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HR agent

Policy and leave questions

Every everyday HR question answered from your handbook and the employee’s own records, in Slack or Teams, with sensitive ones handed straight to a person.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Policy and leave questions: four items, three done, and one (Sensitive) waiting for the HR partner, who is asked: The question mentions a medical reason. Take it from here?
How it works

“Can I roll over my leave?” Answered, with page 14 linked.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Policy and leave questions, in 5 steps. It starts with “Someone asks in Slack” and ends with “Answered, with the page”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Policy and leave questionsA typical run
Starts withSomeone asks in SlackAn operations analyst asks whether the leave they haven’t used carries into next year.
Automation: Links the Slack message to the asker’s HR record, so the answer is built from their own balance and their own location.
The agent: “Can I roll over what I haven’t used?” becomes a question about carrying vacation into next year, not sick days.
~6h/mo

Step 1 of 5Hear the question

  • Automation

    Links the Slack message to the asker’s HR record, so the answer is built from their own balance and their own location.

    Every chat account belongs to one employee, and that employee has one HR record.

  • The agent

    “Can I roll over what I haven’t used?” becomes a question about carrying vacation into next year, not sick days.

    Nobody asks in handbook words. “Roll over”, “keep” and “carry” all point at the same policy.

Reads
  • Team chat
  • HR system
Writes
  • Question log

~6 hours a month back

The agent: Page 14 of the handbook says up to 5 days carry over. The analyst’s record shows 11 days left this year.
~18h/mo

Step 2 of 5Find the answer

  • The agent

    Page 14 of the handbook says up to 5 days carry over. The analyst’s record shows 11 days left this year.

    The carry-over rule is one paragraph on page 14, next to three exceptions that change the answer.

Reads
  • Handbook
  • HR system
Writes
  • Question log

~18 hours a month back

Where teams differOne handbook is simplest. With people in several states or countries, the right version depends on who asks.

Automation: Stops any question that touches health, a pay dispute or a complaint, and passes it to the HR partner with the thread.
IfYour team: When a question mentions a medical reason, the HR partner picks up the thread and replies to the analyst in private.
~3h/mo

Step 3 of 5Check what’s sensitive

  • Automation

    Stops any question that touches health, a pay dispute or a complaint, and passes it to the HR partner with the thread.

    Which topics go to a person is your list, set once. Once the agent has tagged the question, routing it is a lookup.

  • Your teamIf it mentions health or pay

    When a question mentions a medical reason, the HR partner picks up the thread and replies to the analyst in private.

    A medical reason can open an accommodation or protected leave. That needs someone who can ask the next question.

Reads
  • Question log
Writes
  • HR case list

~3 hours a month back

Where teams differVisa questions join the list at some companies. Others send anything about a manager straight to HR.

The agent: Answers in the thread: 11 days left, up to 5 carry into next year, and a link to page 14 so they can check it.
Automation: Saves the question, the reply and the page it came from, so HR can see what people ask about each week.
~12h/mo

Step 4 of 5Reply with the source

  • The agent

    Answers in the thread: 11 days left, up to 5 carry into next year, and a link to page 14 so they can check it.

    The handbook says “unused entitlement”. People want to know if they keep their days, in words they can read on a phone.

  • Automation

    Saves the question, the reply and the page it came from, so HR can see what people ask about each week.

    Every answer is logged the same way, which is what makes the weekly list of questions possible.

Reads
  • Handbook
Writes
  • Team chat
  • Question log

~12 hours a month back

The agent: Groups the week’s unanswered questions, like whether contractors earn leave, into one list for HR to write up.
~4h/mo

Step 5 of 5Fill the gaps

  • The agent

    Groups the week’s unanswered questions, like whether contractors earn leave, into one list for HR to write up.

    Five people ask the same missing question five different ways. Grouped, they point at one missing page.

Reads
  • Question log
Writes
  • HR case list

~4 hours a month back

Ends withAnswered, with the pageA plain answer in the thread, the policy page linked, and the question logged for HR.
Total~43h/mo

What changes

Your people get an answer in minutes, in the thread they asked in, with the handbook page linked. HR partners keep the questions that need a person.

  • 3steps automated
  • 4steps for the agent
  • 1call kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~43 hours a month back

$26,800 a year in time

For a 300-person company where people ask HR about 250 questions a month, at $52 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Hands every sensitive question to a person

  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentQuestions in Slack or Teams, answers from your handbook and HR system.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentWhich topics are always a person’s, like health, pay disputes and complaints.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentYour HR partners, by team or location.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentReplies in Slack or Teams, a weekly list of new questions.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentAn answer with the policy page, logged against the question.

Approving leave is its own agent in this catalog. Complaints, accommodations and performance conversations always stay with your team.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your HR partners.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past questions, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real questions.
The number we agree

Share of questions answered without waiting on HR. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, your handbook and a month of questions your team answered, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and your handbook and a month of questions your team answered.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past questions.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

What if the handbook doesn’t cover it?
It says so and hands the question to your HR partner, who can add the answer to the handbook for next time.
Can people see each other’s information?
No. It answers from the asker’s own record only, under the access rules you already set.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the share of questions answered without waiting on HR. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

Want HR to stop answering the same questions every week?

Tell us how your team handles questions today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

Let’s build your agentBack to HR
New to Switchboard Agents? How it works, what’s included, and what it costs.
  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
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Switchboard Agents$12,500 fixed · live in 3 to 6 weeks How it works Let’s build your agent