# Hire Your Employee

Pick a role from the Marketplace and have your new AI employee working in minutes.

## TL;DR

Go to the Marketplace, find an employee that matches your needs, and click "Hire." You land in their chat immediately. The employee walks you through a quick optional setup, then starts working. You can skip the setup and dive straight into work. Every employee is fully customizable after hiring.

## How Hiring Works

Hiring is a three-step process: browse, hire, talk.

1. **Browse the Marketplace.** Click "Marketplace" in the top navigation. Scroll past the teams section to find individual employee cards. Use the search bar or filter by Department, Level, or Tools to narrow down.
2. **Click "Hire."** The system creates the employee from a pre-built template with skills, duties, and tools already assigned based on their role. You land in their chat.
3. **Onboarding begins.** The employee introduces themselves and offers to walk you through a guided setup.

### The Onboarding Flow

After hiring, the employee runs through a two-phase onboarding:

- **Phase 1: "What I do and when."** The employee shows their duties (standing rules they follow) and schedule (recurring work). You can adjust these or move on.
- **Phase 2: "How I work."** The employee shows their skills (playbooks) and tools (connected apps). You can add, remove, or customize.

A progress bar appears at the top of the chat (e.g., "2/5, 40%") with a **"Skip Onboarding"** button. Click it at any time to activate the employee immediately with default settings.

**Onboarding is not a gate.** Your employee can already do work during onboarding. If you send a task as your first message, they handle the task first and mention setup afterward.

## What You Can Do

| Action | How |
|--------|-----|
| **Browse employees** | Go to Marketplace, scroll to individual employees, use search and filters |
| **Preview before hiring** | Click "Interview" on any card to see their full profile, skills, and tools |
| **Hire an employee** | Click "Hire" on a card. You land in their chat |
| **Skip onboarding** | Click "Skip Onboarding" in the toolbar at the top of the chat |
| **Customize after hiring** | Click the employee in the sidebar, then use the Skills, Duties, Tools, or Profile tabs |
| **Hire the same role again** | You can hire any template more than once. Each gets a unique name |
| **Build a custom employee** | Click "Build Your Own" in the Marketplace to start from scratch |

## Where to Find Your Employee After Hiring

After you click "Hire," the employee appears in the **sidebar** under the **Bench** team. Bench is the default team for unassigned employees. To move them to a specific team, go to that team's Members tab and add them.

## The Employee Dashboard

Once hired, click the employee's name in the sidebar to open their dashboard. The dashboard has these tabs:

| Tab | What It Does |
|-----|-------------|
| **Chat** | Send messages and have conversations |
| **Tasks** | View and manage the employee's task board |
| **Drive** | Browse files and the work journal |
| **Skills** | View and assign skills (step-by-step playbooks) |
| **Tools** | Connect apps and services the employee can use |
| **Duties** | Set standing rules the employee always follows |
| **Schedule** | Configure recurring work schedules |
| **Activity** | Timeline of all employee actions |
| **Profile** | Edit name, persona, AI model, and reasoning settings |

## Tips and Tricks

- **Be specific from the start.** "Write a 500-word blog post about remote work tips, professional tone" works better than "write some content."
- **Preview first.** Click "Interview" on any card to see what the employee can do before committing.
- **Hire for the role, not the name.** Employee names and personas are fully editable after hiring. Pick based on skills and capabilities.
- **Customize after hiring.** The marketplace template is a starting point. Add skills, swap tools, change the persona to match your exact needs.

## Good to Know

- **Hiring is free.** No credits are consumed when you hire. Credits are used only when employees process your requests.
- **Hired badge.** Once you hire a template, its card shows a "Hired" badge in the marketplace.
- **Intent preservation.** If you click "Hire" before signing up, your selection is saved. After signup, the hire completes automatically.
- **Multiple hires.** You can hire the same template multiple times. Each hire is independent with its own name and configuration.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: How do I know which employee to hire?**
A: Start with what you need done. Browse the marketplace by role. Use the Department, Level, and Tools filters to narrow down. Click "Interview" to preview any employee before hiring.

**Q: Can I change everything about the employee after hiring?**
A: Yes. Name, personality, AI model, reasoning effort, skills, tools, duties, and schedule are all editable from the employee's dashboard tabs.

**Q: What if the result is not what I wanted?**
A: Give feedback in the chat. Say "Make it shorter," "Change the tone to casual," or "Add more detail." The employee revises based on your input.

**Q: What happens if I skip onboarding?**
A: The employee activates immediately with all default settings from the template. You can customize everything later through the dashboard tabs.

**Q: Can I remove an employee I no longer need?**
A: Yes. You can terminate an employee from the team's Members tab. Terminated employees move to the Alumni section, and their history is preserved.