In a company of 50 to 500 people, HR answers the same questions every week: how many PTO days do I have, when is open enrollment, does the company match 401(k), what’s the parental leave policy. The answers are already in the handbook, but nobody reads a 60-page PDF. An HR chatbot does one job: answers policy questions from those documents in seconds, and hands anything personal or sensitive to a person.
Feedbot is the tool we make. It’s built for customer-facing chat, but the same bot works internally: you share a chat link with employees or embed it on your intranet. It is not an HRIS. It doesn’t see leave balances, payslips or employee records. If you need a bot that books leave or changes benefits inside your HR system, look at the assistant built into your HRIS.
What do employees ask HR?
| Employee question | What the bot does | Knowledge source |
|---|---|---|
| “How many PTO days do I get?” | Quotes the accrual table by tenure and employment type | Handbook |
| “Is Juneteenth a company holiday?” | Lists this year’s holidays | Holiday calendar |
| “When is open enrollment? How do I add my spouse?” | Gives dates and steps in the benefits portal | Benefits guide |
| “What’s our parental leave policy?” | Summarizes the policy, links the full text, offers a person to discuss | Leave policy |
| “How do I submit an expense? What’s the meal limit?” | Gives the limit and the tool to use | Expense policy |
| “When is payday? Why is my paycheck different?” | Gives the pay calendar; sends paycheck questions to payroll | Pay calendar, handoff |
| “Can I work from another country for a month?” | Quotes the remote-work policy, hands off for approval | Remote policy |
| “How many days do I have left?” | Tells them where to see their balance; it can’t see records | Handbook |
| “My manager keeps making comments about my religion” | Explains reporting options, connects to HR now | Handoff |
| “I need time off for surgery” | Explains which leave types exist, hands off for a private conversation | Leave policy, handoff |
| “Who do I talk to about a raise?” | Explains the comp review cycle and process | Handbook |
What to put in the knowledge base (and what to keep out)
In: the employee handbook, benefits summaries and enrollment guides, the holiday calendar, pay calendar, expense and travel policy, remote-work policy, IT onboarding steps, the org’s HR contact list. Upload PDF, DOCX or Markdown files up to 15 MB each, or paste text, in knowledge base settings (files start on Starter).
Out: anything about a specific person. That includes payroll exports, salary bands with names, performance reviews, disciplinary records, medical notes, leave requests, immigration documents and investigation files. The bot searches its whole knowledge base for every reply and can quote any passage. Treat everything you upload as readable by every employee, and by anyone the chat link is forwarded to.
Tips for better answers:
- Split a long handbook into one file or text source per topic (PTO, benefits, conduct). The bot retrieves the 5 most relevant passages per reply, so focused sources beat one giant PDF.
- Use clear headings. Each passage carries its nearest heading, which helps the bot pick the right policy.
- If policies differ by country or state, say so in the heading (“PTO: Germany”) and add an instruction: “Ask which country the employee works in before answering leave or holiday questions.”
- Put the HR contact email, the benefits portal URL and payroll’s contact in the business profile, so every answer can include them.
What must go to a person
Some HR conversations must never be handled by a bot alone. Turn on handoff and add custom instructions in Bot → Behavior:
- Harassment, discrimination and retaliation. The bot gives the reporting options from your policy and connects the employee with HR immediately. The EEOC expects employers to have a complaint process and to take prompt corrective action. A chatbot is not that process. It’s a door to it.
- Medical, disability and leave questions about the employee’s own situation. Explaining policy is fine. Discussing a diagnosis, an accommodation or FMLA eligibility for this person is for HR. Under the ADA, employee medical information must be kept confidential and separate from other records.
- Pay disputes and individual records. “Why was I paid less” goes to payroll as a ticket.
- Crisis. If an employee mentions self-harm or a threat of violence, the bot gives your EAP number and emergency contacts and alerts HR.
- Legal advice. The bot doesn’t interpret employment law for the employee.
Example instruction: “If the employee describes harassment, discrimination, a medical situation, a safety threat or a pay problem, don’t give advice. Share the HR contact and say a person will reply, then request a human.”
Notifications for these conversations go to a private HR channel: a Telegram group, a Slack channel or an email address in Settings → Notifications. Restrict who’s in it.
Sample conversation
Employee: Hi, when does open enrollment start and can I add my partner? We’re not married.
Bot: Open enrollment runs November 3 to November 21. Domestic partners are eligible for medical, dental and vision if you’ve lived together for at least 6 months. You’ll need to sign the domestic partner affidavit in the benefits portal under Life events.
Employee: OK. Also, I might need a few weeks off next month for a medical procedure.
Bot: You may be eligible for medical leave. The policy is in the handbook, section 6. Because this is about your own situation, the best next step is a private conversation with HR. I’ve let the HR team know. What’s the best email to reach you?
Metrics to watch
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Conversations per month | How much repeat work moves off HR’s inbox |
| Unanswered questions (weekly report) | Policies missing or unclear in the handbook |
| Handoff rate and topics | Whether sensitive cases are reaching people |
| Spikes by topic | Confusion after a policy change or during open enrollment |
| Questions by country | Where you need local policy documents |
Set up in 3 steps
- Create the bot from your handbook. Upload the handbook and benefits guides split by topic, add the HR contact details to the business profile, and paste the handoff instructions above. Check what’s in the knowledge base one more time for personal data.
- Give employees access. Copy the chat link from Bot → Install and pin it in Slack or Teams, the intranet and onboarding emails. Or embed the widget on an intranet page (install) and set Allowed domains so it only runs there. On an intranet with sign-in, identify employees with an HMAC hash.
- Route sensitive cases. Connect a private HR channel in Settings → Notifications and turn on live handoff so HR can reply from Telegram or the inbox.
For the hiring side, see the chatbot for recruiting. For a general overview of a bot built on your documents, see the knowledge base chatbot page.