Recruitment with AI: how to choose and manage your team

You find the right person with a job ad that describes the role as it really is: hours, days off and pace of work. That way, anyone who isn't a fit is ruled out before the interview. And whoever joins knows what they're signing up for. Then ask for it like this:

Something like this would come out:

Front-of-house waiter or waitress, full time. You'll work split shifts from Tuesday to Sunday, with fixed days off. Weekends are very busy: you'll look after your own section of tables and help at the bar. Contract and salary under the provincial hospitality collective agreement. On your first day we'll show you the menu and the till.

Before posting it, check the conditions against your collective agreement (convenio colectivo), the sector agreement that sets pay and job categories.

How do you screen CVs with AI without bias?

Screening, the first pass that decides who goes through to interview, is where AI saves you the most work and needs the most care. An AI model sorts based on what you give it and on the text it was trained on, so it can carry biases, such as favouring a certain kind of name or age. To avoid this, write down your criteria before reading any CV, and remove the photo, date of birth and address before attaching them:

Then you decide who goes through to interview, but you also read the CVs you don't choose. The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) requires human review to be real, not a rubber stamp. What's more, the EU AI Act treats AI that filters or evaluates applications as high risk.

Also, receiving a CV already counts as processing personal data, even if it arrives by WhatsApp. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires you to tell the candidate who is processing their data and why. AI drafts that notice for you, and then your adviser reviews it.

You prepare an interview with a script, that is, the same questions for every candidate, drawn from what the role requires.

Questions that ask about a real past situation tell you more than questions that ask for an opinion, because what someone has already done resembles what they will do. This is competency-based interviewing, and you ask for the script like this:

Three questions that might come up:

• Tell me about a service when several tables needed you at once. Which one did you serve first, and why?
• A customer complains that their dish is taking too long. What do you say to them, and what do you say to the kitchen?
• We work split shifts, with fixed days off during the week. Could you work that schedule?

That way, the third one settles availability without asking why. Asking about children, a partner, age or origin, even just to make conversation, is discriminatory under the Workers' Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores) and the equal treatment act. Keep your notes carefully, because they're personal data too.

To hire an employee you need to choose the type of contract, register them with Social Security before they start and notify the contract to the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) through Contrat@. In an SME without HR, the employment accounting firm (gestoría laboral) almost always handles this.

Social Security registration is what lets the employee pay contributions and be covered. It has to be done before they start work, even during a probationary period. That's why it's best to give your accounting firm plenty of notice; they submit it through the RED system. If it's your first time hiring, you first need to register as an employer.

Also, since the labour reform, contracts are presumed to be permanent. Temporary contracts are reserved for a one-off increase in work or to cover for someone. For seasonal work, on the other hand, there's the fixed-discontinuous contract (fijo discontinuo). It's regulated by the Workers' Statute. You decide which contract fits with your accountant.

The probationary period is the initial period in which either party can end the employment relationship without giving a reason. It's agreed in writing, with a specific length, within what your collective agreement or the law allows. It isn't valid if the person has already done those duties at your company.

When the candidate accepts, the list for the accounting firm could come from this prompt:

For the accounting firm: registering a front-of-house waiter
• Details: name, DNI or NIE, Social Security number, address and bank account.
• Role and category under the provincial hospitality collective agreement.
• Full time on split shifts, with fixed days off. Start date: [date].
• Contract we think applies, for you to confirm: permanent.
• Probationary period: length in writing, to be confirmed against the collective agreement.
• Question: he worked here front of house one summer. Can we agree a probationary period?

Send it once you have their yes.

Shifts are organised with a rota, the table that shows who works each service and who's off. When it comes out in good time and doesn't change every few days, you cover every service and the team can plan their lives.

AI builds it for you in a spreadsheet with the team, days off and absences already requested:

Lunch: the midday service. Closing: the evening, until the restaurant closes. Split shift: lunch and evening.

This week, the spreadsheet would flag Lucía, who closes on Saturday and works lunch on Sunday. The Workers' Statute sets a minimum rest period between working days and a weekly one, which your collective agreement can adjust. The agreement also sets the notice period, so check it before publishing the rota.

For the new hire to stay, prepare their first weeks with the same care as the job ad, because if they leave, you have to repeat the whole recruitment process. This is the onboarding plan: who welcomes them, what they learn each day and when you talk about how it's going.

In shift work, onboarding starts the day before with a message: what time to arrive, who to ask for and what to bring. It's also a good idea to assign them a go-to colleague.

Hi Daniel. We'll see you on Tuesday at [time], before the lunch service. Ask for Lucía, who'll be your go-to colleague this week and will show you the menu, the till and your section of tables. Bring black trousers and comfortable shoes; we'll give you an apron here. If you have any questions, message me here.

Before sending it, check the time against the rota. At the end of the week, talk to him about what he still needs to learn, and do it again before the probationary period ends. For announcements to the rest of the team, you'll find the method in the guide to business productivity with AI.

Here's how the restaurant's hiring is split, stage by stage.

You shouldn't use AI where a decision affects a person and has legal consequences. It generates the most likely answer from what you give it, not the answer for your case, as we explain in the guide to AI for SMEs.

To organise a hire you need an AI that prepares the document for each stage and a place where the team can see their shifts and clock in. AiKit is an AI suite with several of the leading AI models on the market, and each team member is connected only to the parts relevant to them.

AiKit Chat writes the job ad, the interview script and the welcome message, reads PDF CVs against your criteria and summarises a regulation for you, citing its sources. In AiKit Desk, each person clocks in and out, the calendar holds shifts and interviews, boards split up the onboarding tasks and you can look up your team's records. And if you want to advertise the vacancy on your own premises, AiKit Image prepares the poster for your window or bar. AiKit doesn't draw up contracts or payslips or register anyone with Social Security: that stays with your accountant or employment adviser.