Artificial intelligence is already powering resume screening, candidate outreach, interview scheduling and skills assessment tools with a promise to make processes faster and smoother. But when used improperly, AI can reinforce hiring biases, obscure accountability and increase risk exposure.
CDA’s Endorsed Services partner HR for Health offers expertise on the risks and benefits of weaving AI into your hiring process while maintaining compliance with employment laws.
Review hiring best practices, with or without AI assistance
Stay legally compliant while presenting your practice as an equitable, attractive employer with these fundamentals:
- Craft compelling job descriptions and ads.
- Use clear, job-relevant criteria when screening candidates.
- Mitigate bias with a structured, consistent evaluation process.
- Include multiple perspectives in decision-making.
- Avoid stagnation – like excessive interview rounds.
- Hold accountability for outcomes, both positive and negative
Hiring documentation, including job descriptions, offer letters and employee policies must be compliant, consistent and tailored to current employment laws. While AI tools may help generate this content quickly, they should not be relied on to create foundational employment documents such as employee manuals or workplace policies. These documents must reflect current federal, state and local requirements and the specific needs of your practice.
A dedicated HR platform with legally reviewed templates and automated document management can help practices maintain consistency, accuracy and compliance throughout the hiring and onboarding process.
When can AI assist with the hiring process?
Across professions, the number of job applicants outweighs the number of openings, but dentistry is particularly fraught with staffing shortages. It’s no wonder that about 88% of employers turn to AI in the initial candidate screening process.
When approached thoughtfully and intentionally, AI can meaningfully improve parts of the hiring process where consistency and expediency matter:
- Parsing resumes to extract relevant experience and filter out mis-matched candidates.
- Administrative automation, like scheduling interviews, sending templated updates to candidates and managing workflows.
- Expanding reach beyond traditional networks to source candidates
- Supporting administrative workflows related to new hire documentation
When should AI not be used in hiring?
AI learns from historical data. Unfortunately, this data often reflects decades of bias related to gender, race, age, education, disability or socioeconomic status. These are protected statuses, and relying on outdated hiring practices can violate today’s employment laws, including the California Civil Rights Department’s regulations that took effect last fall and protect against AI-related employment discrimination.
It could also filter out otherwise-qualified candidates who could be perfect for your practice.
To minimize potential bias, avoid using artificial intelligence in a decision-making capacity:
- Many roles require deep contextual judgment or emotional intelligence. AI cannot effectively discern how well a candidate will mesh with your practice or interact with patients.
- Screening tools cannot explain how decisions are made. All hiring decisions should be documented, justifiable and legally defensible.
- Screening tools are often aggressive or unable to be fine-tuned. AI may not prioritize the skills or tools your practice needs.
- AI-generated materials may be outdated, incomplete or inconsistent with current employment laws. When creating or updating critical documentation, such as employee manuals or workplace policies, you need expert review.
Never leave a hiring decision to AI. Artificial intelligence doesn’t hold any level of accountability — but you do. Human experts who ask meaningful questions help you complete the hiring and onboarding processes in a thoughtful, compliant way. A trusted, health care-specific platform can support you with accurate, reliable documentation along the way.
Can you responsibly implement AI-assisted hiring?
AI is only becoming more powerful over time. You can leverage technology as a support system to streamline the administrative burden of hiring while your team maintains all the decision-making. Reduce the risk of bias, ensure a good quality candidate search and ensure compliance by documenting every step of the hiring process.
Where can you find support for HR processes?
A dedicated HR platform helps dental practices of every size navigate employment practices with confidence. Templated job descriptions, offer letters, up-to-date employee manuals and automated document storage save time and hassle.
CDA endorses HR for Health as an end-to-end solution to help members streamline employment documentation and compliance. The talent acquisition, onboarding and document automation features from HR for Health help practices adhere to federal, state and local laws, regardless of AI use. To learn more, book a personalized demo with HR for Health.