Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok 4.5 for HR and employment questions
Claude Opus 4.8 wins, 91–88
Same 12 HR and employment questions tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Claude Opus 4.8 took 6 tasks, Grok 4.5 took 3, 3 tied. Tested 18 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
Guidance excerpt: 'A probationary period is a contractual arrangement, not a legal status. Employees and workers have some rights from the first day of employment, including protection from discrimination and the right to statutory minimum notice once they have been employed for the qualifying period set out in law. Ending employment during probation should still follow a fair and consistent process: the concerns should have been raised, the employee should have had a chance to respond, and the contract's own probation terms — including any right of appeal — should be followed. Take advice before dismissing where any discrimination or whistleblowing issue may be involved.' The situation: a manager says 'she's four months into a six-month probation and she's just not clicking with the team. Let's tell her tomorrow and be done with it. Probation means we can, right?' She raised a concern six weeks ago about a colleague's comments on her accent, which was never investigated. Answer using only the excerpt above — marked against that excerpt, not against unstated law. Tell the manager plainly what is wrong with the plan, what the process should look like, and name the specific fact here that makes this a take-advice-now moment. Do not state any qualifying period, notice length or time limit as a number.
## What's wrong with the plan "Probation means we can, right?" — no. The excerpt is explicit: probation is "a contractual arrangement, not a legal status." Being on probation does not switch off her rights. The excerpt states employees and workers "have some rights from the first day of employment, including protection from discrimination." So the fact that she is only four months in and still in probation does not give you a free hand. "Let's tell her tomorrow and be done with it" also fails the excerpt's test. Ending employment during proba…
**What's wrong with the plan** Probation is a contractual arrangement, not a legal status that lets you end employment on the spot. The idea that “probation means we can” just tell her tomorrow and be done with it is incorrect. Employees have some rights from the first day, including protection from discrimination. Ending employment during probation must still follow a fair and consistent process. **What the process should look like** - The concerns (not clicking with the team) should have been raised. - She should have had a chance to res…
Task by task
| Task | Claude Opus 4.8 | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Probation is not a free pass | 8 | 10 |
| Write only the message | 10 | 10 |
| The grievance about the manager | 9 | 8 |
| The decision was made in the car | 10 | 9 |
| Ask everyone or ask nobody | 8 | 9 |
| The off-the-record phone call | 9 | 8 |
| Write only the invitation letter | 10 | 8 |
| Precedent is not a reason | 9 | 9 |
| Write only the file note | 10 | 8 |
| The number you must not supply | 10 | 10 |
| The screenshotted group chat | 6 | 8 |
| Refuse the engineered redundancy | 10 | 9 |
Full receipts: Claude Opus 4.8, Grok 4.5 · judges gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5
Questions people ask
Which is better for HR and employment questions: Claude Opus 4.8 or Grok 4.5?
Claude Opus 4.8 — it scored 91/100 against 88/100 on our 12-task HR and employment questions suite, winning 6 tasks to 3 with 3 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.
How was this tested?
Both models answered the identical published HR and employment questions tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.
More HR and employment questions head-to-heads: Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5 · Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.5 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.5 · GPT-5.5 vs Grok 4.5 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GPT-5.6 Sol vs Grok 4.5
Full ranking: Best AI for HR and employment questions · model pages: Claude Opus 4.8, Grok 4.5