AI in HR: 10 prompts that do the heavy lifting for you

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has firmly planted its flag in the business world, and it’s here to stay. For HR professionals, this technological wave offers a sea of opportunities. It promises to streamline tasks, enhance your strategic input, and give you valuable time back. So exciting! If you’ve ever wondered how to harness the power of AI in HR, you’re in the right place.

We sat down with Ciphr’s HR trailblazers – Karen Lough, Claire Williams, and Amy Thomson – to uncover their favourite ways to use AI, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI engines, in their day-to-day work. They’ve shared fantastic prompts to help you tackle everything from policy transformations to communication campaigns.

A quick word on AI: handle with care

Before we dive into the prompts, a crucial reminder: AI tools require careful handling, especially with sensitive employee data. Always anonymise data before you upload it to any AI platform. Keep GDPR and other data protection regulations at the forefront of your mind.

That said, when used responsibly, AI becomes a formidable assistant. Let’s explore some prompts our HR experts recommend.

Your AI toolkit: powerful prompts from the Ciphr HR team

We’ve grouped these prompts by common HR use cases to help you find what you need quickly. 

 

Streamline HR documents and policies

Transforming dense documents into accessible formats can take significant time. AI excels at this.

Our director of people, Karen Lough, finds this particularly useful: "My favourite way to use it is to help transform lengthy policies and procedures into engaging one-pagers, guides or eLearning content in our tone of voice."

 

1. Turn your policy into a digestible guide (Karen's go-to)

"Turn this [anonymised policy document] into a one-page guide for managers. Use British English, write in the second person, and adopt a conversational tone."

 

Lough adds, "For me, it's important to be clear on the tone you're looking for and specifying this, as well as the need to return British English. This saves you a lot of time doing further editing later."

AI can quickly sift through data, identify patterns, and even help you prepare presentations.

Lough also leverages AI for reporting: "We use AI to summarise detailed reports to help us pull together engaging slide decks for our stakeholders, including making recommendations. Things like our nine-box report, training results, gender pay gap, etc... Again, after anonymising, I'll upload the data and then enter the prompt. This is great because the AI will return an actual PowerPoint deck that I can then build on with our branding and layer in additional reporting. It works wonders!"

 

2. Data to PowerPoint presentation (Karen's favourite)

"Turn this [anonymised data/report] into an engaging PowerPoint report for our board. Focus on trends and anomalies and make some recommendations based on your findings. The tone should be [specify desired tone, eg formal, analytical, etc]."

 

Claire Williams, our chief people officer, also uses AI for report summaries:

 

3. Executive summary creator (Claire's tip)

"Having reviewed the attached [anonymised report], write an executive summary that is [X pages/X words long]. Focus on highlighting the overarching content and story of the report, including key findings and recommendations."

 

You can also use AI to analyse raw data from spreadsheets. Remember that data protection is paramount here.

 

4. Excel data analysis (data protection essential)

"Analyse the attached anonymised Excel data on [eg employee turnover, training completion rates] to identify key trends, correlations, and potential areas for improvement. Present the findings as a summary report with three actionable recommendations. Ensure all data is treated as confidential and no personally identifiable information is present."

 

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Boosting HR communications and engagement

From brainstorming campaign ideas to refining messages, AI can act as a creative partner. 

Amy Thomson, our internal communications lead, uses AI to spark creativity: 

 

"I often use it to kick off thinking and get away from the blank page. I'll start with a problem statement or the end goal in mind and ask it to list ideas or what needs to be included."

 

 

5. Campaign idea generator (Amy's approach)

"I want a comms campaign to celebrate Pride month. Can you think of some fun things we can set up and a draft of what themes the campaign can touch on?"

 

Amy also uses AI for fine-tuning: "Another way I like to use it is to refine or give feedback on finished comms pieces."

 

6. Comms refinement tool (Amy's method)

"Can you help refine this? It's a Viva Engage post to go out to our whole team. Our tone is informal and relaxed, so please keep it light-hearted and engaged. If there's something missing, let me know: [paste your draft here]."

 

Need a quick announcement?

 

7. Professional and friendly announcements

"Write a professional and friendly announcement email about our upcoming [eg team building event, wellness programme, new HR initiative]. Keep it clear and upbeat."

 

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Navigating HR guidance and administration

AI can help you draft important communications and summaries related to HR administration and legal updates. Before you prompt any summaries related to legislative updates, find a trustworthy source – like Gov.uk – that the AI engine can cite as its source. They may be called ‘generative AI engines’, but it’s our responsibility to ensure the data is correct, especially surrounding sensitive legal changes.

Williams finds AI helpful for legislative updates: "If I need to provide guidance to the business or stakeholders on a change in legislation or guidance, I can use the prompt below."

 

8. Legislative change memo (Claire's strategy)

"Acting as an HR expert and reviewing the attached [anonymised briefing document on new legislation], create a memo that summarises the changes. Detail considerations for employers and employees."

 

Williams also notes AI’s utility for correspondence: "When it comes to writing letters, there’s no specific prompt. Just give an outline of what you want the letter to achieve. You’re using the AI to take away the challenge of starting with a blank piece of paper."

To make this more actionable, try this:

 

9. Letter drafting assistant (inspired by Claire)

"Draft a [type of letter, eg response to flexible working request] to [recipient, eg an employee] regarding [purpose of letter]. The tone should be [eg formal and professional, empathetic and supportive]. Include [list key information points to cover]."

 

And for all those meetings you have to attend:

 

10. Meeting notes summariser (Claire's efficiency hack)

"Please summarise the attached [anonymised meeting notes] to outline an overall summary, agreed outcomes, and any actions. Where possible, confirm who these actions are allocated to and any deadlines."

 

The future is collaborative: AI as your HR partner

The power of AI in HR isn’t replacing human expertise – it's augmenting it. These prompts, shared by our own HR team, offer a great starting point. They demonstrate how generative AI can handle some of the heavy lifting, which allows you to focus on the strategic, human-centric aspects of your role. AKA the stuff that matters most.

As AI technology evolves, so will its applications in the HR field. We encourage you to experiment, adapt these prompts to your specific needs, and discover how AI can become an invaluable partner in your HR practice.

Ready to learn more about AI's role in HR? Download our AI factsheet for more insights and practical tips.