HR leaders have a new nightmare: Job seekers asking ChatGPT what employees really think of their company

HR leaders have a new fear: Job candidates asking ChatGPT what their company is really like. Some 70% of job seekers now use generative AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity to research employers, new Indeed data shows. And when job seekers ask about company culture, roughly 40% of the sources cited come from Glassdoor and Indeed, not company career pages. That creates a new challenge for HR. AI is helping shape candidates’ perceptions of employers using information companies don’t directly control. A polished career page may tell one story, while employee reviews tell another—and job seekers can ask a chatbot to piece it all together. But AI isn’t uncovering anything that isn’t already online, says Taylor Meadows, principal advisor at Glassdoor. His advice is to feed the beast. “Your employer brand exists whether you are participating in it or not,” Meadows says. He recommends starting with an AI audit, asking different LLMs, “What is it like to work at X company?” Then, “reverse engineer” the problems that surface. Meadows also suggests publishing Q&As addressing real questions from employees and candidates on social media and third-party review sites. “Let that be the good, the bad, and the ugly,” he says. “It’s going to be an opportunity for you to talk about what’s going well, but then it’s going to also be an opportunity to exercise some humility.” Companies should also create content that showcases what it’s like to work in different departments, since culture can vary by team. Encouraging employees to share authentic experiences helps, too, Meadows says. Even offboarding matters. Departing employees may leave reviews that AI later surfaces, making their final impression of the company especially important. “None of this is about perfection and none of this is about control,” Meadows says. “It’s just about informing and influencing.” Kristin StollerEditorial Director, Fortune Live Mediakristin.stoller@fortune.com Fortune Office HoursThis week, Sabrina Clark, chief people officer at leadership consultancy SYPartners, answers your burning workplace questions. Responses have been edited for length and clarity. Q: A friend of mine received strong performance reviews from three previous managers at their company. Then they got a new manager who put them on a PIP (performance improvement plan). They could not switch back to working with one of their previous managers because they were on a PIP, and their new manager didn’t indicate when it would end. Because a competing company was interested in this employee, they chose to leave and join that company, but is there anything they could have done if they wanted to stay at their previous employer? A: I imagine your friend is pretty frustrated to have gone from being rated a strong performer to being put on a PIP. While the discrepancy might lie with their new manager, it’s also possible their previous managers avoided giving difficult feedback or that the demands of your friend’s new work environment exposed gaps in their skills. Whatever the reason, I would have advised your friend to ask their new manager, “What would success look like, and when will we assess it?” A performance improvement plan should always specify what needs to improve and how progress will be assessed, and include a timeline with regular check-ins and a defined review date. It should also explain the possible outcomes: successful completion, an extension with a new review date, or termination. Your friend deserved to know where the finish line was. Given the seemingly strained relationship with the new manager, your friend could also have involved an HR leader or the manager’s manager to help uncover why their reviews differed so much and to help decide what happens next. Ultimately, your friend could have pressed for more clarity, but their employer owed them a clear and fair path forward. Have a workplace situation that you're unsure how to navigate or a scenario worth unpacking? Send it our way anonymously via this form. WatercoolerA round-up of the most important HR headlines from Fortune and beyond. Loud working. Zillennials spend five hours a week self-promoting—and colleagues are getting so annoyed they’re quitting. Fortune Networking nixed. DoorDash told employees not to connect with their new Instacart colleagues on LinkedIn after a merger deal. Business Insider Fertility cost. Women who must pay out-of-pocket for IVF face stalled careers and hundreds of thousands in lost earnings. Wall Street Journal