UK AI Exposure · Administrative and secretarial occupations
Human resources administrative occupations
Human resources administrative occupations provide administrative support for the human resources (HR) operations within organisations.
- Employees (UK)
- 19k
- Median annual pay
- £25,531
- Exposure score ?
- 2.6/10 Low 9.5/10 Very high strict reading · with tools is 9.5/10 with-tools reading · strict is 2.6/10
- Wage exposure
- £126m £461m
Higher exposure than 87% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
A handful of tasks in this role are touchable by AI, mostly around paperwork, scheduling and basic writing. The shape of the role stays the same - some parts just get faster.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
Pick the two or three most repetitive things in your week and try an LLM on them. Most people underestimate what Claude or ChatGPT can already do for admin-shaped work. The time you get back is the dividend.
Almost every routine task in this role is within reach of today's language models. Roles at this level are getting rebuilt - often not by disappearing, but by one person using AI to do three or five people's output.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You don't need to be afraid. You need to be the person doing the rebuilding. The operators who learn to direct AI at scale in this kind of work become hugely valuable. The ones who wait to be told what to do get told what to do - and that thing is often 'we don't need as many of you anymore.'
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
These are the highest-importance tasks a language model can already handle directly today. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these, so they stop eating your team's time.
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Record data for each employee, including such information as addresses, weekly earnings, absences, amount of sales or production, supervisory reports on performance, and dates of and reasons for terminations.
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Inform job applicants of their acceptance or rejection of employment.
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Answer questions regarding examinations, eligibility, salaries, benefits, and other pertinent information.
These are the highest-importance tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these — usually the difference between an LLM that can technically do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Process, verify, and maintain personnel related documentation, including staffing, recruitment, training, grievances, performance evaluations, classifications, and employee leaves of absence.
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Record data for each employee, including such information as addresses, weekly earnings, absences, amount of sales or production, supervisory reports on performance, and dates of and reasons for terminations.
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Interview job applicants to obtain and verify information used to screen and evaluate them.
Every role has three or four wedges like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days. Talk to Alex about a project →
The full task breakdown
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can already do unaided versus what still needs a human. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
Tasks via O*NET "Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping" (43-4161.00).
What AI can already do
5 of 19 tasks · unaided
Record data for each employee, including such information as addresses, weekly earnings, absences, amount of sales or production, supervisory reports on performance, and dates of and reasons for terminations.
Inform job applicants of their acceptance or rejection of employment.
Answer questions regarding examinations, eligibility, salaries, benefits, and other pertinent information.
Administer and score applicant and employee aptitude, personality, and interest assessment instruments.
Compile and prepare reports and documents pertaining to personnel activities.
Where humans still hold the line
14 of 19 tasks
Process, verify, and maintain personnel related documentation, including staffing, recruitment, training, grievances, performance evaluations, classifications, and employee leaves of absence.
Interview job applicants to obtain and verify information used to screen and evaluate them.
Explain company personnel policies, benefits, and procedures to employees or job applicants.
Process and review employment applications to evaluate qualifications or eligibility of applicants.
Provide assistance in administering employee benefit programs and worker's compensation plans.
Select applicants meeting specified job requirements and refer them to hiring personnel.
Prepare and set up for new employee orientations.
Gather personnel records from other departments or employees.
Arrange for advertising or posting of job vacancies and notify eligible workers of position availability.
Request information from law enforcement officials, previous employers, and other references to determine applicants' employment acceptability.
Examine employee files to answer inquiries and provide information for personnel actions.
Search employee files to obtain information for authorized persons and organizations, such as credit bureaus and finance companies.
Prepare badges, passes, and identification cards, and perform other security-related duties.
Arrange for in-house and external training activities.
Tasks via O*NET "Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping" (43-4161.00).
What AI can already do
18 of 19 tasks · with tools
Process, verify, and maintain personnel related documentation, including staffing, recruitment, training, grievances, performance evaluations, classifications, and employee leaves of absence.
Record data for each employee, including such information as addresses, weekly earnings, absences, amount of sales or production, supervisory reports on performance, and dates of and reasons for terminations.
Interview job applicants to obtain and verify information used to screen and evaluate them.
Explain company personnel policies, benefits, and procedures to employees or job applicants.
Process and review employment applications to evaluate qualifications or eligibility of applicants.
Inform job applicants of their acceptance or rejection of employment.
Provide assistance in administering employee benefit programs and worker's compensation plans.
Select applicants meeting specified job requirements and refer them to hiring personnel.
Answer questions regarding examinations, eligibility, salaries, benefits, and other pertinent information.
Prepare and set up for new employee orientations.
Gather personnel records from other departments or employees.
Arrange for advertising or posting of job vacancies and notify eligible workers of position availability.
Request information from law enforcement officials, previous employers, and other references to determine applicants' employment acceptability.
Examine employee files to answer inquiries and provide information for personnel actions.
Administer and score applicant and employee aptitude, personality, and interest assessment instruments.
Search employee files to obtain information for authorized persons and organizations, such as credit bureaus and finance companies.
Compile and prepare reports and documents pertaining to personnel activities.
Arrange for in-house and external training activities.
Where humans still hold the line
1 of 19 tasks
Prepare badges, passes, and identification cards, and perform other security-related duties.
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Methodology
This role's exposure score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 GPT task labels, aggregated by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 via ISCO-08 (ONS Vol 2 coding index) and US SOC 2010 (BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional. ASHE covers employees only, so self-employed workers are not counted.
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