Why Does Leo Need to Know About My Business?
One of the things that makes Leo different from a generic AI assistant is that Leo is designed to support your business, not simply answer general HR questions.
Good HR guidance depends on context. The right approach to an employee issue can depend on the type of business you operate, your company structure, your policies, the employee involved, what has already happened and what you're trying to achieve.
The more relevant context Leo has, the more useful that support can become.
Why Does Business Context Matter?
Imagine asking:
“One of my employees has been off sick for six weeks. What should I do?”
A generic answer could explain the principles of managing long term sickness absence.
Leo can go further by helping you consider the situation within the context of your organisation.
For example, relevant information might include the employee's role, their employment history, what contact has already taken place, your company procedures and anything already recorded within the Matter.
This means you can spend less time repeatedly explaining your business and more time dealing with the issue itself.
What Can Leo Learn About My Business?
Leo HR allows your organisation to build company knowledge that helps Leo understand how your business operates.
Depending on the information available and relevant to the question, this can include areas such as:
• your company profile and business activities
• organisational structure
• company policies and procedures
• ways of working
• employee information
• company documents and knowledge
• previous actions and information within workplace Matters
Not all of this information will be relevant every time you ask Leo something. Leo is designed to use the context that matters to the situation being considered.
Why Are Company Policies Important?
Your own policies can be highly relevant when managing employees.
If you ask Leo about a grievance, for example, your grievance procedure may affect how the situation should be approached. If you're dealing with sickness absence, your absence policy may contain relevant company procedures.
Having that information within the Leo HR environment means company practice can form part of the context rather than being something you have to locate and explain separately each time.
This doesn't mean a policy should be followed blindly. If there is something important that needs further consideration, Leo's role is to help you identify it.
What Is Company Knowledge?
Not everything important about your organisation will be contained in a formal policy.
Your business may have particular working arrangements, management responsibilities, operational practices or internal procedures that help explain how the organisation actually works.
Company Knowledge gives you a way to build that understanding within Leo HR.
As your organisation develops, that knowledge can develop with it.
The aim is for Leo to become increasingly familiar with the environment in which you're making HR decisions.
Does Leo Remember Workplace Matters?
Workplace issues often develop over time.
A performance concern may involve several conversations and reviews. A sickness absence Matter may continue for months. A grievance may involve meetings, documents, evidence and an eventual outcome.
Leo HR allows the relevant history of a Matter to remain together.
This means that as the situation develops, Leo can support you with the context of what has already happened rather than requiring you to reconstruct the entire history every time you need guidance.
What Happens If Leo Needs More Information?
Having business context doesn't mean Leo should assume it knows everything.
Sometimes the information required to give reliable guidance simply won't be available yet.
In those circumstances, Leo may need to establish something with you before recommending what happens next.
For example, if you ask whether you can dismiss an employee because of poor performance, information about what concerns have previously been raised, what support has been provided and whether the employee understands the required standard could materially affect the appropriate next step.
Asking for important missing information helps reduce the risk of making a decision based on assumptions.
How Does This Help Me as an Employer?
The practical benefit is that you don't have to treat every HR problem as a completely new question.
Leo can help you:
• understand what's important in a workplace situation
• identify information that may be missing
• consider relevant company context
• recognise potential HR risk
• determine an appropriate next step
• maintain continuity as a Matter develops
• prepare practical communications and documentation when required
Leo is available 24/7, so that support is available when workplace issues actually arise rather than only during conventional office hours.
Is My Business Information Used to Train a Public AI Model?
No. Your organisation's information is there to help Leo support your organisation within the Leo HR environment. Your business information isn't intended to become knowledge that another Leo HR customer can access.
Access to information within Leo HR is also governed by permissions so that users should only be able to access information appropriate to their role.
Think of Leo as Your AI HR Director
The easiest way to understand why Leo needs business context is to think about a human HR Director joining your organisation.
They would need to understand your business.
They would learn who your managers are, how the organisation is structured, what your policies say, how you operate and what has previously happened in important employee Matters.
Without that understanding, their advice would remain generic.
Leo HR applies the same principle to AI supported HR.
The objective isn't simply to give you an AI that knows about HR.
It's to give you an AI HR Director that understands the business it is supporting.