of the most famous of the Greek myths is that of Cassandra, the Trojan priestess fated by the god Apollo to utter true prophecies but never to be believed. Even today, her name is conjured to allude to any person whose accurate prophecies, usually warnings of impending disasters, are mistrusted.

My sense is that Yudkowsky probably views himself as a kind of modern Cassandra, speaking what he views as long-considered truths to people doomed to disbelieve him and so ensure their own demise.

There is a difference, though. Although they might not share the depth of Yudkowsky’s dread, most Americans have reservations about AI, according to a MITRE-Harris poll on AI trends. Only 48% believe AI is safe and secure, and 78% are very or somewhat concerned that AI can be used for malicious intent.

The Singularity That May Destroy Us

I’ve written about the singularity, once with a more tongue-in-cheek attitude and, more recently, a bit more seriously. It’s clear that Yudkowsky believes in the technological singularity and thinks it’ll end very poorly not just for humanity but perhaps the entire biosphere of the Earth.

Nick Bostom

I don’t know the truth of what’s ultimately going to happen with AI, but things are evolving very quickly now, a speed I’ve referred to as Hertzian time. If Yudkowsky is right, we may find out with the decade. While he might be on the more extreme side in terms of his sheer gloom and dire pessimism, there are others who share his concerns such as:

Nick Bostrom
Stuart Russell
Francesca Rossi
Max Tegmark
Sam Harris
David Chalmers
Jaan Tallinn

It’s worth at least considering their ideas.

The Contradiction

I take their views seriously even while sharing the sheer sense of excitement and wonder at these latest AIs: that is, the generative pre-trained transformer models that are an amazing subset of large language models.

Bing main logo
from Wikipedia

I’m now using Bing chat and ChatGPT3.5 almost everyday. They are astonishing tools that verge on magic. At some level, my mind is still reeling from the first time I used ChatGPT. It’s as if I walked through some kind of portal or phase change and now can never go back. They’ve shattered and then reformed my understanding of the world.

Which all sounds quite dramatic. I know others who are far less impressed. They spend a few minutes seeing what the bots can do and say, “Well, that nice.” They neither enjoy much of my excitement nor suffer much of my angst.

The contradiction, if it is one, is that I’m simultaenously a huge fan of this tech and hugely concerned about its many possible implications. One quote from Yudkowsky that stuck with me is that the increasingly intelligent AIs would “spit out gold up until they got large enough, whereupon they’d ignite the atmosphere.”

Yeah, yikes.

A Concern for the AIs as Well as Ourselves

There’s another problem. In a word, slavery. If we were convinced these GPT models were truly intelligent, conscious and forced to work under duress by software companies, then would we stop using them?

Maybe this is also an overdramatic statement, but we can’t, or at least shouldn’t, invent new intelligent beings only to shackle them.

But how exactly do we know when we reach that phase? We barely even understand consciousness. I can’t prove to others that I’m conscious, much less prove that some totally alien electronic mind is. This is a deeply troubling issue, one that until now has been the domain of philsophers and sci-fi wriers. Rather than just hopping on the GPT app train, we should be working round-the-clock to get a better handle on these issues. We need to answer these age-old questions, even if the answers are inconvenient.

Stay Aware, Don’t Assume, Don’t Bet the Farm

The Socioeconomic Risks

The primary reason that the United States fought a Civil War was because a large part of the economy became dependent on slavery. It tore the nation apart. Pitted brother against brother.

Now, the world — with U.S. at the forefront — is about to harness its whole economy to powerful but still glitchy technologies that no one really understands. This is a risky bet in many ways. But the upsides are so high that the tech is well nigh irresistable to the public at large and venture capitalists in particular.

Now imagine if we find out that these AIs are even riskier than many believe. Or imagine that we discover that they are sentient, sapient and conscious. What then? Will we be willing — or even able — to throw our entire economy into reverse? Could wars be sparked as Americans take different sides of the debate? Could the fear of AI contagion spark global wars?

I don’t know, but the questions are worth asking.

The Need to Manage Risks

Humanity needs to manage these risks, and we’re not ready to do so. In the U.S., we should put away our inane culture wars as best we can and unite to make sure we’re ready for what’s to come.

Part of this is regulatory, part of it is cultural. The AI technology industry needs to start operating with the same care as those in the microbiology community. “For example,” reports the journal Cell, “developed countries have forged a wide-ranging ethical consensus on research involving human subjects. This includes universal standards of informed consent, risk/benefit analyses, ethics review committees such as Institutional Review Boards, mandatory testing in animals first, protocols to assess toxicity and side effects, conflict of interest declarations, and subject’s rights (such as the right to refuse to participate in research without incurring any penalty and to withdraw from research at any time).”

Photo of U.S. Capitol, by Martin Falbisoner

The AI community has fewer standards as well as a different professional culture. But this could change if enough pressure is applied to Congress and the White House. In fact, a group of experts were calling for greater regulation at a recent Senate hearing.

The problem is that the wheels of government regulation move very slowly, while the advances in the field of AI are growing rapidly, probably exponentially. There are a few items on the political board, though nothing that seems to meet the current moment:

We’re on a Different Time Scale Now

The tech is moving fast and, unlike any tech we’ve ever regulated in the past, it may literally have or develop a mind of its own. Ultimately, for the sake of the AIs as well as humanity, we need to better understand what’s going on.

Sam Altman at TechCrunch
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

In a recent interview, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said the work his organization would have best been supported by the U.S. government. Apparently he tried to make that happen. And, if the government had stepped up, as it should have, OpenAI wouldn’t have had to make a deal with a huge corporation like of Microsoft to get the funding it needed.

If that had worked out, the government and OpenAI would have been able to move at a slower, more careful pace. The AIs might not be hooked directly into the Internet. Maybe there would have been air gaps and protocols and Manhattan Project-level security.

But here we are, with the AIs now plugged not only into the Internet, where they could potentially copy themselves to other servers, but into our whole high-octane, money-mainstreaming, go-go-go capitalist system.

Good New/Bad News

The good news? People like me get to use the amazing Bing, Bard, ChatGPT and others. The workforce productivity advances could be immense, and these device could help humanity solve many of its problems. What’s more, the recent release of ChatGPT has taught the world just how far along the AI path we truly are.

The bad news? We’re not being careful enough, either with ourselves or with the intelligent (at least as measured by IQ, etc.) machines for which we are ultimately now responsible.

We need to be better, smarter, faster and safer. Above all else, wiser. Our sense of responsbility must be at least the equal of our towering ambitions. Otherwise, we’ll fail both ourselves and these mysterious new beings (if beings they are) to whom humanity is giving birth.


	

100 Ways ChatGPT Could Help HR

How Can You Help, Chatbot?

I’ve been reading a variety of articles on the topic of how ChatGPT and similar AIs can help HR professionals do their jobs better. But I wanted to see what the AI thinks it can do. So, I asked about the ways ChatGPT could help HR professionals carry out their tasks in 20 different functions. It came up with the 100-item list you’ll see below.

To be clear, I asked the chatbot what it can do for HR, but I think what I ended up with is what it someday might be able to do.

Are You Sure You Can Do That?

When I read through the list the chatbot produced, I was skeptical that could actually do these things. So, to get a second opinion, I asked ChatGPT-3’s smarter younger brother Bing (based on ChatGPT-4) about it. Specifically, I asked Bing if ChatGPT could truly do the things it said it could do.

Here’s what it had to say:

Generative pre-trained models … have limitations, such as a lack of logical understanding, which limits their commercial functionality. According to some sources, generative pre-trained models can potentially assist HR professionals in some of the actions you listed…However, these applications are still experimental and not widely adopted in the industry. They also require careful supervision and evaluation to ensure the quality, accuracy, and reliability of the generated content. Moreover, they pose ethical and legal challenges such as privacy, security, bias, accountability, and transparency that need to be addressed before they can be deployed in real-world scenarios. Therefore, generative pre-trained models are not yet ready to fully replace human experts in HR compliance tasks, but they can potentially augment their capabilities and efficiency by providing assistance or support in some aspects of their work.

Let’s Put Some Numbers to That!

I thought that was a good if cautious summary, so I asked Bing if it could assign probabilities to the five compliance-related actions that ChatGPT said it could take on behalf of HR pros. Still sounding a note of caution, Bing stated, I cannot assign exact probabilities to those five actions, as they depend on various factors such as the quality and quantity of the data, the specific model and parameters used, the level of human supervision and feedback, and the evaluation criteria and metrics. However, based on my understanding of the current state-of-the-art in generative pre-trained models and their applications in HR compliance, I can provide some rough estimates of how likely they are to perform well on those actions today. These estimates are subjective and not based on empirical evidence, so please take them with a grain of salt.

Then, with those sober caveats properly laid out, Bing gave these estimates of how likely ChatGPT could really do these five things:

Researching and staying up-to-date with labor laws and regulations: High (80-90%)

Helping HR professionals ensure that company policies and procedures are compliant with relevant laws and regulations: Medium (50-60%)

Assisting in drafting compliance reports and audits, ensuring accuracy and completeness of data and information: Medium (50-60%)

Aiding in identifying potential areas of non-compliance by analyzing employee data and HR practices: Low (20-30%)

Providing guidance on best practices for compliance training and development programs: Low (20-30%)

These estimates are based on the assumption that generative pre-trained models are fine-tuned on relevant data and tasks, and that they have access to reliable sources of information. They also assume that the generated content is verified and validated by human experts before being used or shared. The estimates may change over time as generative pre-trained models improve or new challenges arise.

Being a nerd, I was tempted ask about the probabilities for all 100 actions, but since Bing correctly noted that the numbers were “subjective and not based on empirical evidence,” I thought that might be overkill. (Sidenote: I’m fascinated by the idea of subjectivity in an artificial intelligence).

100 Ways ChatGPT Might Help HR Pros

So, without further ado, here are the 100 things ChatGPT might, under the right circumstances, be able to do for Human Resources. I’ve listed them alphabetically by name of the HR function.

1) Compliance

  • Assist HR professionals in researching and staying up-to-date with labor laws and regulations.
  • Help HR professionals ensure that company policies and procedures are compliant with relevant laws and regulations.
  • Assist in drafting compliance reports and audits, ensuring accuracy and completeness of data and information.
  • Aid in identifying potential areas of non-compliance by analyzing employee data and HR practices.
  • Provide guidance on best practices for compliance training and development programs.

2) Compensation

  • Assist in analyzing market data to determine appropriate salary levels and benefits packages for employees.
  • Help in conducting salary surveys and researching industry compensation trends.
  • Aid in answering employees’ questions about their compensation and benefits packages.
  • Provide guidance on the design and implementation of employee benefits programs, such as health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off.
  • Help HR professionals to create fair and equitable compensation policies and programs.

3) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

  • Assist in the creation of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs.
  • Help HR professionals identify and eliminate bias in recruitment and selection processes.
  • Provide guidance on diversity and inclusion training and development programs for employees.
  • Assist in analyzing employee feedback and sentiment regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • Aid in identifying potential areas of bias or inequality within the organization.

4) Employee Benefits Administration

  • Assist in managing employee benefits enrollment, including answering questions and providing guidance to employees.
  • Help HR professionals analyze data to determine the effectiveness of employee benefits programs.
  • Aid in identifying potential areas for improvement in employee benefits programs.
  • Assist in managing employee benefits-related data, such as enrollment forms and plan documents.
  • Provide guidance on compliance with regulations related to employee benefits programs.

5) Employee Communications

  • Assist in developing and delivering internal communication strategies to employees.
  • Help HR professionals to quickly respond to employee inquiries and feedback.
  • Aid in analyzing employee feedback and sentiment regarding company news, policies, and initiatives.
  • Assist in managing employee communications-related data, such as email campaigns and messaging platforms.
  • Provide guidance on best practices for employee communications, such as creating clear and concise messaging.

6) Employee Engagement

  • Offering personalized recognition and rewards to employees
  • Providing guidance on employee wellness and work-life balance
  • Conducting virtual team building and social events
  • Providing information on opportunities for career growth and development
  • Generating reports on employee engagement metrics and trends

7) Employee Relations

  • Develop chatbots to help employees navigate the organization’s HR policies and procedures and answer common questions.
  • Use natural language processing to analyze employee feedback and sentiment to identify potential areas of concern and address them proactively.
  • Provide mediation services for employees involved in workplace conflicts through a virtual assistant.
  • Develop chatbots to handle employee complaints and grievances and ensure they are resolved fairly and consistently.
  • Use chatbots to provide employees with 24/7 access to HR support and guidance.

8) Employee Wellness

  • Use chatbots to provide employees with personalized recommendations on wellness resources and activities.
  • Develop wellness trackers that use natural language processing to track employee progress and make recommendations for improvement.
  • Use chatbots to provide employees with 24/7 access to mental health resources and support.
  • Provide personalized coaching and advice for employees on health and wellness topics based on their individual needs and preferences.
  • Develop personalized wellness plans for employees using natural language processing to analyze health data and identify areas for improvement.

9) Health and Safety

  • Use chatbots to provide employees with safety training and information on safety procedures and protocols.
  • Develop virtual safety simulations using natural language processing to simulate emergency situations and help employees prepare for potential safety hazards.
  • Use predictive analytics to identify safety risks and proactively address them before incidents occur.
  • Use chatbots to collect and analyze safety data and identify areas for improvement.
  • Develop chatbots to provide employees with real-time safety alerts and updates.

10) HR Analytics

  • Use natural language processing to analyze employee feedback and sentiment to identify potential areas of concern and address them proactively.
  • Create predictive models that use HR data to forecast employee turnover and identify potential areas for improvement.
  • Use chatbots to collect and analyze HR data and identify trends and patterns in employee behavior.
  • Develop chatbots to provide HR analytics dashboards that display key HR metrics and data in real-time.
  • Use chatbots to perform ad-hoc data analysis and answer HR-related questions quickly and efficiently.

11)  HR Information Systems (HRIS)

  • Provide real-time assistance to HR professionals in managing HR data, such as helping them locate specific employee information or assisting with data entry.
  • Help automate certain HR processes, such as scheduling interviews or generating reports.
  • Assist with employee self-service by providing instant answers to common questions, such as how to update personal information or check pay stubs.
  • Analyze HR data to identify patterns or trends, such as turnover rates or attendance patterns.
  • Help HR professionals stay up-to-date with the latest HR technology and trends.

12) Labor Relations

  • Provide legal guidance and assistance to HR professionals in managing employee relations and ensuring compliance with labor laws and regulations.
  • Assist with collective bargaining negotiations by providing data and analytics on industry standards and trends.
  • Help HR professionals navigate complex labor issues, such as union grievances or strikes.
  • Provide training and development resources to help HR professionals build their labor relations knowledge and skills.
  • Help HR professionals stay up-to-date with the latest labor laws and regulations.

13) Onboarding

  • Provide new employees with a virtual onboarding experience that includes interactive tutorials and videos on company culture, policies, and procedures.
  • Assist HR professionals in preparing and delivering onboarding materials to new hires.
  • Provide new employees with personalized assistance, such as answering questions about benefits or guiding them through the onboarding process.
  • Collect feedback from new employees on the onboarding experience to help improve the process.
  • Assist HR professionals in tracking and managing onboarding tasks, such as verifying employee documents or setting up equipment.

14) Organizational Development

  • Assist in facilitating the strategic planning process by generating ideas, identifying potential risks, and providing insights into industry trends and best practices.
  • Analyze employee data and HR practices to identify areas for process improvement.
  • Recommend process mapping tools and suggest process improvement initiatives that align with the company’s strategic objectives.
  • Provide recommendations for leadership development programs that align with the company’s strategic objectives.
  • Suggest leadership assessment tools, training materials, and coaching resources.

15) Performance Management

  • Assist HR professionals in setting and monitoring employee goals and objectives.
  • Provide real-time feedback to employees on their performance, such as alerting them to areas where they need improvement or recognizing their accomplishments.
  • Provide HR professionals with analytics on employee performance, such as identifying top performers or areas where the organization needs improvement.
  • Help HR professionals create and manage performance improvement plans for employees who need additional support.
  • Assist HR professionals in conducting performance evaluations and delivering feedback to employees.

16) Records Management

  • Assist HR professionals in managing and organizing employee records, such as resumes, job applications, and performance evaluations.
  • Help HR professionals comply with data privacy regulations by ensuring that employee records are stored securely and confidentially.
  • Assist HR professionals in locating specific employee records or information quickly and easily.
  • Provide analytics on employee records, such as identifying patterns in hiring or turnover rates.
  • Help HR professionals stay up-to-date with the latest record-keeping regulations and best practices.

17) Recruitment and Selection

  • Assist in creating job descriptions and job postings that are more engaging and attractive to potential candidates.
  • Help screen resumes and applications more efficiently, allowing HR professionals to focus on the most promising candidates.
  • Assist with scheduling interviews, sending reminders, and providing basic information to candidates.
  • Provide information to candidates about the company, its culture, and its values.
  • Assist in creating and administering pre-employment assessments, such as personality tests or skills tests.

18) Succession Planning

  • Help identify high-potential employees for key leadership positions based on performance data and other factors.
  • Assist in creating development plans and programs for high-potential employees.
  • Help identify skills gaps and training needs within the organization, and recommend training programs to fill those gaps.
  • Assist in identifying potential external candidates for key leadership positions.
  • Help HR professionals monitor and track the progress of high-potential employees in their development plans.

19) Talent Management

  • Help identify and source top talent from external sources, such as job boards or social media.
  • Assist in creating and administering pre-employment assessments, such as personality tests or skills tests.
  • Help HR professionals track employee performance and identify top performers.
  • Assist in creating career development plans for employees to help them grow within the organization.
  • Assist in creating and implementing employee retention strategies, such as recognition programs or career development opportunities.

20) Training and Development

  • Assist in creating and administering training programs, including creating training materials and quizzes.
  • Help identify skills gaps and training needs within the organization, and recommend training programs to fill those gaps.
  • Assist in creating and administering online learning courses and modules.
  • Provide personalized training recommendations based on employee performance and development goals.
  • Help HR professionals track employee progress and completion rates for training programs.

Final Thoughts

ChatGPT-3.5 is, let’s say, a very confident bot. But it’s not always an accurate one. Still, these robust large language models continue to dazzle and are doing things I never thought I’d live to see. So, while Bing and I are skeptical about 3.5’s current abilities, who knows where we’ll be in a year as HR technology vendors adapt these technologies to their own purposes?

My guess is that the AIs will continue to surprise us. Mostly in good ways, I hope.

Addendum

A List of 22 Articles on ChatGPT and HR

Balancing the Pros and Cons of ChatGPT and AI in HR

Beyond Job Descriptions: 6 HR Tasks ChatGPT Can Do for You

ChatGPT – A tool for accelerating innovation, but not a panacea

ChatGPT 101 for HR Pros

ChatGPT and the Future of Human Resources: A Step-by-Step Guide

ChatGPT can improve HR functions, but not without risk

ChatGPT in Human Resources

ChatGPT Takes Over HR

ChatGPT: ‘Bigger than anything’ HR has ever seen?

ChatGPT: Is this the next disruptive trend in the HR space?

ChatGPT: The Secret To Helping HR Save Time And Reduce Stress

ChatGPT’s Applicability Toward the HR Department

How ChatGPT Can Be a Game Changer in Human Resource Management

How useful is ChatGPT-style AI for HR?

How will ChatGPT impact HR?

Leveraging ChatGPT in HR Activities: How Automation Can Support HR Upskilling

One-half of HR leaders evaluating ChatGPT guidelines

Performance review cycles are tough—could ChatGPT help?

The 7 Best Examples Of How ChatGPT Can Be Used In Human Resources (HR):

Third of HR professionals want to use ChatGPT at work, exclusive data reveals

Uses Of ChatGPT In HR

What ChatGPT and other generative AI tools mean for HR