HR teams answer the same questions all week. How many PTO days do I have? Can I expense this dinner? When does my health coverage start? The answers sit in a handbook, but employees ask in Slack because that is where they already are.
An AI agent in Slack can answer those questions from your own policy documents, cite the page it used, and point the employee to HR when the documents do not cover the question. This guide covers what to look for and how to set one up with Runbear.
What an HR policy agent in Slack should do
A good HR agent does four things:
- Answers from your documents. It grounds policy answers in the handbook and policy pages you connect.
- Cites the source. Every answer points to the document behind it, so the employee can check it.
- Keeps sensitive files out. Everyone who can use the agent can get answers from the documents it has indexed, so connect only the policies every employee may read.
- Says when it does not know. If the policy is missing or unclear, it says so instead of guessing and tells the employee who to ask.
Where the answers come from
Connect the places your policies already live: Notion, Google Drive, Confluence, or SharePoint. Runbear keeps the connected documents indexed, so an updated policy page shows up in answers without retraining. There is no training data to prepare.
Start small. Pick the ten documents people ask about most, such as the employee handbook, the leave policy, the expense policy, and the benefits guide. Leave out drafts and outdated files, because an agent repeats whatever it reads.
Which HR questions to automate first
Start with questions that repeat and whose answers rarely change.
| Type | Example question | Source | Hand off to |
| Policy | "Can I expense a candidate dinner?" | Employee handbook | HR, for exceptions |
| Benefits and leave | "How do I enroll in benefits?" | HR docs | HR, for personal cases |
| Onboarding | "What do I set up on day one?" | Onboarding checklist | Manager or IT |
Leave out anything that needs a judgment call, such as pay disputes or performance issues. Route those to a person from the start.
Set it up in four steps
- Install Runbear in Slack. One install covers the whole workspace. Microsoft Teams works too.
- Create an HR agent. Chat with Runbear to create a named agent, for example @HR. Describe its job in plain English, such as "answer employee questions about leave, expenses, and benefits from the handbook."
- Connect your policy documents. Authorize the sources that hold your handbook and policies.
- Choose where it answers. Add it to a channel such as #ask-people, or let employees mention it by name.
Most teams set up their first agent in about 10 minutes, with no code.
The same steps give you an IT agent, such as @IT, for questions like "How do I connect to the VPN?" Keep it separate from @HR, so each team owns its own documents and handoffs.
Keep HR answers safe
HR questions touch sensitive documents, so check three things before you roll out.
- Access. When the agent reads a connected tool, Runbear uses the requester's own account, so it sees only what that person can see. Documents you index into the agent's knowledge base are shared by everyone who can use the agent, so keep restricted HR files out of the index.
- Data handling. Runbear is SOC 2 Type II compliant, encrypts data at rest and in transit, and does not use your data to train models.
- Admin controls. Business and Enterprise plans include an audit log of configuration changes, such as who connected a source or edited the agent's instructions.
Handle what the agent cannot answer
No policy document covers everything. When the agent does not know, it says so instead of guessing. Name the HR contact or channel in the agent's instructions, so it can tell the employee where to go next.
Treat those questions as a to-do list. Each one points to a gap in your documentation. Fix the document, and the next employee gets the answer. In Slack, employees can also rate an answer with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, which shows you where the documents need work.
What it costs
Runbear charges by usage, not by seat. One subscription covers every employee who asks, and usage is metered in credits based on the model each agent uses. The Team plan is $99 per month with 20,000 credits, and the Business plan is $399 per month with 100,000 credits.
FAQ
Can an AI agent replace the HR inbox? No. It handles repeat policy questions and passes everything else to a person. Keep HR in the loop for exceptions, sensitive cases, and anything the documents do not cover.
Will employees see documents they should not? Not from connected tools: those follow the asker's own permissions. Documents you index into the agent are available to everyone who can use it, so index only what all employees may read, and review the sources before rollout.
Does it work in Microsoft Teams? Yes. Runbear runs in Slack and Microsoft Teams.
How should I test it before launch? Take 20 to 30 real questions from your HR inbox, ask them in a test channel, and check each answer for accuracy and a correct source link. Expand to the whole company once the answers hold up.