AI in HR & Hiring
By John Martines · October 5, 2025 · 8 min read
Using AI to improve hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, and employee experience.
HR teams are drowning. Job posting, resume screening, interview prep, offer letters, onboarding docs, benefits questions, policy lookups — it's a constant stream of repetitive work. AI can handle most of it. But you need to be thoughtful about bias, compliance, and the human parts that matter.
Here's what's actually working for NEPA SMBs right now.
Job Description Writing
The Task: You need to post a job for a marketing coordinator. You start from scratch or copy last year's posting.
AI Does This: You describe the role ("support our marketing team, 10-person company, focus on social media and email"), and AI generates a complete job description in 2 minutes: responsibilities, qualifications, nice-to-haves, even salary guidance.
Benefit: Faster, better, more consistent job postings. Better attracts the right candidates.
Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, or specialized hiring tools (Lever, Greenhouse, Workday)
Resume Screening: Use with Caution
The Task: 200 resumes come in for that job. You need to narrow to 20 for interviews.
AI Can Do This: Scan for keywords, education, experience level, red flags. Rate candidates 1–10.
The Caveat: AI resume screening has real bias risks. If your training data says "good candidates have gone to Ivy League schools" or "came from tech companies," the AI will screen out good candidates from non-traditional backgrounds.
How to do it right:
- Always screen AI-selected resumes against AI-rejected ones. Is there a demographic bias? (More women in AI-rejected? More candidates of color?)
- Don't let AI make the final decision. Use it to rank, then manually review the top 40 and bottom 10.
- Screen for actual job requirements, not proxy signals (no "years of experience" as the only filter — some people do amazing work quickly).
- Audit quarterly. If you're rejecting 90% of female candidates but 40% of male candidates, the AI is biased.
Tools: Workday, Lever, Greenhouse, or homegrown (Claude API + your job description)
Interview Question Generation
The Task: You want to prepare interview questions that go beyond "tell me about yourself."
AI Does This: Generate behavioral questions, technical questions, culture-fit questions based on the role.
Benefit: Better interviews. Faster prep. More consistency.
Example: "For a project manager role in a 15-person agency, generate 10 behavioral interview questions that test for communication, leadership, and problem-solving." AI delivers in seconds.
Offer Letter Drafting
The Task: You've selected a candidate. You need an offer letter with role, salary, benefits, start date, conditions.
AI Does This: Generate a template offer, pull in the salary from your comp data, customize to the role.
Benefit: Faster, legally consistent, less room for error.
Tools: Most ATS platforms (Bamboo, Workday, Lever) have templates. Or use Claude to draft.
Document Collection
Current state: You email new hires a checklist of docs to fill out. Docs get lost. You chase. It's chaos.
AI-assisted approach: Build an onboarding bot that walks new employees through what they need to do: "Complete your I-9, add your direct deposit, sign the employee handbook, choose your health insurance."
The bot collects forms, verifies completion, flags what's missing, sends reminders.
Benefit: 100% completion rate. No lost paperwork. Less admin for HR.
Policy Q&A Bot
The Problem: New hires constantly ask: "How much PTO do I get?" "What's the health insurance deductible?" "Can I work from home?" Your HR person answers the same question 50 times.
The Solution: Build a bot trained on your employee handbook, benefits info, and policies. Employees ask and get instant answers. Bot escalates unusual questions to HR.
Tools: Intercom, Freshchat, or custom (Claude API + your handbook)
Training Scheduling and Content Delivery
The Task: New hires need to complete 15 training modules by day 30. Who tracks this? HR does. Manually.
AI Does This: Auto-schedule trainings, send reminders, track completion, flag anyone falling behind.
Tools: Learning management systems (BambooHR, Workday, Absorb) have scheduling. Add AI to send smarter reminders.
Feedback Drafting
The Scenario: It's review time. A manager needs to write feedback for an employee but struggles to articulate it. Result: vague, unhelpful feedback. Or no feedback at all.
AI Solution: Manager describes what they observed ("Sarah missed two deadlines on the product launch, but then caught up and helped the team launch on time"). AI drafts constructive feedback.
Benefit: More thoughtful reviews. Faster process. Consistent tone.
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