25+ Useful Gen AI Prompts for HR Pros

There’s no escaping talk of AI — it’s transforming how HR works. A whopping 66% of senior finance leaders said they expect to increase spending on technology and IT in the next year. That’s the upshot of Grant Thornton’s Q3 2024 CFO Survey.

“In the era of GenAI investment, management teams will spend resources on the use cases they believe create a competitive advantage in the market,” said Mike Notarangelo, Partner and Private Equity Audit Leader for Grant Thornton. 

So what about use cases for HR? How can HR pros use AI to improve the many processes they rely on every day?

Here are more than 25 AI prompts that help HR pros take full advantage of AI’s potential.

Generative AI Basics 

Before you begin plugging in AI prompts for HR tasks, it’s important to understand the different generative AI platforms that are available. Although they’re constantly changing, there are a few tried-and-true programs you can use: 

• ChatGPT
• Google Bard, and
• Microsoft Bing Chat.

To get the most out of generative AI prompts for HR tasks, it’s important to add some context before diving into the prompts themselves. For good-quality results, the bot needs to be provided with:

• Context: Providing background information for a chatbot will help it tailor its answers better for your specific needs. For example: “I am an experienced HR professional located in [state] with [amount] of employees. We are in [specific niche or industry].”
• Objective: What do you want the answer to accomplish? What is the end goal? For example: “I am looking for cost-free ways to engage my remote workforce.” 
• Format: What format do you want your results in? For example, if the bot is producing multiple results, you can ask it to put answers in a numbered or bulleted list or write it out another way.

Putting all these things together, you may want to start the conversation with a preface like: “I am an experienced HR generalist for a small business with 25-50 employees. We are in the software industry. I am looking for ideas to improve morale during a busy season. Please put answers in a bulleted format.”

If you want to get even more specific, you can include workforce demographics like age to get even more specific results.

Remember, AI chatbots should be used more as a conversation than a search engine. If you don’t like the answers the bot gives you, you can iterate on your prompts and your preface to get better results.

Generative AI Prompts for HR Pros

Now that you know how to set up the chatbot to get the best results, you can use the bot to do tasks like answer questions, generate content, summarize content or analyze data.

Here are some of the most effective AI prompts for HR areas that you can easily plug into ChatGPT or any other generative AI chatbot. Remember to add context to AI prompts when necessary, especially regarding company size and industry. 

Note: When inputting data into any AI tool, make sure that the data reveals as little personal information as possible to keep your company secure. Data privacy is one of the biggest risks of AI, and keeping employee and company information secure should be an utmost priority.

Recruiting Prompts

In the area of recruiting, it’s important to be especially cautious of the results, as AI can be prone to bias just like humans. Always make sure you have a set of eyes on the results before going forward with the bot’s answers.

Here’s a list of some useful AI prompts for HR to help with recruiting and hiring.

• We are hiring for a [job role]. What are the essential job duties we should include in the job description?
• Using the provided job description, generate 10 options for a LinkedIn post directed at candidates most likely to align with our needs.
• We are hiring for [job role]. Where are the best places to post our job ad to find the best candidates? 
• Draft five interview questions for a hiring manager who is recruiting for [job role] using the provided job description. Ensure the questions check for both experience and culture fit.
• Write a job offer email for [job title] with a start date of [date], including a starting salary of [salary]. Include information on what to bring for the first day.
• Suggest improvements to the following job description to make it more inclusive for [target audience].

Onboarding Prompts

In addition to automating tasks like documentation, AI can help your onboarding process in many other ways. 

Here are a few AI prompts for HR to help onboard a new hire: 

• We have a new hire for [job role] starting with us next week. Propose an itinerary for their first day, including time to fill out required paperwork and meet-and-greets with their team.
• We have a new [job title] starting with us in the [company department]. Generate some objectives we can include in their 30-60-90 plan. 
• We have a new [job title] starting at our company with a fully remote team. What are some ways we can help them get to know their team and fit in with the culture as quickly as possible?
• We have a new [job title] starting with us. They have not worked in this industry before. I have attached their previous experience and skills. What resources can I provide that will help get them up to date on the skills they need for this role?
• What should I prepare for a new [job title] to give to them on their first day?

Employee Development Prompts

Here’s a list of generative AI prompts for HR that you can plug in to help employee development: 

• I have provided you with employee feedback from their direct manager, direct reports and clients. Analyze and summarize the data. Then find key areas for the employee to work on, and provide insight to back up why. 
• We are looking at different learning and development platforms to help employees with [specific skills]. We have narrowed it down to [list platforms]. Please compare these platforms by cost, features and our objectives. 
• Generate a training module for [specific skill] for [employee group]. Our objective is to [learning objectives].
• Generate metrics to track for a [job role] in [industry] with industry benchmarks.
• What are some unique, fun ways to get employee feedback without a survey?

AI Prompts for Benefits

Benefits is another area that can be greatly improved by AI. 

Try some of these AI prompts for HR to cut down on tedious benefits tasks:

• Using the provided open enrollment information packet, summarize and rewrite the document to make it easier to read and understand for employees, and highlight key points of the information. Use shorter sentences, bullet points and more conversational language. 
• Generate an email I can send to employees to remind them about open enrollment’s deadline of [date], including reminders about what they need to do.
• We are currently using [benefits platform] but want to switch to one that is cheaper and has a better UX. What are some similar benefits platforms that better fit our needs? 

AI Prompts for Engagement

Employee engagement is a constant work in progress as your workforce needs grow and change, making it a great candidate for AI’s help. 

Here are a few AI prompts to help HR boost employee engagement: 

• Design an employee engagement survey with a focus area on [specific area]. Make sure questions will give us actionable insights.
• Analyze our annual employee engagement data to identify areas where we are doing well, and areas where we need improvement, broken down by department, role, length of service, and demographic data.
• Design an employee recognition program that highlights [specific achievements], suggesting [recognition methods and frequency].
• What are the most popular engagement tools for [company size]? Please create a comparison chart for all tools.

Policy and Procedure Prompts

AI can be one of the most helpful tools for drafting policies and helping map out procedures. Here are a few AI prompts for HR to use: 

• List the most important policies an organization with [amount] of employees in [industry] should have.
• Draft a work-from-home policy for an employee handbook focused on maintaining productivity and collaboration.
• Generate three internal communication templates for the provided policy changes we are making to our handbook, ensuring clarity. Include a sentence about how employees can communicate any concerns about the new policies to HR.

AI Prompts for Offboarding

Just like onboarding, AI can help with many aspects of offboarding, too. 

Here are some AI prompts for HR to help with the offboarding process:

• We have had [total employees at the beginning of the period], [total employees at the end of the period] and [total employees who left during that period]. All were voluntary. Please calculate turnover rate. 
• Generate 10 exit interview questions for [job role] focusing on how the company can improve and what they enjoyed about their time at the company.
• I have provided you with data from previous employees, including exit survey feedback and reason for departure. Identify the most common reasons employees left, and how we can fix it.