AI Assistant Guide

The Sparko AI Assistant is your intelligent companion for all HR-related tasks. Available 24/7, it can answer questions, complete tasks, and provide personalized recommendations.

Accessing the AI Assistant

Methods to Open

  1. Omni-search (recommended): Press Cmd/Ctrl + K (or /), type your question, and press Enter or choose "Ask Sparko about…". The answer streams in right there, grounded in what you can access, with follow-up suggestions and inline charts.
  2. Full chat page: Open Sparko AI from the top bar for the full conversation view, with saved history and multi-turn memory (it remembers earlier turns in the same chat).

Interface Overview

🤖 AI Assistant ● Online ⚙️ ✕ Quick suggestions: 📅 Check my PTO 📈 My OKR progress 🎯 Career advice 
<!-- Conversation -->
<div style="display: flex; gap: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
  <div style="width: 28px; height: 28px; background: #4f46e5; border-radius: 50%; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; flex-shrink: 0;">
    <span style="font-size: 12px;">🤖</span>
  </div>
  <div style="background: white; padding: 12px; border-radius: 12px; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0,0,0,0.05); max-width: 300px;">
    <p style="margin: 0; font-size: 14px; color: #374151;">Hello! I'm your AI assistant. I can help you with:</p>
    <ul style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding-left: 18px; font-size: 13px; color: #6b7280;">
      <li>HR questions & policies</li>
      <li>Time off & schedules</li>
      <li>Career development</li>
      <li>Performance & OKRs</li>
    </ul>
    <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; font-size: 14px; color: #374151;">How can I help you today?</p>
  </div>
</div>
📎 ➤

AI Personas

The AI adapts its personality based on your question:

HR Business Partner

For policy questions, HR processes, and administrative tasks.

Example questions:

  • "What's the parental leave policy?"
  • "How do I report a workplace concern?"
  • "When is open enrollment?"
  • "How do I update my tax withholding?"

Career Advisor

For career development, skills, and growth conversations.

Example questions:

  • "What skills should I develop for promotion?"
  • "Help me set a career goal"
  • "What learning paths do you recommend?"
  • "Am I ready for a senior role?"

Compensation & Benefits Advisor

For salary, benefits, and total rewards questions.

Example questions:

  • "What health benefits does the company offer?"
  • "How does the 401k match work?"
  • "When is my next salary review?"
  • "Explain my stock options"

Common Tasks

Time & Leave

Check PTO balance:

You: "How much PTO do I have?"
AI: "You have 12 days of PTO remaining this year.
     - Total: 20 days
     - Used: 8 days
     - Pending: 0 days

     Would you like to request time off?"

Request time off:

You: "I need to take off December 23-27"
AI: "I'll help you request time off for December 23-27 (5 days).

     This will use 5 of your 12 remaining PTO days.
     Your manager James Wilson will be notified.

     [Request Time Off] [Modify Dates]"

Performance

Get OKR help:

You: "Help me write an OKR for improving code quality"
AI: "Here's a suggested OKR for code quality:

     Objective: Deliver high-quality, maintainable code

     Key Results:
     1. Reduce code review revision requests by 40%
     2. Achieve 85% unit test coverage on new code
     3. Run 2 code-quality workshops with the team

     [Create this OKR] [Modify] [See alternatives]"

Prepare for 1-on-1:

You: "Help me prepare for my 1-on-1 with James"
AI: "Here's your 1-on-1 prep with James Wilson:

     📅 Meeting: Tomorrow at 3pm

     Suggested topics:
     - Your OKR progress (currently at 72%)
     - Recent project completion
     - Career development discussion

     Since your last 1-on-1:
     - You completed 2 key results
     - Received positive peer feedback
     - Questions about promotion timeline

     [Generate agenda] [Add notes]"

Career Development

Get career advice:

You: "What should I focus on to get promoted?"
AI: "Based on your profile as Software Engineer II,
     here's what you need for Senior Engineer:

     Skills to develop:
     🔴 System Design (Critical gap)
     🟡 Technical Leadership (Moderate gap)
     🟢 Code Quality (Strong)

     Recommended actions:
     1. Lead the design of a cross-team system
     2. Lead a cross-team project
     3. Mentor a junior engineer

     Readiness score: 68%
     Estimated timeline: 9-12 months

     [Create development plan] [Find mentor]"

HR Policies

Ask about policies:

You: "What's the remote work policy?"
AI: "Here's our remote work policy summary:

     ✅ Eligibility: All employees after 90 days
     📍 Options: Full remote, hybrid, or in-office
     📝 Requirements: Manager approval, home office setup

     Key points:
     - Core hours: 10am-3pm your timezone
     - Equipment: Company provides laptop, monitor
     - Internet: $50/month stipend available

     [Read full policy] [Request remote work]"

Advanced Features

Context Awareness

The AI understands your context:

  • Current page you're viewing
  • Recent actions you've taken
  • Your role and permissions
  • Time of year (reviews, enrollment periods)

Example: When you're on the Performance page:

You: "Help me with this"
AI: "I see you're looking at your Q4 OKRs.
     Would you like me to:
     - Add a check-in for your current OKR
     - Suggest updates based on progress
     - Compare to team averages"

Multi-Turn Conversations

The AI remembers your conversation:

You: "Show me the engineering team"
AI: [Shows engineering team list]

You: "Who has the most tenure?"
AI: "In the Engineering team, James Wilson has the
     most tenure at 8 years, 3 months."

You: "What's his email?"
AI: "James Wilson's email is james.wilson@company.com"

Attachments

You can share files with the AI:

  • Screenshots for help with UI issues
  • Documents for policy questions

Action Buttons

AI responses often include action buttons:

  • Primary action: Main suggested action
  • Secondary actions: Alternative options
  • Learn more: Additional information

Agentic AI: Action Execution

The AI can execute actions on your behalf, always with your explicit approval:

What is Agentic AI?

Instead of just answering questions, the AI can:

  • ✅ Create career goals and development plans
  • ✅ Create OKRs with key results
  • ✅ Request feedback from colleagues, or start a full 360 feedback workflow
  • ✅ Schedule 1:1 meetings
  • ✅ Submit time off requests
  • ✅ Update your profile
  • ✅ Request a mentorship match
  • ✅ Draft performance reviews in STAR format (managers can approve and submit)
  • ✅ Create a job posting and route it for approval

How It Works

  1. You ask in natural language: "I want to become a Senior Engineer in 12 months"
  2. AI proposes actions: Shows you what it will do with all details
  3. You confirm: Review and approve (or cancel)
  4. AI executes: Action is completed automatically

Example: Creating a Career Development Plan

You: "I want to become a Senior Engineer"

AI: "I'll help you create a career goal and development plan.
     Let me set this up for you..."

[Action Card Appears]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📋 Generate Development Plan
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Target Role: Senior Software Engineer
Timeline: 12 months

I'll create a 3-phase development plan:
• Phase 1: Foundation (Months 1-4)
• Phase 2: Building (Months 5-8)
• Phase 3: Mastery (Months 9-12)

[✓ Confirm Action] [✕ Cancel]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[After confirmation]
AI: "✅ Development plan created successfully!
     - 12 milestones across 3 phases
     - Skills analysis complete

     You can view your plan in Career Development."

Example: Creating an OKR

You: "Create an OKR for Q1: Launch new mobile app"

AI: "I'll create this OKR for you with key results."

[Action Card Appears]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎯 Create OKR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Objective: Launch new mobile app
Key Results: 3 results
Quarter: Q1 2025

Key Results will include:
1. Release MVP by end of January
2. Achieve 10,000 downloads
3. Maintain 4.5+ star rating

[✓ Confirm Action] [✕ Cancel]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

AI: "✅ OKR created! Track progress in Performance."

Example: Requesting Feedback

You: "Request feedback from Sarah about my presentation"

AI: "I'll send a feedback request to Sarah Johnson."

[Action Card Appears]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💬 Request Feedback
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
From: Sarah Johnson
Context: Presentation skills
Questions: General

[✓ Confirm Action] [✕ Cancel]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

AI: "✅ Feedback request sent to Sarah Johnson!"

Example: Scheduling a 1:1

You: "Schedule a 1:1 with my manager next Friday"

AI: "I'll schedule a 1:1 meeting with James Wilson."

[Action Card Appears]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📅 Schedule 1:1 Meeting
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
With: James Wilson (Your Manager)
Date: Next Friday (Dec 8)
Duration: 30 minutes
Agenda: General check-in

[✓ Confirm Action] [✕ Cancel]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

AI: "✅ Meeting scheduled for December 8 at 2pm!"

Example: Generating a Performance Review (NEW!)

You: "Write a performance review for Sarah Chen for Q4 2025"

AI: "I'll generate a comprehensive performance review for Sarah Chen
     using data from OKRs, 1-on-1 notes, and 360 feedback."

[Action Card Appears]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✍️ Write Performance Review
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Employee: Sarah Chen
Review Period: Q4 2025
Format: STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result)

Data Sources:
• 3 OKRs (avg 82% completion)
• 8 1-on-1 meeting notes
• 5 peer feedback items

The review will include:
• Accomplishments (3-4 STAR examples)
• Areas for improvement (1-2 STAR examples)
• Goals for next period
• Overall rating recommendation

Quality checks:
✓ Plagiarism detection enabled
✓ Uniqueness scoring (70%+ required)
✓ Template pattern detection

[✓ Confirm Action] [✕ Cancel]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[After confirmation]
AI: "✅ Performance review generated successfully!

     📊 Quality Metrics:
     • Uniqueness: 87% (Excellent)
     • STAR compliance: 100%
     • Data sources: 3/3 integrated
     • Template patterns: None detected

     ✨ Accomplishments (3 examples)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
     Situation: Sarah was assigned to lead the Enterprise
     tier launch with a team of 4 developers...

     Task: Her goal was to deliver 3 major features by Q4
     end while maintaining code quality...

     Action: She implemented daily standups, code review
     automation, and mentored 2 junior devs...

     Result: All 3 features shipped on time, customer
     satisfaction increased 23%, team velocity improved 40%.

     [View full review] [Edit] [Send for approval]

     The review has been saved and is ready for your review.
     You can approve it directly or make edits first."

Example: Requesting 360 Feedback

You: "Start a 360 feedback process for my Q4 review"

AI: "I'll initiate a 360 feedback workflow for you."

[Action Card Appears]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💬 Request 360 Feedback Workflow
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Review Period: Q4 2025
Deadline: 14 days from now

Recommended reviewers (AI-selected):
• 3 peers you collaborated with most
• 2 cross-functional partners
• Your manager (auto-included)

Feedback areas:
• Technical skills
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Leadership

[✓ Confirm Action] [Customize reviewers] [✕ Cancel]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

AI: "✅ 360 feedback requests sent to 6 reviewers!

     You'll receive notifications as feedback comes in.
     Deadline: December 19, 2025"

Available Actions

Career Development

  • Create Career Goal: Set target roles with timelines
  • Generate Development Plan: AI creates phased plans with milestones
  • Find Mentor: Search for mentors by skill area
  • Request Mentorship: Connect with specific mentors

Performance Management

  • Create OKR: Set objectives with key results
  • Request Feedback: Ask colleagues for input
  • Schedule 1:1: Book time with your manager
  • Write Performance Review: AI generates complete reviews with STAR format (Business)
  • Approve Performance Review: Validate and approve AI-generated reviews (Business)
  • Request 360 Feedback: Initiate 360 feedback workflow with reviewer selection (Business)

Analytics

  • Generate a Chart: Describe a chart in plain language and Sparko builds a permission-scoped visualization from the data you can access (e.g. "headcount by department", "how is attrition trending")

HR Operations

  • Request Time Off: Submit PTO requests (managers can request on behalf of a report)
  • Update Profile: Modify your employee information
  • Check Leave Balance: View remaining PTO

Safety & Control

You're Always in Control:

  • AI never executes without your confirmation
  • You see all details before approval
  • You can cancel any action
  • All actions are logged for audit

What AI Shows You:

  • Clear action description
  • All parameters and details
  • Impact of the action
  • Option to cancel or modify

Tips for Better Results

Be Specific

❌ "Help with time off"
✅ "I need to take December 23-27 off for vacation"

Provide Context

❌ "What should I focus on?"
✅ "What skills should I develop to become a Tech Lead?"

Use Natural Language

❌ "query: pto balance status"
✅ "How much vacation time do I have left?"

Ask Follow-ups

"Tell me more about the first option"
"Can you explain that differently?"
"What if I did it this way instead?"

Privacy & Security

What AI Can Access

  • Your profile and employment data
  • Data you're authorized to view
  • Company policies and handbooks
  • Your conversation history (this session)

What AI Cannot Access

  • Other employees' private data
  • Data outside your permissions
  • External websites or systems
  • Previous session conversations (unless saved)

Data Handling

  • Conversations are encrypted
  • Not used to train external models
  • Retained per company data policy
  • You can delete conversation history

Troubleshooting

AI Not Responding

  1. Check your internet connection
  2. Refresh the page
  3. Try logging out and back in
  4. Contact support if issue persists

Unexpected Answers

  1. Rephrase your question
  2. Provide more context
  3. Try being more specific
  4. Use "I meant..." to clarify

AI Made a Mistake

  1. The AI can make errors - always verify important info
  2. Click "Report issue" on any response
  3. Provide feedback to improve accuracy

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Ctrl/Cmd + / Open AI Assistant
Esc Close AI Assistant
Enter Send message
Shift + Enter New line in message
↑ Edit last message

Related Features

Still need help? Reach us at support@sparko.app.

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