know.

CookbookWork and teamsNo. 33

An employee handbook and onboarding guideread by new hires from one link

Recipe No. 33Work and teams

For
The operations lead at a twenty-five-person design studio
You bring
The policies you already have in a shared drive, the welcome email you send every new starter, and a list of the tools people need on their first day
You get
A handbook, a two-week onboarding plan and a tools guide, each behind a password-protected link, plus an FAQ drafted from them and checked by you
Time
An hour for your assistant to build it, two evenings for you to check it, then half an hour whenever a policy changes
Works in
know.sh on the web · your AI assistant, through MCP
Keep it
Private while you work; share one document by a read-only link when it is ready.

In a studio of twenty-five, the handbook is usually a PDF from three years ago, a welcome email that has been forwarded and edited so often nobody knows which copy is current, and an operations lead who answers “how many holiday days do I get?” every time someone starts. When a policy changes, the old PDF keeps circulating.

This recipe keeps one current copy. The Handbook holds the policies, one per finding. Your first two weeks walks a new starter through day one to the two-week check-in. Tools and accounts says what each tool is for and how to ask for access, never the logins themselves. Each goes out on a password-protected link, so a new hire reads today’s version on their phone before their first morning, and when a policy changes, the link shows the change while Revisions keep what it said before.

know.sh is not an HR system. Contracts, salaries, sickness records and signed acknowledgements stay in the tools built for them, and the policies themselves need someone qualified in employment law to read them before anyone else does.

What you will use

Shelf
One shelf, Studio handbook, with a line saying who keeps it and who to ask.
Research document
Three documents: Handbook, Your first two weeks and Tools and accounts; later a fourth, Questions new starters ask.
Your AI assistant
Whichever assistant you use, Claude, ChatGPT or a local model, builds the three documents from the old handbook, then drafts the FAQ and checks for contradictions.
The editor
Where you correct what it filed, set each policy’s type, mark the must-reads Key and write the welcome in your own words.
Public link
A password-protected link per document, replaced when someone leaves, with draft policies left out.
Revisions
Each policy keeps its earlier versions, marked with who changed it and when, with Restore.
Proposed notes
Where two documents disagree, your assistant leaves a proposed note on the passage for you to accept or dismiss.

Method

  1. 1

    Hand the old handbook to your assistant

    Connect the assistant you already use to know.sh, following the support page, and give it the old handbook, the welcome email and your list of tools: attach them in Claude or ChatGPT, or point a local client at the folder. Ask it to make a shelf called Studio handbook with three documents: Handbook, one Decision finding per policy; Your first two weeks, one finding per stage; and Tools and accounts, one finding per tool.

    Three documents, not one, because a new hire meets them at different moments: tools on the Friday before they start, the first two weeks on day one, the handbook over the first month. Links are made per document, so Tools and accounts can go out early without the grievance procedure. Tell the assistant to copy each policy’s wording as it stands and to list, rather than file, anything that looks like a password or personal data.

  2. 2

    Fix up the policies in the editor

    Open the Handbook and press Edit. Read each policy against the old copy: the assistant can drop a clause or smooth a sentence into something the policy never said. Drag the policies into the order a reader needs, check each is a Decision, and mark the ones everyone must read, such as Code of conduct, as Key. Write the founders’ welcome in the overview yourself; it should sound like them.

    Start every policy with two lines headed “In short”, then the detail, and end with “Last changed: 4 September 2026”. Title policies by their subject, “Hybrid working” rather than “How we work”, because Look up (⌘K) shows titles first, and when you search hybrid you should land on the policy.

  3. 3

    Shape the first two weeks as stages

    In Your first two weeks, check the assistant gave each stage a finding: Day one, Days two and three, End of week one, Week two, The two-week check-in. Under each, say who they will meet by role (“your studio lead”, “the ops lead”), what to read, and what should be done by the end of it.

    Where a stage says “read the expenses policy”, paste the address of that finding from the Handbook, or ask your assistant to add the links. It shows as a link with a preview, and the new starter goes straight to the right page instead of scrolling a long document. Keep names of current staff out of the text wherever a role will do; people move on faster than handbooks are revised.

  4. 4

    List tools and how to ask, never the logins

    In Tools and accounts, each tool should have a finding: what it is for, who approves access, how to request it, and what the new starter should have on day one. “Design files: request through the ops form; your studio lead approves; you will have view access on day one and edit access after the check-in.”

    Write where secrets are kept, never what they are. “The Wi-Fi password is on the card by the kitchen door” is fine; the password itself is not. The same goes for licence keys, door and alarm codes, and shared logins: the password manager holds them, and this document says so.

  5. 5

    Have the policies reviewed, then share with a password

    Before the first link goes out, have the Handbook read by someone qualified in employment law where the studio operates: an employment solicitor or an HR adviser. Record their review in the overview with the date.

    Then press Share on each document. Copy the link as soon as it appears, because it is shown only once, and set a password. Send the link in the welcome email and the password separately, in the offer pack or by message. Leave the handbook’s link with no expiry (the default), and leave out, from each finding’s own page, any policy still in draft. When someone leaves, replace the link so the old one stops working, and change the password too; replacing resets the expiry and the left-out findings, so set them again before you send the new link to the current team.

  6. 6

    Change a policy without losing the old one

    When the studio moves from two studio days to three, press Edit on Hybrid working, change it, and update its “Last changed” line. The link shows the new version at once; the old one is under Revisions, marked with who changed it and when, and Restore puts it back if the founders change their minds.

    Keep a last finding in the Handbook called What changed, a dated list of every policy change with a link to the policy. Readers see it; nothing tells them otherwise. know.sh sends no notifications, so post the change in the studio chat with the link.

  7. 7

    Ask your assistant for an FAQ and a contradiction check

    Ask your assistant to read the Handbook on the Studio handbook shelf and draft Questions new starters ask: a document of Question findings, each answered in two or three sentences from the policies, quoting the line it relies on and linking to it. Tell it to answer only from what is written and to list separately any question the handbook does not answer. Read every answer against the policy before you share it; assistants can be wrong, and an FAQ that contradicts the handbook is worse than none.

    Then ask it to read all three documents for contradictions and to leave each as a proposed note on the passage rather than editing. Each arrives with a dashed rule and Accept or Dismiss; you decide which document is right, and fix the other.

Specimen

  1. You

    Using know.sh, read the Handbook, Your first two weeks and Tools and accounts on my Studio handbook shelf. Where do they disagree with each other? Do not change the text.

  2. A local model through Ollama

    I found three places where the documents disagree.

    • Returning equipment. Equipment and laptops says the laptop comes back “on your last working day”. Tools and accounts, under Laptop and accessories, says “within five working days of leaving”.
    • Studio days. Hybrid working was changed on 4 September to three studio days a week. Day one still tells new starters to “expect two studio days”.
    • Who approves expenses. Expenses says the studio lead approves claims under £100. End of week one says “all claims go to ops”.

    I could not tell which version is current in any of these, so I have not suggested wording. The What changed list mentions only the hybrid working change. I can leave a proposed note on each passage if you want them in the margin.

    From your library

    1. Handbook, 6: Equipment and laptops
    2. Tools and accounts, 2: Laptop and accessories
    3. Handbook, 3: Hybrid working
    4. Your first two weeks, 1: Day one
    5. Handbook, 4: Expenses
An assistant, here a local model, reading three documents against each other and reporting what disagrees; deciding which policy is right stays with you.

Handbookhow the studio works, and what we expect of each other

Shared from a library on know. 8 findings.

Welcome to Oakum. This handbook is the current version of every studio policy; if you have a PDF from before, this replaces it. Each policy starts with two lines headed “In short” and ends with the date it last changed.

The policies were reviewed by our employment adviser in August 2026. Questions go to the ops lead, not the founders.

Findings

  1. 1Holiday and time offDecision, high importance
  2. 2Sickness absenceDecision, high importance
  3. 3Hybrid workingDecision, high importance
  4. 4ExpensesDecision, medium importance
  5. 5Working hours and overtimeDecision, medium importance
  6. 6Equipment and laptopsDecision, medium importance
  7. 7Code of conductDecision, high importance
  8. 8What changedObservation, medium importance

Set with know.

What a new hire sees after typing the password: the overview and the policies, each with its type and importance. A policy still in draft has been left out of the link.

Prompts to try

  1. Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model)

    Using know.sh, read the document Handbook on my Studio handbook shelf and draft a new document on that shelf called “Questions new starters ask”. Make each question a Question finding, answered in two or three sentences using only what the policies say, quoting the line you rely on and linking to that policy. At the end, list any common starter question the handbook does not answer. Do not invent policy.

  2. Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model)

    Using know.sh, read every document on my Studio handbook shelf and find places where two of them say different things about the same subject: dates, amounts, who approves, how many days. Leave a proposed note on each passage naming the other one. Do not edit any text.

  3. Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model)

    Using know.sh, read every finding on the Studio handbook shelf and list anything that looks like a secret or personal data: a password, a licence key, a door or alarm code, a phone number, a home address, a salary. Quote the line and name the finding. Do not change anything.

Variations

  • For freelancers, make a shorter document, Working with Oakum as a freelancer, with its own link and an expiry date at the end of their contract.
  • Keep a private Before someone starts checklist on the same shelf for yourself and the studio leads, with no link: the laptop order, the desk, the first-week lunch. Use roles, never the new hire’s personal details.
  • Running a restaurant rather than a studio? The kitchen manual does the same for recipes and station guides that new cooks read on a phone.
  • When a policy change comes from an engineering decision, such as which laptops the studio supports, record the reasoning as a Decision finding and link to it from the policy.

Where it falls short

  • There is no record of who has read what. The link counts reads in total, not by person, so if you need a signed acknowledgement of the handbook, collect it in your HR system.
  • New hires cannot ask questions or comment inside know.sh. Questions come to you by chat or email, and the good ones go into the FAQ.
  • Nothing tells readers a policy has changed. You announce it, and the What changed finding is where they can check.
  • Quizzes are for the library’s owner only, so you cannot use them to test new starters on the handbook.
  • Your assistant is only as careful as its tool calls. Smaller local models call tools less reliably, so read what any assistant files; Revisions show every change it made.

A note on employment policies and personal data

Indexed under

Employee handbookOnboardingCompany policiesPassword-protected linksFAQsContradictionsAccess requests

See also