# Playbooks and onboarding
> Put people on a playbook of messages, Knowledge links and to-dos counted from a day 0. Onboarding adds a buddy and anonymous check-ins on day 30, 60 and 90.
Audience: Workspace administrators, new hires and buddies
Kind: How-to guide
Canonical: https://shuffl.ai/docs/playbooks
## Create a playbook
1. Open Playbooks from the HR workspace. With no playbook yet, Mello suggests a filled-in onboarding playbook: choose Review and start, Change something or Not now.
2. Or choose New playbook and start from a template, or ask Mello in Chat to draft one from your handbook.
3. Details: name the playbook and choose day 0: each person’s start date, the day they join, or one date for everyone.
4. Choose the accountable HR responder, the local send time and the default time zone.
5. Steps: turn the buddy and the help check-in on or off.
6. Choose any step to change who it goes to, its day or its words, or to remove it, and Add step to write your own.
7. The preview fills in {{hire}}, {{buddy}} and {{manager}} with sample people.
8. People: choose who starts it now, by name or everyone in a group, department or community (members who show it on their profile).
9. Or leave it empty and use Add people later.
10. Review shows the playbook in numbers: steps, check-in days, to-dos for the manager and the hire, and who it starts with.
11. Choose Start playbook, or Save draft to finish later. Starting adds the people you chose with their steps waiting for approval; a draft adds nobody.
12. Insights shows hires in progress, buddy acceptance and check-ins answered.
- [Open Playbooks](https://shuffl.ai/app/playbooks/all)
- [Onboarding messages and checklist to copy](https://shuffl.ai/templates#category-onboarding)
## Write the playbook
1. Under Steps on the playbook’s page, every step sits on one timeline, from Before day 1 to Months 2 and 3, including the buddy invitation, introduction and help check-in.
2. A program with only those three shows Add starter playbook, which adds the starter to-dos and check-ins.
3. Choose Add step. Pick Message, To-do, Check-in or Read and confirm, and write a title.
4. Choose who it goes to (the hire, their manager, their buddy, the HR responder or someone you name) and the day.
5. A message can carry a checklist and links to published Knowledge, a web page or a community. Link Knowledge the recipient can read. Use {{hire}}, {{buddy}}, {{manager}} and {{start_date}}.
6. A Check-in is a day 30, 60, 90 or one-year check-in, or your own questions on any day, answered anonymously. See The first 90 days below.
7. Each template starts with to-dos for the manager and the hire, a welcome, and first-day and first-week checklists.
8. Saving sends only the changed steps back for approval. Removing a step cancels it for everyone not sent yet, along with its open to-dos.
9. An open to-do for the manager, buddy or someone you named gets one Slack reminder a day after its day, with Done, Snooze to Monday and Stop these reminders.
10. The hire gets one only when HR nudges them. Change the timing under To-do reminders on the Settings tab of Playbooks.
## Add people and approve their messages
1. Choose Add people and pick people, everyone in a group, department or community under A group or team, or a CSV with emails, start dates, time zones and buddies.
2. Start dates and time zones come from People.
3. Counted from the day someone joins, day 0 is today unless you pick another date. With one date, everyone starts on it.
4. Choose a buddy for each hire from the suggestions, or leave it empty and let the hire ask someone. The buddy accepts or declines right in Slack, or in Shuffl.
5. On the Messages tab, choose Review and approve messages, read each message with its date and recipient, tick that you reviewed them and approve.
6. A step with nobody to send to is skipped. Changing a date, buddy or message sends that hire back for approval.
7. Messages go out in the hire’s own time zone, in Slack. A hire or buddy without a linked Slack account waits until they have one.
- [Start every new hire’s playbook on their own with a group](https://shuffl.ai/docs/groups#recipe-new-hires)
## See how each hire is doing
1. Needs attention flags to-dos more than a day past their day, whoever owns them.
2. It also flags pages sent to read and confirm that are unconfirmed after three days, and a help request nobody has resolved.
3. Mello’s panel lists who to nudge. Nudge sends that person one Slack reminder with their overdue to-dos for that hire, with Done and Snooze to Monday.
4. It works once a day and never reaches someone who stopped these reminders.
5. The figures count people on the playbook, to-dos done by the day after they were due, overdue to-dos and hires who asked for help.
6. On a phone, each hire is a card.
The Hires tab is how everyone on the playbook is getting on: their day, how much of the playbook is done, the next step and what needs attention. It opens first unless messages wait for approval.
Progress counts steps sent and to-dos done. Check-in answers stay anonymous and out of it, and nothing here scores the hire.
## Give some hires different steps
1. Make the groups first in People → Groups, by rules such as department, location or employment type, or by name.
2. Open a step, pick groups under Only for or Not for, and save. The step list shows its tracks under its title.
3. The Tracks tab lists each group the playbook uses, how many steps it narrows and how many hires are in it now.
4. Preview as shows the steps one person would get today, with each skipped step and why. Nothing is sent or added.
5. Review and approve shows a skipped step’s reason. It is never sent and has no to-dos.
One playbook can give a department, an office or contractors their own steps. On a step, Who gets it picks groups from People → Groups: Only for sends it to people in any of them, Not for leaves out everyone in one.
Groups are checked against People when you review a hire’s messages and again when you approve them. If People changes in between, approve asks you to review again.
## Introduce them to people
1. Add a step, choose Meet as the type, and pick who under Meets. Teammates are people with the same manager, longest here first, up to five.
2. Review and approve names the people in each meet message. If People changes before you approve, approve asks you to review again.
3. Pick a time books 30 minutes in everyone’s calendar, or lets them choose a time together.
4. Your playbooks lists the people they met under Your people, with Say hi and their profile.
A meet step introduces the hire to their manager, their manager’s manager, a teammate or several, or someone you choose. It is one Slack group message with a card for each person and Pick a time.
Who they meet comes from People when you approve the hire’s messages. With nobody there, such as no manager yet, the review says so and the step is skipped.
## Ask them about themselves
1. Add a step, choose Form as the type, and tick what it asks under Asks.
2. On the day, Slack shows Answer, which opens the form there. The same form is on Your playbooks, where they can also add a photo.
3. They can change their answers later on the form or on their profile.
A form step asks the hire a few questions for their profile: preferred name, pronouns, a line about them, birthday and photo. Pick any of them.
Answers go straight onto their profile under their own privacy settings. The birthday is their Celebrations birthday, with no year. HR sees only that the form was answered.
## Before their Slack is ready
1. The step preview says Email until Slack is ready on every step to the hire.
2. Review and approve messages says the same on each step that will go by email for that hire.
3. Each step is one email, however often delivery retries. The step shows as sent once it goes.
Steps to the hire before their Slack is set up go by email to their work email, in a branded email with the same words. Resources are links, and to-dos link to Your playbooks.
Once their Slack account is ready, the next steps go there. Meet steps and check-ins wait for Slack or Your playbooks.
## People who join after day 0
1. Set the playbook’s own choice under Someone who joins after day 0 when you write it. Group automations use it.
2. When Add people finds people past day 0, the check step previews one person’s playbook under each choice. Pick one for this batch.
3. Review and approve messages shows the same: skipped steps are struck out and are never sent.
Someone can join a playbook after its day 0, such as a group added months after it started, so some steps were due before they joined.
Skip what’s past is the default: earlier steps are left out. A buddy invitation still goes today when the introduction is ahead.
Send what they missed as one message sends a single What you missed message the day they join, with their missed to-dos due that day. Past check-ins are skipped; steps for their manager, buddy or HR go that day.
Start from today moves the whole playbook later by the same number of days, so its first step goes the day they join and nothing is missed.
## Playbooks beyond onboarding
The same steps, to-dos and check-ins work beyond onboarding: a new manager’s first months, a return from parental leave, an intern cohort, a team move or a new policy.
Day 0 can be one date for everyone, such as the day a policy takes effect. Playbooks counted from the day someone is added, by hand or by a group automation, can’t have steps before day 0.
A playbook without a buddy leaves out the buddy messages and column. Turn the help check-in off when the playbook has its own check-ins. {{hire}} means the person on the playbook.
Someone can be on several playbooks at once. Your playbooks shows a switch for each, and Home shows the one that’s running now.
## Templates for other moments
1. New managers starts the day someone joins Managers (everyone with a direct report).
2. It sends a welcome, a to-do for their own manager, a nudge at two weeks, a check-in after a month and a manager check-in at two months.
3. Back from leave starts the day someone leaves On leave.
4. It sends a welcome back, a catch-up for their manager, a note about hours and workload, a check-in after two weeks and a manager check-in after a month.
5. Leaving (see below) counts from each person’s last day in People: a handover plan, notes on what only they know, an anonymous exit check-in and HR to-dos.
6. Policy roll-out counts from the date the policy takes effect: everyone gets the policy with a to-do to read and confirm it, and a reminder a week later.
7. Link the Knowledge page to the first step.
8. Intern cohort counts from the cohort’s first day: manager setup, a welcome, checklists, a check-in after a week, a mid-point review and a wrap-up.
9. Keep the cohort in a list group and add it with Add people.
10. Team move starts the day someone joins the group for their new department or team.
11. It sends a welcome, introductions from their new manager, a manager check-in at two weeks and a check-in after three weeks.
12. For New managers, Back from leave or Team move, Start it from a group under Day 0 names the group, making Managers or On leave if needed.
13. Saving turns on the group automation for people who join or leave from then on; each person’s steps still wait for approval.
Only the onboarding templates have a buddy. The others count from the day someone joins the playbook from one date or from each person’s last day, and each suggests the group that starts it.
- [Read each playbook on the templates library](https://shuffl.ai/templates#category-onboarding)
- [Groups](https://shuffl.ai/docs/groups)
## Checklists, buddies and check-ins
A new hire sees their onboarding on Home: checklist progress, the next to-dos, a check-in to answer and who is getting things ready. See all opens Your playbooks, with a timeline of their first 90 days, their buddy and manager, and where to ask.
Steps arrive in Slack with Done beside each to-do and Open my checklist. Your playbooks shows Your checklist, Your resources from the steps, and Getting ready for you: others’ to-dos for the hire, like the laptop. Only the to-do’s owner can check it off.
The hire can ask Mello about their onboarding in Chat or a Shuffl direct message, such as what to do this week. Mello answers only from their own playbook and can check off their to-dos once they confirm.
Someone not on an onboarding playbook sees You’re not in an onboarding playbook until HR starts one.
With no buddy chosen, Find me a buddy suggests coworkers who fit. The one the hire asks answers Yes, I’ll help or Not now in Slack, and the hire hears either way.
An invited buddy gets a Slack message with the hire’s name, team and start date, a few topics worth covering and two meetings to book in the first week. It has Accept and Decline. The same choice is in Your playbooks.
At the check-in the hire answers All good or I need help. I need help opens a reviewed message to HR, like any other HR request, so the accountable responder hears about it.
Slack message, Buddy invitation (The buddy you picked, privately; Days before the hire starts, after you approve it):
```text
<@UJONAH>
*Would you be Mei Lin Zhou’s onboarding buddy?*
Mei Lin Zhou joins on Monday, October 5, 2026. A buddy answers the everyday questions and helps a new colleague feel at home.
Accept or decline right here in Slack, or in Shuffl.
```
Slack message, A new hire asks for a buddy (The coworker they asked, privately; When a new hire without a program asks someone to be their buddy):
```text
Hi Jonah, could you be Mei Lin’s onboarding buddy?
Mei Lin Zhou joined recently and is looking for an onboarding buddy: someone to answer everyday questions for the first few weeks.
You came up because: on your team, finance, here 2 years.
“I’d love someone who knows the year-end close.”
Say yes or not now right here. You can also say hi to <@UMEI> here.
```
Slack message, Buddy said yes (The new hire who asked, privately; When the coworker answers their ask):
```text
Jonah Whitfield said yes to being your onboarding buddy. Ask them anything about getting started. Say hi to <@UJONAH>.
```
Slack message, Buddy introduction (The new hire and their buddy; On the start date):
```text
<@UMEI>, <@UJONAH>
*Meet your onboarding buddy*
Mei Lin Zhou starts on Monday, October 5, 2026. Jonah Whitfield is their buddy for the first weeks.
Find 30 minutes together this week to say hello.
Pick a time with your buddy: connect your own calendar or choose a time together.
```
Slack message, Check-in (The new hire, privately; A couple of weeks after they start):
```text
<@UMEI>
*How is your first stretch going, Mei Lin Zhou?*
If anything is stuck, like access, tools or expectations, say so and HR follows up with you directly.
Answer “All good” or “I need help” in Shuffl.
```
- [Open Your playbooks](https://shuffl.ai/app/playbooks)
## Run a buddy program
1. When you choose a hire in Add people, or Choose a buddy on their row, pick one of the suggestions.
2. Each says why they fit and how many hires they buddy now.
3. In the playbook editor, open Buddy invitation to change the topics under Worth covering, up to six, and the day of Ask if they met, or turn it off.
4. Open the Settings tab of Playbooks to see Buddies. Take someone off the list if their hires never met them; they can’t volunteer again until you choose Put back.
Anyone can choose Volunteer as a buddy on their own profile. Suggestions put volunteers first and never suggest the hire’s manager, their manager’s managers or anyone who reports to the hire.
A month after the start date, the hire and the buddy are each asked in Slack whether they met and whether it helped. Neither sees the other’s answer. HR does, on the Buddies card.
Slack message, Did you meet? (The new hire, and separately their buddy; A month after the start date):
```text
Did you and Jonah meet? Your first month is nearly done. Did you and your buddy Jonah get together, and did it help?
```
- [Open Buddies](https://shuffl.ai/app/playbooks/settings)
## The first 90 days
Every template has the day 30, 60 and 90 check-ins; First 90 days adds the one-year check-in and the manager’s one-to-ones every other week through week 12.
Add one with Add step, then Check-in. Each can be in a playbook once; for other days, see Check-ins with your own questions.
On the day, the hire gets the New hire experience questions; day 90 adds one open question about what to fix before the next person starts.
Answer opens a short form in Slack, and the check-in stays open in Your playbooks for 30 days. A hire on two playbooks is asked once.
Under Playbooks → Insights, What new hires said shows the share who agreed with each question and the open answers. It shows once enough hires have answered (your Pulse reporting floor, 7 or more).
Answers are stored without names or times, so nobody, managers included, sees one person’s answers.
Slack message, 30, 60 and 90-day check-in (The new hire, privately; On day 30, 60 and 90, when the playbook has those check-ins):
```text
Your 30-day check-in: You’ve been here a month. Four quick questions about your start, about a minute in all.
```
Slack message, First anniversary (The person, privately; On their first anniversary, when the playbook has the one-year check-in):
```text
One year with us: Happy first anniversary, and thank you for the year. One question to mark it, and one more if you have a minute.
```
- [Open What new hires said](https://shuffl.ai/app/playbooks/insights#what-new-hires-said)
- [For managers](https://shuffl.ai/docs/managers#new-hires)
## Check-ins with your own questions
1. Open a playbook, choose Add step, then Check-in, and set Which check-in to Your own questions, any day.
2. Give it a title and a day.
3. Write up to six questions: Agree or disagree, Rating, 1 to 5, Yes or no, or Open answer, which people can skip. The intro is optional.
4. Save. The check-in goes to the person on that day, in Slack with Answer and on Your playbooks, and stays open for 30 days.
Any playbook can ask its own questions on any day, such as two weeks after a return from leave. Answers are kept without names, like the first 90 days.
Results show under Your own questions, at the end of What new hires said on the Insights tab, once your Pulse reporting floor is reached.
- [Open What new hires said](https://shuffl.ai/app/playbooks/insights#what-new-hires-said)
## Read and confirm a page
1. Open a playbook, choose Add step, then Read and confirm.
2. Under Page to confirm, pick a published Knowledge page the person can read, and give the step a title and a day.
3. Save and approve each person’s steps as usual. Read and confirm on the playbook’s page shows who confirmed; Download CSV gives each person, page, status, date and version.
A Read and confirm step asks the person on the playbook to read one published Knowledge page, like the handbook or a code of conduct, and confirm they have. Shuffl keeps the same record as a policy confirmation: who, which version and when.
On the day, a Slack message with Read and confirm opens the page; the confirmation is at its end. Your playbooks shows To confirm until they do.
If the page changes after someone confirmed it, their confirmation stays with the version they read, and the step doesn’t ask again.
- [Confirming a Knowledge page](https://shuffl.ai/docs/knowledge#confirm)
## Draft a playbook from your handbook
1. Ask Mello in Chat, for example “Draft our onboarding playbook from our handbook”. With a new playbook’s steps still empty, Draft from Knowledge asks the same.
2. Mello searches your published Knowledge and replies with the draft: how many steps, how many pages it linked and how many have no owner yet. Choose Review and create.
3. The playbook editor opens with Mello’s steps. Check each one, pick who does the ones marked Pick who, then save or start it.
Mello can draft a playbook from your Knowledge, such as a handbook’s first-week section or an IT setup page.
It proposes messages, to-dos and Read and confirm steps on the days the pages give, linking the pages it used. Nothing is saved, sent or started until you check, save and approve the steps.
When a page doesn’t say who does something, Mello doesn’t guess: the step goes to the accountable HR responder for now and is marked Pick who. Open it to choose the hire, their manager, their buddy or someone you name.
## Start a playbook automatically for new hires
1. Create a playbook whose day 0 is each person’s start date.
2. Open Automations under Programs in the HR workspace, or Add an automation on the playbook’s page, and choose Add an automation, then A new hire gets a start date.
3. Pick the playbook and who it starts for: everyone, or only the people in one group, such as Engineering.
4. Turn the automation on, then approve each person’s steps as they arrive.
A playbook counted from each person’s start date can start by itself. When People Sync brings in someone with a start date ahead, or you give someone one in People, they start the playbook within ten minutes.
Their steps wait for your approval, the same as when you add people by hand, so nothing goes out before you check it.
Each person starts it once for each start date. If you remove someone, they are not added back for that date; a new start date, such as a rehire, starts it again. People whose employment has ended, and start dates already past, are left out.
A leaving playbook can start the same way from each last day: choose Someone gets a last day instead. See Leaving below.
## Plan a new hire’s first 90 days
1. Open Playbooks. Under Plans for your new hires, Mello has drafted goals for the first 30, 60 and 90 days from the hire’s role, department and your Knowledge. Draft again makes new ones.
2. Choose Edit goals to change, add or remove goals, up to five for each stage, then Save plan.
3. Choose Share with the hire. They see the plan on their Playbooks page and tick goals off as they go.
When a new hire starts an onboarding playbook counted from their start date, their manager in People sees them under Plans for your new hires.
Only the manager changes the goals. The hire reads them once shared, and HR reads them on the playbook: choose See goals under the hire’s name.
## Leaving
1. Choose New playbook, then Leaving, or set Day 0 to Their last day on any playbook.
2. A leaving playbook has no buddy, and steps can go up to 60 days before and after the last day.
3. Open the playbook and choose Add people.
4. Or start it on its own: on Automations, choose Add an automation, then Someone gets a last day, pick the playbook and turn it on.
5. Anyone People gives a last day ahead starts it within ten minutes.
6. Approve their steps as for any playbook. The exit check-in is anonymous, and its answers show combined under Your own questions once enough people have answered.
When someone is leaving, open them in People, choose Edit and set their Last day. Shuffl never asks for or keeps the reason. HR systems that send a termination date fill it in for you.
The Leaving template plans the handover and how the team hears, captures what only they know and asks an anonymous exit check-in. It gives HR equipment and access to-dos and checks the handover a month on.
Until you tick Their leaving has been announced, only HR, admins and their manager see the last day, and only steps for their manager and HR go. The rest wait, marked waiting until announced, and go once you tick it.
If the last day moves, unsent steps come back for approval at the new dates. Clearing it ends the playbook. Steps to the person stop once their employment or access ends; manager and HR steps after the last day still go.
- [Read the Leaving playbook](https://shuffl.ai/templates/leaving-playbook)
## Related guides
- [People and the org chart](https://shuffl.ai/docs/people)
- [Groups](https://shuffl.ai/docs/groups)
- [Introduce coworkers with Connections](https://shuffl.ai/docs/connections)
- [Share a request with HR](https://shuffl.ai/docs/hr-requests)
- [Shuffl for managers](https://shuffl.ai/docs/managers)
Agent documentation index: https://shuffl.ai/llms.txt