Hello, and thank you for reading my (semi) bi-weekly newsletter on all things HR Tech. I aim for this to be the resource I wish I’d had when I started this career many years ago. If you find this useful, please subscribe and share!
I had the amazing opportunity to discuss HR Tech with my friend Coreyne Woodman-Holoubek on her Progressive HR Live show. You can check out the recording here.
Introduction
In Part 1 of this article (found here), I started walking through a project to turn a job description into a career path for an HRIS Analyst position.
In part 2, I will finish that guide and provide additional thoughts on what this means for your HR projects.
Let’s go!
Disclaimer (Same as before)
I am not a compensation or career pathing expert. As part of this project, I am working with individuals with that expertise to validate the output.
I followed the same steps using a generic job description and career path found online to protect confidentiality.
I initially did this with the paid version of ChatGPT, but I am using Anthropic’s Claude 2 (https://claude.ai/chats) for this example as I find it the best free option for this type of task.
You can find all the inputs for this prompt here.
Goal (Same as before)
My objective in this project is to develop a career path for a new role, using existing career path templates and a job description. This method, once perfected, will streamline the creation of career path documents for all positions within the organization.
Steps
I wanted to get more suggestions for development requirements:
“Can you give me 10 more suggestions for development requirements and, acting as an HR career expert, rank them in regards to achievability and impact on the organization?”
Learning Moment: Asking the tool to give you multiple suggestions widens the breadth of creative ideas that could help spark something in your brain. Also, giving it the ranking parameters and the persona helps narrow the focus of the data it analyzes. Rather than running calculations against every word in its training set, it’s looking specifically within the context of HR data, which can provide more focused recommendations. It can also be helpful to have it take on an unrelated persona, like a historical figure or pop culture icon. This divergent thinking brings a fresh perspective.
After refining the first level based on these recommendations, I fed the first level requirement back to Claude to get feedback:
“Based on your feedback, here's what I have right now for the HRIS Analyst I. Let me know what you think.”
Learning Moment: This process of back-and-forth refining is a huge benefit from a time-saving and creative perspective. This doesn’t replace getting feedback from humans in your network but unlocks more diverse perspectives. Keep refining and improving!
I added the piece about creating training materials and asked it to move on to HRIS Analyst II based on the revised version of HRIS Analyst I.
Learning Moment: By refining Analyst I and using this as a model for Analyst II, we have created a template for the tool to follow. This is called one-shot or multi-shot prompting based on the number of examples provided. Pairing examples with general questions unlocks the full creativity of Generative AI. I read somewhere that adding the ### between your question and the example helps the tool distinguish the two parts.
Below is a comparison of the initial output I received from Claude for the HRIS Analyst II and the current output after feeding in my revised template for the HRIS Analyst I. You can see the difference in detail and notice that it added a minimum qualification of a SQL certification because I added the development requirement for the HRIS Analyst I “Complete a foundational course or certification in SQL and database management.”
Original:
Revised:
Learning Moment: The ability of these tools to adapt to your input is scary but awesome. Without going through this tool, I would not have remembered to continue to add the SQL piece to the job requirements at each subsequent level. One of the huge advantages of Generative AI is the ability to detect and repeat patterns. Take advantage!
Once I was satisfied with the HRIS Analyst II, I fed both back into Claude and had it give output for the HRIS Analyst III and then repeated this with the senior. I was pleasantly surprised at the HRIS Analyst III level when it added a development requirement to “Identify automation opportunities through RPA or AI.” I hadn’t even thought of this!
The final step is a variation of a prompt I use in all my written communications:
“Here is the current draft of my career path. Describe who might be a typical existing employee for this position, and who might be a candidate interested in this position. Then, writing as those people in their voice, react to this career development plan by sharing critical feedback in their voice to improve it:”
Learning Moment: I love the feedback from this prompt! These personas provide in-depth actionable feedback that feels like it is coming from a real person.
I made some changes based on this input and sent it to the HR professionals for further review.
Final Thoughts on Part 2
The beauty of this process is that you now have a repeatable template you can use for other jobs that need career paths at your company. It will speed up the project, but using Generative AI will ensure consistency in language and format across jobs.
Many HR projects like this get stuck because of the scope. Initiatives like updating policies, creating compensation structures, and reviewing documentation get mired in administrative burden and quickly fall to the wayside. This process dramatically cuts down time and allows you to focus on the pieces that truly need human creativity.
See you next time!
Additional Resources
Some friends from my HRIS circle and I have started a Discord channel to help support HR Tech professionals in their work. You can register here. We’ve also put together some instructions here.
We want to create volunteer positions to help with moderation, welcome new members, plan events, and overall engagement. If you are interested in helping out, please email me at timwhitley@hrtechwizard.com.
Interesting Stories from the Week
What We’re Still Getting Wrong About Performance Management
I’ve supported Performance Reviews quite a bit in my HRIS career so I try to stay current on current trends.
This article criticizes traditional performance management processes for being overcomplicated and having conflicting goals like measuring and improving performance. The author advocates for a more straightforward approach by focusing on essential factors like work quality and timeliness. To improve performance, the author suggests regular, simple communication between managers and employees. She gives the example of a credit union that used frequent quick check-ins with a strengths-based philosophy to achieve succesful outcomes.
Read the full article here.
What HR Leaders Need to Know about Deepfake Technology
This article talks about not only the dangers but also some of the potential benefits for deepfakes including personalized employee training.
The authors provide three recommendations to mitigate risks for your HR department:
Employee Awareness and Training
Authentication
Collaborating with IT Security teams - I 100% advocate for having a solid relationship with IT, regardless of the project.
Read the full article here.
Managing Conflict Resolution Effectively
I am absolutely terrible at conflict resolution, so I appreciate any insight on the subject. What I like about this article is its emphasis on maintaining boundaries while being considerate. I’ve always tended towards passivity in conflict, thinking I was the “better” person, but really, it’s out of selfishness, and it is unfair to have unspoken resentment towards another person. This article is a great reminder of healthy conflict management.
Read the full article here.
HR Tech Career Opportunities
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I can’t speak to the quality of the job or the company. I am displaying jobs I have found online that seem to have broad appeal regarding job requirements and work location. If you have an HR tech job you would like me to highlight, please email it to me.
Head of People Operations and Systems - Balyasny Asset Management L.P. - New York, NY
Executive Director, HR Technology - Labcorp - Remote
Senior People Data Analyst - ActiveCampaign - Chicago, IL
More Opportunities to Connect
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/timwhitley1/