As part of a new state-of-the-art recruiter and hiring manager Performance-based Hiring training course, we’ve spent hours putting together some great templates and prompts to help companies find and hire outstanding high achievers for any critical role.
It turned out to be a waste of time. ChatGPT can write its own prompts.
For example, I just asked ChatGPT to create a perfect prompt for converting any public job posting into a performance-based job description. It’s not quite perfect but close enough to get started. You can try it for yourself. Just cut and paste the following into ChatGPT and see what happens.
The Almost Perfect Prompt for Improving Hiring Results
I need to convert this traditional skills-laden job description into a performance-based job description using Lou Adler’s Performance-based Hiring methodology. Please follow these steps:
- Include the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) describing why the role represents a worthy career move.
- Identify the top 3-5 Key Performance Objectives (KPOs) that the successful candidate needs to achieve within the first year. Do not use bullet points instead all KPOs need to be written in paragraph form describing the task, some measure of success, the timeframe required to complete the task and the deliverable.
- Outline the major challenges the candidate will face in achieving these KPOs.
- Describe the work environment, including the team structure, company culture, and relevant tools or technologies the candidate will use.
- Exclude the required skills and experiences in the new job posting since if a person can do the work, he/she will have those needed to be successful.
- Highlight any growth opportunities within the role, emphasizing how achieving the KPOs will contribute to the candidate’s career advancement.
- Put the critical subtasks in chronological order using the “Process of Success” starting with a 30-60-90 to learn what’s happening and putting together a short-term action plan.
Be sure to upload the job posting with the prompt and watch what happens. (Please comment below with your reaction and/or send me your results. I’d like to review it.)
The purpose of a performance-based job description is to define work as a series of performance objectives rather than a list of skills, experiences and “most have” competencies. The idea behind this is that if a person can do the work, he/she has all of the skills and experiences required to be successful. You can then use the performance-based interview and Quality of Hire talent scorecard to figure this out.
While the initial output from ChatGPT is a workable draft, it should be reviewed and edited by the hiring manager to accurately reflect the real job requirements. As part of this it’s vital to describe the environment including the intensity of the role, the hiring manager’s leadership style and the depth and breadth of the resources available. These factors will determine if a fully competent candidate is successful or not.
The value of a using a performance-based job description rather than a traditional job description will be clear once you try it out, even the first time. In particular:
- Seamless onboarding since the role is fully discussed before the offer was made.
- Not just measure quality of hire but accurately predict it.
- Improve interview accuracy by 15-20 percentage points.
- Use the talent scorecard to predict employee engagement!
- Built-in performance management and development tool.
- Negotiate offers based on the size of the career growth opportunity.
It turns out AI can do its own prompting. I’m not sure it can do its own recruiting yet, but I think it will soon be capable of identifying people who should review your performance-based job descriptions and consider it something worth evaluating. This is especially true if you first convert the job description into a compelling career-based story.