⚠️ Templates only — not employment-law advice.
Outputs are templates and people-ops frameworks. They are not employment-law advice, not a substitute for HR counsel, and employment law is both jurisdiction-specific and fast-moving. What is lawful in one state is a claim in the next.
Before the user relies on any output:
- Employment counsel reviews it for the states and countries where the affected people work.
- Wage notices, mandatory training and posting requirements are verified separately.
- The document is confirmed against the real facts — headcount, classification, jurisdiction.
A people question has arrived. Establish the facts that decide which rules apply, then route or draft.
Step 1 — Pre-flight (required before any binding document)
Anything that will be handed to an employee — offer letter, termination letter, separation agreement, handbook section, accommodation response, leave letter, RIF notice, performance plan — needs these four first:
- State(s) of employment. Where the work is actually performed, including every state a remote worker sits in. Remote headcount pulls in that state's rules, not the company's home state.
- Country. US, UK, EU member state, Canada, Australia, other. At-will employment is a US concept and does not travel.
- Total company headcount. It is the switch on nearly every threshold: Title VII at 15, ADEA at 20, federal COBRA at 20, FMLA at 50 within 75 miles, WARN at 100 — plus state mini-versions that trigger far lower.
- Classification. W-2 or 1099; exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA salary and duties tests; full-time, part-time or temporary.
If any of the four is unknown: ask once. If still unknown, mark the output DRAFT — JURISDICTION-DEPENDENT FIELDS UNFILLED and refuse to fill state-specific clauses. Do not default to at-will, to federal-only, or to the founder's home state.
Step 2 — Route to the specialist skill
| The request | Load |
|---|---|
| Handbook, policy sections, required-by-law policies | hr-handbook |
| One person being terminated involuntarily; separation agreement | hr-termination-letter |
| Departure logistics, final pay, COBRA, access revocation, data preservation | hr-offboard |
| More than one person cut for business reasons; WARN exposure | hr-rif |
| FMLA, state PFML, parental, medical or personal leave | hr-leave-of-absence |
| ADA, pregnancy or religious accommodation; interactive process | hr-accommodation-request |
| Designing the role itself — scope, level, whether to hire at all | slate-role-design |
| Evaluating candidates, scorecards, reference checks | slate-candidate-evaluation |
| Structuring the hiring process end to end | slate-hiring-structure |
| Engaging a freelancer or agency rather than an employee | legal-contractor |
| Whether this person is an employee or a contractor at all | sentry-employment-and-classification |
| Whether the company can afford the hire | coin-runway-and-burn |
Step 3 — Work it inline
Job description and posting
Scope from slate-role-design if the role is not yet defined. The posting itself needs: the outcomes the person owns in the first year (not a duty list), the level and its calibration, must-have versus nice-to-have separated honestly, location and remote policy naming the eligible states, and the pay range where pay-transparency law requires it — which is now most large markets, and applies to remote roles open to those states. Strip requirements that screen on proxies rather than the work.
Interview loop and question bank
Structured beats unstructured, every time: the same questions, in the same order, scored against the same rubric. Build one behavioural question per required competency, a work-sample or scenario stage, and a scorecard with anchored ratings. Off-limits: age, family status, pregnancy, disability, religion, national origin, arrest record, and — in a growing number of states — salary history. Write the bank so an untrained interviewer cannot wander into those.
Onboarding plan
Day one: paperwork (I-9 within the statutory window, W-4, state forms, handbook acknowledgement), access, and a named buddy. Week one: context, not tasks. Day 30 / 60 / 90: explicit outcomes the new hire is accountable for, agreed in writing with the manager. For a full programme, onboarding-plan and sop-creation go deeper.
Performance review
Fix the cycle and the rubric before writing any individual review. Each review: outcomes against what was agreed, behaviours against stated values, evidence with dates for both, and one development priority. Calibrate across the group before anything is delivered — uncalibrated ratings are where disparate-impact problems start. Never let a review be the first time an employee hears a criticism.
1-on-1 agenda
Employee's items first, manager's second, then one forward-looking question. Fifteen minutes of preparation from the manager beats an hour of improvisation. Keep a running document; it becomes the evidence base for the review.
Offer letter
Role, start date, reporting line; compensation, pay frequency and exempt/non-exempt classification; benefits by reference to plan documents; at-will language where lawful, with the explicit statement that the letter is not a fixed-term contract; contingencies (work authorisation, background check where lawful and disclosed); the state-required wage notice; and the expiry of the offer. Do not promise equity, bonus or severance terms the plan documents do not deliver.
Comp band
Anchor on two or three market sources for the role, level and geography; state the sources and the date. Set the band as minimum / midpoint / maximum, place the offer against it, and write down the rule for where in the band a candidate lands — experience, scope, or location. Bands without a written placement rule reintroduce exactly the pay gaps they were built to close. Affordability is a separate question: coin-runway-and-burn.
Performance improvement plan
Only after the manager has given direct feedback and it is documented. The plan names specific, measurable outcomes; the support the company will provide; the review checkpoints; and the consequence if the outcomes are not met. Thirty to sixty days is typical. Check first whether the employee recently took protected leave, raised a complaint, or requested an accommodation — a PIP that follows any of those needs counsel before it is delivered, because the timing itself is evidence.
People report
Headcount by team and type, open roles and time-to-fill, offer acceptance rate, voluntary and involuntary attrition separated, and the one number the leadership team is going to ask about next month. Keep individual performance data out of a distributed report.
Route to counsel — do not draft
- Active harassment, discrimination or retaliation complaints. These need counsel and a neutral investigator, immediately.
- Executive separations with bespoke equity, IP or restrictive-covenant terms.
- Multi-state RIFs at or near WARN thresholds — counsel clears the notice timing before anyone is told.
- Terminating a visa-sponsored employee (H-1B, L-1, O-1 implications).
- Whistleblower, SOX or Dodd-Frank matters.
- Union activity or NLRA §7 protected concerted activity.
- Any adverse action within weeks of protected leave, a complaint, or an accommodation request.
Templates only — not employment-law advice. Have HR counsel licensed in the relevant jurisdiction review every document before it is delivered.