Robot joins the ranks at School Place

A robot has joined the ranks at Orkney Islands Council (OIC) to answer queries from staff.

The Ask HR bot dealt with 1,056 queries in 2025/26 in what has been deemed “a promising start”.

Exchanges between OIC human resources and the public continue to be face-to-face, or by phone, e-mail, messages or video call.

But members of the human resources sub-committee on Tuesday were intrigued to learn of the debut of the chatbot.

HR head Andrew Groundwater said it had been introduced to reduce the workload of staff by diverting routine enquiries from employees and managers. 

Ask HR has been trained on the council’s workplace policies.

“We have had just over 1,000 queries go through that, which I think is a promising start,” said Mr Groundwater.

He added: “It’s not intended to replace people. The majority of advice still requires to come from a person.”

He said the bot, accessed via the council website, is available 24/7 and is ideal for dealing with quick, factual queries.

Mr Groundwater assured Councillor John Ross Scott that a member of staff would be available to respond to any unresolved issue.

“We encourage people to do that,” he replied.

“I think people are getting more used to using these things in their day-to-day life.

“It’s an addition and enhancement to the service, rather than a replacement.”

Over the course of the year, HR staff fielded 2075 phone calls, 466,211 emails, and 927 Teams calls.