There’s no getting away from the fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine-generated content has exploded recently - in particular the ChatGPT tool.

Some people have totally embraced it, some think it’s scary. And some would like to use it more but aren’t quite sure how. If you fall into the last category, we’ve got some great tips in this blog on how to use ChatGPT next time you are recruiting.

Using ChatGPT is simple. Head here: >>https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt<< and then click Try ChatGPT and set up an account. Once you are logged in you just need to type questions or prompts like the one below, then hit the little plane icon to send your message and start a conversation with the bot.

Here are five times you can use ChatGPT to speed things up in your recruitment process.

#1. Research

When you are planning recruitment, ChatGPT can help you to do some of the research.

You can get it to help you neatly summarise your organisation’s work. Perfect if you have a long mission statement that won’t fit in a job ad. Here’s what it had to say about Do Good Jobs based on some text from our About Page. It’s not an exact fit, but it’s a pretty good start.

“Do Good Jobs partners with purpose-driven individuals and organizations, providing them with sector-specific strategies to make a positive impact on the world. Through their platform, individuals can align their values with their work and actions, contributing towards a better world.”

Stuck on salary? Ask ChatGPT to tell you the average salary or salary range for the position you are recruiting for.

You can also use it to research some of the qualities needed for the position - which can help if you aren’t quite sure what to include in your position description or job ad. We asked it to share some qualities of a content writer. The results included:

• Strong writing skills

• Attention to detail

• Time management skills and ability to meet deadlines

• Knowledge of SEO

• Experience with social media

• Ability to adapt tone to different audiences

• Ability to collaborate with other team members to fulfill a marketing strategy

It also suggested we look for writing samples that “demonstrate a talent for crafting compelling and engaging content.”

There’s nothing earth-shattering in any of these suggestions, but when you are busy, using a tool like this to come up with ideas rather than trying to think of them yourself can be a real time-saver.

One thing to be aware of is that ChatGPT has limitations in its knowledge - particularly of recent events or trends. Its data set is essentially frozen in time at this stage. Sometimes it’s even been known to get things wildly wrong. So if you are asking questions like our payscale one above, it might not have the most up-to-date information. ChatGPT told us that the average hourly rate was $25.76 but, Googling the same info, Payscale’s latest data sets the average hourly rate at $29.12. And Google’s Bard AI assistant (Google’s answer to ChatGPT which can access the internet) says the average is $33.33

#2. Drafting your job ad

Talking of your job ad - AI can write that for you too!

Do you spend hours trying to write the perfect job ad - wondering how to distill all the information into a short pitch that will be read by potential applicants?

ChatGPT can do that for you - or at least the groundwork.

All you need to do is to give it the job title and a few bullet points covering the role and the position requirements (either yours or the ones you discovered during your research earlier), and it will craft an ad for you. Tailor it further by asking it to base the job ad on the mission statement that you created earlier.

Still looking for our mythical content writer, we asked ChatGPT to write a job ad, based on our mission statement and some brief job requirements. Here’s what it suggested for our ad for a content writer for Do Good Jobs. Again, it’s not perfect - but the responsibilities and requirements are pretty good so all it needs is a few tweaks to fit our voice. Much easier than starting from scratch.

We also asked it to summarise the job ad for a social media post. Here’s what we got - it even suggested some relevant hashtags and emojis to make our post stand out on social media (and even though it does prefer American English, you can train it on your preferences!).

#3. Weighting applicants during screening

If you have several applicants for your position, then one of your first jobs will be to narrow those down for the interview stage. You can use ChatGPT to help you focus on the most important skills for the role so you can see what you should be looking for in stand-out CVs.

In the search for our pretend content writer, we asked it to weight the skills needed for the role. These are the top two. It also gave us some useful bullet points on what to look for when considering each skill.

When you have a number of candidates to assess in a job application process, a good practice is to review and weight each of the top 3-4 skills you are looking before you start reviewing applications. Then using a simple spreadsheet and weighted screening equation you can start to easily see the most appropriate candidates. Not sure what we mean? We shared a handy spreadsheet you can access and download in our Recruit for Impact resource to help with this.

Find out more here.

Or maybe try asking ChatGPT what weighted job candidate screening templates are all about…

#4. Preparing for interviews

Once you’ve got your job advertised, it’s time to start planning the interview process. Not sure what to ask? ChatGPT can help with that too.

Ask the bot and it can give you a list of potential interview questions based on your job description. You can then pick the most relevant questions to make up part of your interview.

We asked it to give us a set of questions to ask our potential content writers based on the job requirements we’d listed. ChatGPT gave us 10 potential questions covering both technical skills and other requirements.

#5. Following up with applicants

Writing a letter of rejection is always hard and it can be time-consuming if you have had a lot of applicants. But it’s much more professional than leaving people hanging and creates a better impression of your organisation overall. Now there are really no excuses…ChatGPT can write a template letter for you, based on your job information. Then all you need to do is to tweak the content slightly to provide personalised feedback for each applicant. This is one task where you probably will need to give the bot a helping hand as it doesn’t always hit the mark for tone and voice.

ChatGPT’s first attempt at a feedback letter for someone unsuccessfully applying to our content writer role, written in the Do Good Jobs style didn’t really give the right vibe!

Dear [Candidate’s Name],

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to thank you for taking the time to apply for the [Position Name] role at [Company Name]. We appreciate your interest in our organization and the effort you put into your application.

After careful consideration of all the candidates who applied for the position, we have decided to move forward with another applicant whose qualifications and experience better match our current needs. While your candidacy was not selected, please know that your application was reviewed thoroughly and that your skills and experience are impressive.

We understand that finding the right role can be a challenging and sometimes discouraging process, but we encourage you to keep exploring opportunities that align with your professional goals and aspirations. We wish you all the best in your job search, and we hope that you will continue to follow our company's updates and open positions.

A second attempt with an added prompt to make it informal was a bit better.

Dear [Candidate’s Name],

Thank you so much for taking the time to apply for the [Position Name] role at [Company Name]. We appreciate your interest in our organization and your effort in putting together a strong application.

While your qualifications and experience are impressive, we have decided to move forward with another candidate whose skills and experience more closely align with our current needs. We know how hard it is to put yourself out there, and we want to thank you for taking the time to apply and share your experience with us.

We appreciate your interest in our organization and hope that you will keep us in mind for future opportunities. We wish you the best of luck in your job search and hope that you find the right fit soon.

It still needs some work though to make it sound like us, but it’s done the majority of the heavy lifting for us.

If you use ChatGPT to help you with your recruitment process, take your time and don’t be afraid to try more than once with different prompts to get the results you want. ChatGPT can learn from what you tell it and build on the conversation, so the more detailed you can be with your prompts the better the results.

And don’t forget, your job ads, or whatever else you create will still need that human touch to check the tone and tidy up any errors before they are ready to go.  

Prompts to try for ChatGPT

ChatGPT can learn from you as you go along and build on previous information and conversations so if you don’t get quite the right response the first time try refining with further prompts.

You can also prompt it with a specific tone  - formal, informal, fun, witty, etc And, you can ask AI to play a specific role. Eg You are an experienced HR manager, what key skills would you be looking for from a candidate applying to be a content writer? What questions would you ask to determine if someone has those skills?

Below are some sample prompts for you to try:

• What are some possible job titles for someone who will do X, Y,Z things in our organisation?

• What are the most important hard and soft skills for a [job title]?

• What are the five most important skills we should look for when hiring a [job title]?

• Write a job description for a [position] for [organisation] based on the following mission statement and job details [paste organisation mission statement or overview and job detail bullet points]

• Take the role of a jobseeker, what questions might they have about the job advertised below [paste job description] and how can I pre-empt their questions by including them in my job ad.

• What criteria should we use to review job applications and what weighting would you give each criteria?

• Create a three line summary of this job description to share on social media [paste job description]

• Create a list of interview questions for hiring a [job title]

• Create a list of interview questions based on the following job description [paste job description]

• What are the key questions I should ask a potential job candidates referees to ensure they are the right fit?

• What is the best practice from an employee when doing pre-employment skill testing with a candidate?

• Create a polite rejection letter for someone who has applied for the following position [paste job title]