Start your free trial

People & Organization Module

The People module is the heart of Sparko, managing employee data, organizational structure, and company hierarchy.

Overview

The People module provides:

  • Complete employee directory
  • Interactive organization chart
  • Team management for managers
  • Employee profiles with career tracking
  • Company announcements and handbooks
  • Employment contracts for new hires in any country
  • People analytics and insights

Employee Directory

Accessing the Directory

Navigate to People > Employee Directory to view all employees in your organization.

Directory View

Employee Directory

156 employees across 8 departments

+ Add Employee
Employee Title Department Location Status
SJ Sarah Johnson [email protected] Senior Engineer Engineering San Francisco Active
MC Michael Chen [email protected] Product Manager Product New York Active
EP Emily Parker [email protected] HR Manager Human Resources Remote Active

Directory Features

Search & Filter

  • Search by name, email, or employee ID
  • Filter by department, location, status
  • Sort by any column

Bulk Actions

  • Select multiple employees
  • Bulk update department, title, or status

Quick Actions

  • Click employee name to view profile

Bulk Import (CSV/Excel)

  • Click Import in the directory header to upload a roster file
  • Columns are auto-detected and confirmable: name, email, department, job title, manager email, start date, employment type, location, phone
  • Imported employees are staged: they appear in the directory immediately, but no login email goes out until you send invitations
  • After an import you can send invitations right away from the result bar, or later from Admin Settings → People → General → Accounts

Employee Profile

Profile Overview

Click any employee to view their complete profile with six tabs of information.

SJ

Sarah Johnson

Senior Software Engineer

Engineering Department | San Francisco

Employee ID: EMP-2847 | Joined: March 15, 2022 | Active Overview Career Performance Compensation Documents and ID Timeline

Personal Information

Email [email protected] Phone +1 (555) 123-4567 Location San Francisco, CA Work Type Hybrid 
  <!-- Employment Details -->
  <div style="border: 1px solid #e5e7eb; border-radius: 8px; padding: 20px;">
    <h4 style="margin: 0 0 15px 0; color: #374151;">Employment Details</h4>
    <div style="display: grid; gap: 12px; font-size: 14px;">
      <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between;">
        <span style="color: #6b7280;">Manager</span>
        <span style="color: #4f46e5; cursor: pointer;">James Wilson</span>
      </div>
      <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between;">
        <span style="color: #6b7280;">Department</span>
        <span style="color: #1a1a2e;">Engineering</span>
      </div>
      <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between;">
        <span style="color: #6b7280;">Employment Type</span>
        <span style="color: #1a1a2e;">Full-time</span>
      </div>
      <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between;">
        <span style="color: #6b7280;">Tenure</span>
        <span style="color: #1a1a2e;">2 years, 8 months</span>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

<!-- Quick Stats -->
<div style="display: grid; grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr); gap: 15px; margin-top: 20px;">
  <div style="background: #f0fdf4; padding: 15px; border-radius: 8px; text-align: center;">
    <div style="font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; color: #166534;">4</div>
    <div style="font-size: 12px; color: #6b7280;">Active OKRs</div>
  </div>
  <div style="background: #eff6ff; padding: 15px; border-radius: 8px; text-align: center;">
    <div style="font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; color: #1e40af;">12</div>
    <div style="font-size: 12px; color: #6b7280;">Skills</div>
  </div>
  <div style="background: #fef3c7; padding: 15px; border-radius: 8px; text-align: center;">
    <div style="font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; color: #92400e;">3</div>
    <div style="font-size: 12px; color: #6b7280;">Reviews</div>
  </div>
  <div style="background: #fce7f3; padding: 15px; border-radius: 8px; text-align: center;">
    <div style="font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; color: #9d174d;">8</div>
    <div style="font-size: 12px; color: #6b7280;">Goals</div>
  </div>
</div>

Profile Tabs

Tab Content
Overview Basic info, contact details, employment info
Career Career path, skill gaps, development goals
Performance Reviews, feedback, OKRs
Compensation Salary history, bonuses, equity
Documents and ID Permits and IDs, then other files: contracts, certifications, forms, payslips from finalized payroll runs
Timeline Employment history and changes

Document visibility. When someone with access to an employee's profile uploads a document, they pick one of two visibility levels: HR only or Visible to employee. When employees upload to their own Documents tab, the file is always visible to them (there's no HR-only option to pick from their own profile), and they only ever see documents marked visible to them, never HR-only ones. A new hire can upload once they have started; before that they can still download their signed contract. Uploads take PDF, DOCX, PNG and JPG files up to 10 MB.

Asking an Employee to Sign a Document

HR can send a PDF document to an employee for signature. The employee signs in Sparko, and the company countersigns.

Starting a request. On the employee's profile, open Documents and ID and use Send for signature on a PDF, or tick Needs a signature when you upload one. Sparko opens the prepare page:

  1. Signers. The employee signs first, then the company. Countersign by the company is on by default; switch it off for a document only the employee signs. Choose the company entity: its authorised signatory signs for the company, or pick a delegate from the people who can sign for the company. Adding other signers, whether external people, employees or candidates, is available when you send a contract from Legal.
  2. Verify fields. Sparko places each signer's signature, name and date fields on the signature lines it finds in the document, and shows them on the page with a chip naming the signer. Check them and click Yes, continue. If Sparko finds no signature lines, the fields go on the last page and the page says so; click Adjust fields to move, resize or add fields. Every signer needs at least one signature field.
  3. Message and expiry. Add an optional note for the signers and choose how long the request stays open: 30 days by default, from 1 to 90.

Press Send. A document only HR could see becomes visible to the employee, which needs the permission to view all personal documents. Payslips and earnings statements can't be sent for signature, and neither can a PDF with a page too large to show ("This PDF has pages that are too large to sign."). Until Sparko turns on e-signature for your workspace, the buttons are off with "E-signature isn't set up for this workspace yet". Sending needs your People plan to be active; a request already sent can still be signed if it lapses.

If the upload worked but the request could not start, you see "Uploaded, but the signature request couldn't start." with the reason. The document is on the profile; use Send for signature on it once the reason is fixed. If the company entity's signatory can't sign for the company, the prepare page says so under the entity.

How the employee signs. They get a task in My Hub and an email. They open the document, tick the box agreeing to sign electronically, adopt a signature by typing their name or drawing it, fill in any text fields, and press Sign. They sign on their Sparko login, with no extra code; the record notes how they signed in and whether MFA was used. The company signer is asked next.

Following a request. The document shows Out for signature while it waits. View request opens the status page: who has signed, who is signing now, and the history. From there you can remind the current signer, download the document, or void the request with a reason. If a reminder email can't be sent, you see "We couldn't send the email. Try again in a minute." Nobody can sign or decline once the request's expiry date has passed.

When everyone has signed. Sparko seals the PDF with its platform seal and a public timestamp, adds a completion certificate as the last page, and replaces the document with the sealed copy. Everyone who signed gets the sealed copy by email, or, for a very large file, an email saying to ask the sender for it. If the seal can't be made, the status page says "We couldn't seal this document. Void it and send it again." and offers Void. View signature shows the signing record: each signer, how they were verified, the consent they gave, and the file's hashes. Anyone with the file can check it on the verification page.

Retention. A signed document cannot be deleted through the normal Delete action. Holders of the signature-void permission, which HR Admin and Super Admin have, get a Delete action on signed documents that asks for confirmation first, because it voids the recorded signature; the verification page then reports the document withdrawn. The void is written to the audit log. Deleting a document also removes every copy its earlier signature requests kept; those requests stay in the history, but their document reads "This document is no longer available." A document with a request in progress can't be deleted until the request is voided, and one with a draft request until the draft is discarded. Erasing an employee under a data deletion request ends their signature requests and removes their details from the signing records.

Requests from before sealed signatures. A document that was waiting for a typed signature when sealed signatures arrived shows Signature requested. Use Send for signature to send it through the new flow.

What this is, and is not. A strong sealed electronic signature: each signer is verified by their Sparko login or an emailed code, the document is sealed with a key that never leaves Sparko's key store, and a public timestamp fixes the time. It supports enforceability under the US ESIGN Act and UETA, and it is a simple electronic signature under eIDAS. It is not an eIDAS advanced or qualified electronic signature, and it is not notarisation.

Editing Profiles

Who can edit:

  • Employee: Own profile (limited fields)
  • Manager: Team members (limited fields)
  • HR: All employees (all fields)
  • Admin: Full access

Editable by employee:

  • Personal email
  • Phone number
  • Emergency contact
  • Address

Changes that need HR approval: legal first/last name, phone number, and date of birth. When you submit one of these from your profile, it's sent to HR as a pending request: you'll see a "pending" badge until it's reviewed. HR reviews these in My Hub > Approvals, where each request shows the current value and the requested change with Approve/Reject actions (a rejection includes a note explaining why).

Worker type: a Contractor or Freelancer badge shows on the person's directory row and profile header, and HR with the manage contractors permission sets it from Personal Info > Employment on the profile.

Hiring details and work email

A new hire carries their candidate contact details and the job's valid hiring manager and team into the employee profile. The final signed initial agreement supplies the start date, initial compensation or contractor fee, and probation where applicable. Untouched initial pay recorded by the hire run is updated to the signed terms; HR edits, compensation history and existing payroll snapshots are preserved. The original hire date remains separate from the start date.

For an existing new hire whose signed terms have not been synced, authorized HR staff can choose Sync signed terms in the Employment section, review the proposed fields, and confirm. This does not alter the signed agreement or send it again.

Work email, personal email, and the sign-in address are separate. Colleagues see the confirmed work address in the directory. In Admin → People → General, configure the work domain and naming format. HR can then request a suggestion from the profile, edit it, and confirm after the mailbox has been created. Duplicate names receive an available numeric suffix; Sparko checks availability again on confirmation. Recording a work address does not create a mailbox or change sign-in credentials.

In More → Edit or the inline Employment editor, choose a department from the company catalog by its full parent path, including departments with no staff yet. With department-management permission, select Create new department… to add a name and optional parent without discarding your profile edits. New department names must be unique across the company.

Custom Fields

Beyond the built-in profile fields, your admin can define custom fields to capture data specific to your company (a T-shirt size, a cost center, a work-visa type, a parking spot). Manage them under Admin > People Settings > Custom Fields.

  • Field types. Text, number, date, yes/no, or a single-select dropdown with your own options. You set a label, an optional help hint, whether it is required, and (for text) an optional format check.
  • How many you get depends on your plan. A count meter at the top of the page shows your usage, and reaching the cap prompts you to deactivate a field before adding another.
  • Sensitive fields. Mark a text, select, number, or date field sensitive for data like a personal ID or a medical note. A sensitive field is encrypted at rest and hidden from anyone who lacks the "view sensitive custom fields" permission, who sees it masked. The one person who always sees their own sensitive field is the employee it is about. Because it is their data, it shows in full on their own profile and in their GDPR data export. There is no setting that hides a field from the person it describes. If a stored answer can no longer be decrypted, the field shows "Stored value can't be read. Enter it again." and saving a new value replaces it.
  • Once created, a field's type, key, and sensitive flag are locked. You can still rename its label, change help text, toggle required, and reorder. Custom-field values are set on the employee record by anyone with edit access, and every change is written to the employee audit log.

Employment Contracts

Draft, check and send the employment contract for a new hire, then keep the signed copy on their profile. A contract can be for work in any country, and optionally a state, emirate or free zone (its Jurisdiction) when that changes the rules. Open People > Contracts. You need the View Employment Contracts permission to see contracts and Manage Employment Contracts to change or send them.

The contract header shows the recipient's email and the company signatory below the job, start date and entity details. Before sending, the signatory comes from Workspace settings > Entities > Authorised signatory. After sending, these contacts come from the signing record, so later changes to profiles or entity settings do not change who the contract was sent to.

Contract templates are general information, not legal advice. The template editor shows this notice to administrators; it is not included in the contract PDF. Have your own lawyer review a template before you rely on it.

Templates

Each contract is built from a template that belongs to one of your entities. Manage them under Workspace settings > People > Contract templates, which needs the Manage Employment Contract Templates permission.

  • The list. All templates sit in one table with the columns Template, Entity, Contract types, Source, Status and Last edited. Each row has one button: Edit, Review for a generated draft, Review import for an upload still being mapped, or View for an archived template. A line under the table says "n entities have no template" with a Generate button, and another says when an entity is at the plan limit, with Upgrade if you can change the plan.
  • Generate a template. Generate template asks for the entity, the country (search any country), an optional jurisdiction, the contract types it covers and a name. Sparko AI drafts the clauses and a statutory checklist for that country, which takes a few minutes; you can close the dialog and the draft waits in your templates. A template that takes long keeps writing in the background, and the page shows it when it is ready. If a draft or a section rewrite does not finish, you get a notice that says why, for example that Sparko couldn't start in time, lost track of the draft or took too long, and you can try again. If Sparko AI could not write a usable draft for that country, the notice says so and the Sparko team is told. Nothing is ready to use until you review it.
  • Review before publishing. A generated draft opens in review: every section starts unreviewed, and each clause shows a short Why this clause note. Any number Sparko wrote into a clause is flagged in place: click Replace with field to put in a merge field (so the figure comes from each contract's terms), or Keep as text for a figure that belongs in the wording, such as the year of a law. You can't publish until every flagged number is resolved. Mark section reviewed tracks your progress, and Regenerate section rewrites one section if its wording is wrong.
  • Upload your own. Upload template takes a Word document (.docx) up to 2 MB, for any country. The dialog offers employee and contractor Word starters with section headings and supported merge fields, plus PDF references. Replace all bracketed guidance with your approved wording before uploading; PDFs cannot be uploaded. After importing a contractor starter, set its contract types to Independent contractor or Freelance in the editor before publishing. On the review page each paragraph becomes a section: pick its section, merge it with the one above, skip it, or lock it. Paragraphs with numbers that should come from the contract's terms, such as a salary or a notice period, are flagged with a Replace button that puts in a merge field. Each table row comes in as one paragraph. Text in the header, footer or text boxes isn't imported, and the review page says how much was left out so you can add it to a section.
  • Start blank. Start blank gives you a draft with the basic sections to write yourself.
  • Sections and variants. A section can hold up to six variants, each with a When to use note that Sparko AI reads when it picks a variant for a contract. Merge fields such as the salary or the start date fill in from each contract's terms. A generated variant can say when it applies ("Applies when probation is 0 months."); you can remove that condition. Sections you lock while reviewing an upload can't be edited later, but you can add your own variant or section for different wording.
  • Checks tab. Each template carries a statutory checklist: rules such as a minimum notice period that run on every contract made from it. A Block stops sending; a Warn does not. Checks Sparko generated are marked AI-generated: review them with your counsel. You can add your own checks, change a check's value, or delete one; changes go out when you publish.
  • Plan limit. Core includes one template per entity; Growth and above are unlimited. Archived templates don't count.

Someone working in another country

The contracting entity and the work country are separate terms on a contract. Sparko picks the template from the entity, the work country and the contract type (including independent contractor and freelance), and prefers one whose jurisdiction matches the contract's. For a Singapore entity engaging a contractor who works remotely in India, use a template for that Singapore entity with India as the work country; check the Governing law section separately. Do not change the worker's actual location to match the entity. Contractor agreements use fees rather than salary, and can describe the relationship as "not an employee" without that phrase alone blocking the draft. An employment relationship abroad has different entity requirements; contractor status must reflect the actual arrangement.

Drafting a contract

Use Enlarge preview under the document to open a full-height reader with page navigation, zoom, Fit width, and Open PDF in new tab. In Clauses, an Agreement template dropdown appears when multiple approved templates match the entity, work country and contract type. Select one and choose Use selected agreement to refresh this draft and its checks.

Click New contract and pick a new hire with an accepted offer, then confirm the work country (it comes from the hire's record) and add a jurisdiction if one applies. You can also start from the candidate's Offer tab in Recruiting, or from the accepted offer on the Offers page, with Draft employment contract.

For someone with no offer in Sparko, such as staff you imported, switch New contract to Current employees and pick them. Their contract is drafted from the employee record alone, and they sign it in Sparko rather than from the candidate portal.

The contract page leads with the Document card: the draft page by page (Previous and Next) beside its status, such as Ready to send, Draft or "n blocking". Under the status are one-line summaries of Terms, Identity and Clauses, each with a button that opens a drawer. The page header has the Checks pill, Activity and Playbook, and the actions for the contract's status.

Terms opens from its line (Change). The drawer fills the terms from the accepted offer, the employee record and the entity. A contract for a current employee takes the job title, start date and pay frequency from their profile, and the base salary and currency from their current pay record. Each term shows where it came from ("From offer", "From employee record", "From pay record", "From entity", "Country default", "Edited"), and a term you changed from the offer shows what the offer said. Fill in anything marked "Needed before sending"; the line shows how many terms are missing. Changes save as you go, and Done closes the drawer. Terms are locked while the contract is out for signature.

Clauses opens a drawer that lists the sections the draft uses. Click Change on a section to pick another variant, then Use this clause. Suggest with AI lets Sparko AI pick the variants that fit this contract from the ones your template allows. Sparko AI only chooses between your approved variants; salary, dates and other numbers always come from the terms. You can always pick every variant yourself.

When the existing wording does not fit, choose Adapt agreement with AI from Checks or Clauses. Choose an approved agreement belonging to the contracting entity; it can have been written for another work country. Sparko drafts additional options from that wording using the actual entity country, work country, engagement type and fee basis. It can also propose corrections to generated checklist items. Review the before-and-after wording and every checklist change, tick the approval, then choose Publish adaptation and use. You need both Manage Employment Contracts and Manage Contract Templates for the entity. Approval publishes a new version, or creates a separate template when the work-country scope differs, and updates only this editable contract. Existing clause options and other contracts are preserved. Checks run again, remaining blocks still prevent sending, and approval never sends the contract. Proposals expire after 30 minutes and must be regenerated if the contract, source template or engagement facts change.

The adaptation opens directly, closing the drawer. Confirm the IP and working-arrangement answers; Issues Sparko will review groups the current findings. Sparko builds the drafting request from those answers and the saved terms, so Additional instructions is optional. No pre-existing IP will be used means none is approved for incorporation into the deliverables; the proposed agreement requires prior written approval before any is added. Review the complete document before sending. Once sent, the status shows whose signature is next: the recipient signs first, and the company signatory receives their signing request afterwards.

The new hire's details

The contract prints the new hire's nationality, ID number, right to work and home address. The Identity line shows what is on file; its drawer lists the details, with Add details or Edit details to change them. Click Request details (in the More menu, or on the Document card before a draft exists) to email them a link to the candidate portal, where they fill these in; the page shows "Waiting for {first name} to add them in the portal." until they do. For a current employee, Request details instead gives them a task in My Hub and an email; they add the details from a banner on their own profile, and the page shows "Waiting for {first name} to add them in Sparko." You can also click Add details and enter them yourself. Only the last 4 characters of the ID number are ever shown. If a stored ID number or address line can't be read, it shows "Couldn't read this. Enter it again." and has to be typed in again before the contract can be sent.

Checks

The Checks pill in the page header shows "Checks passed", or a count of warnings or blocking findings. Click it to open the findings in a drawer. Every change re-runs the checks: Sparko's common rules, the country's own rules where Sparko has them (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines), and the template's statutory checklist. A finding from the checklist names its source, and an AI-generated check badge marks one Sparko generated. If a chosen clause doesn't fit the terms (a probation clause on a contract with no probation), the finding says so and Go to section opens that section's variants. Block findings must be fixed before you can send; Warn findings can be sent as they are. Go to field, Go to section, Go to identity details or Go to document takes you to the thing to fix.

Differences from the accepted offer

The contract is compared with the accepted offer: job title, start date, base salary and currency. A contract drafted from the employee record has no offer, so nothing shows and there is nothing to confirm. The Document card compares the accepted offer and contract in aligned columns; Review differences opens the Differences from the approved offer drawer. Tick I confirm these differences (or I confirm the contract matches the offer) before sending. Once confirmed, a confirmation line shows who reviewed it and when. When you send a contract that differs from the offer, the offer's approvers are notified. If the terms change after you confirm, the confirmation clears and you confirm again.

Sending and signing

Employment contracts use Sparko e-sign. The final PDF page has separate worker and company signing areas, each with signature, name and date fields placed automatically. You do not need to place boxes in the generic e-sign editor. Use Signatures in the enlarged reader to jump to those boxes. The reader returns to the top whenever you change pages.

When it is the company signer's turn, the signing page names the people who have already signed. Their signatures appear in the pages and the download before the company signer adds theirs. Only the current signer's fields can be filled. After everyone signs, Sparko produces the final signed copy with its completion certificate.

Activity opens the contract's history from draft to filing. More holds Request details, Download draft PDF and Void contract; later it holds Download PDF, Open signing record or Download signed copy.

Send for signature stays grey until the contract is ready, and a line under it says what it is waiting on. It sends the contract to the new hire, who signs it from a link in their email or from the candidate portal with an emailed code. A current employee signs in Sparko instead: they get a Sign task in My Hub and a banner on their own profile, both opening the signing page, and there is no signing link to resend. Your entity's authorised signatory then signs for the company. The signing link stays open until the day before the start date, or 14 days when the start date is two days away or less.

  • Start date warnings. A start date close by never stops a send. When it is two days away or less, or already past, Sparko asks you to confirm with Send anyway, and the confirmation is recorded in the activity log.
  • Signing email failed. If the signing email can't reach the new hire, the contract is still sent, but you see "Sent, but the signing email to {name} didn't go out." and the contract shows Signing link not sent. Resend link emails a new signing link; the old one stops working.
  • Reminders. Sparko reminds the new hire 7 days and 2 days before the start date and tells you it did. Remind sends one yourself.
  • Started without a signed contract. From the start date until the contract is signed, a red banner shows on the contract, the employee's profile and the People home. It can't be dismissed.
  • Void. Void and resend ends the signing request and starts a new draft from the same terms. Void contract ends it for good. Both ask for a reason.

When everyone has signed, the sealed contract is filed on the employee's Documents and ID tab as "{job title} employment contract". A signed employment contract can't be deleted there.

If the signed contract changes the person's worker type but they hold wider access than the sender, Sparko files the contract without applying its terms and the sender gets a "Signed terms not applied" notice. Someone with that access then applies them with Sync signed terms on the person's profile.

Playbook review

With a Legal plan, Playbook in the page header opens a drawer. Run review (or Run again) checks the draft clause by clause against your employment playbook in Legal and gives a verdict for each clause. Each review counts toward Legal's monthly review allowance. Without a Legal plan the drawer says "Playbook review needs a Legal plan".

Documents and ID

Permits and IDs are records, not loose files. Each one has a number, an issue date, an expiry date, the authority that issued it and a history of every copy.

Permits and IDs

Upload renewal Residence visa needs a renewal. Upload the new copy and HR will verify it.
DocumentNumberExpiresStatus
Residence visa•••/••••/•••471819 Nov 2026 Expires in 41 days Renewal to verify
Labour card / work permit•• ••••45212 Mar 2027 Valid
Passport•••••73818 May 2031 Valid
Reminders: 1 document · next 20 Oct 2026 View

Click a row to open the document's details in a drawer. Only one alert shows at a time above the table. When more than one applies, the first stays and a n more button opens the rest. Show less folds them back.

What each worker holds

The documents a worker needs depend on the entity that pays them. A UAE entity asks for a residence visa, a labour card or work permit, an Emirates ID, a passport and medical fitness. An India entity asks for the contractor's licence, the worker register entry and the wage-slip identifier. HR changes this in Admin > People > Documents and ID.

The contractor's licence sits on the contractor, not on each worker. Renewing it once updates everyone the contractor supplies.

Statuses

  • Valid: more than 90 days left, or no expiry date.
  • Expires in N days: 90 days or fewer left.
  • Expired: the expiry date has passed.
  • Missing: required, but nothing is on file.
  • Renewal to verify: the worker uploaded a new copy and HR has not checked it yet.

Renewals

Workers upload a renewal from Documents and ID on their own profile. HR opens it, compares it with the original and chooses Verify or Send back. The current copy stays in place until HR verifies the new one, and every old copy stays in the renewal trail.

A copy HR uploads counts as verified.

Reminders

Reminders go to HR and the worker by email and in-app, 90, 60, 30 and 7 days before expiry and on the day it expires. The manager is copied from 30 days before. A missing document gets one reminder a week. Reminders pause while HR checks a renewal. HR can also send one now with Send reminder, from the list or a worker's record.

On a worker's record, reminders are one line: "Reminders: 2 documents" with the date of the next one. View opens a drawer that shows, for each document, how many reminders have been sent and when the next is due.

Holds

When a required work permit or contractor's licence has expired, the worker cannot be given a new assignment or roster shift. The hold starts the day after the expiry date.

A payroll run that names that worker shows a Lapsed permit check, and its UAE WPS file stays blocked. On People > Documents and ID, a "WPS file blocked" alert names the entity and the workers, with a button ("Review" and the first worker's first name) that opens that worker. It shares the single alert slot with the others. Payroll can release it for that run only by acknowledging the worker with a reason. The reason and the name of the person who released it go into the run log.

Numbers

Numbers are encrypted and shown masked. People with permission to reveal a number see a Reveal link, and every reveal is recorded in the audit log.

Where to find it

  • People > Documents and ID: everything that needs action, by expiry. Use the tabs for Needs action, To verify, Expired, Expiring and Missing.
  • A worker's profile > Documents and ID: Permits and IDs at the top, then a Files card for other files. Upload adds a file. Each file has a More actions menu (three dots) with Download, Send for signature and Delete. Sign, Continue, View request and View signature stay beside the file when they apply.

Organization Chart

Interactive Org Chart

Navigate to People > Organization Chart for a visual representation of your company hierarchy.

Organization Chart

156 employees | 8 departments

My View Full View EB Ella Brown Chief Executive Officer 6 direct reports 
<!-- Connection Line -->
<div style="width: 2px; height: 30px; background: #d1d5db; margin: 0 auto;"></div>
<div style="width: 600px; height: 2px; background: #d1d5db; margin: 0 auto;"></div>

<!-- C-Suite -->
<div style="display: flex; justify-content: center; gap: 20px; margin-top: 30px;">
  <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid #e5e7eb; border-radius: 8px; padding: 12px 15px; text-align: center; width: 120px;">
    <div style="width: 40px; height: 40px; background: #10b981; border-radius: 50%; margin: 0 auto 8px; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; color: white; font-size: 14px;">JW</div>
    <div style="font-weight: 500; font-size: 13px; color: #1a1a2e;">James Wilson</div>
    <div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280;">VP Engineering</div>
    <div style="font-size: 10px; color: #9ca3af;">42 reports</div>
  </div>
  <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid #e5e7eb; border-radius: 8px; padding: 12px 15px; text-align: center; width: 120px;">
    <div style="width: 40px; height: 40px; background: #f59e0b; border-radius: 50%; margin: 0 auto 8px; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; color: white; font-size: 14px;">LM</div>
    <div style="font-weight: 500; font-size: 13px; color: #1a1a2e;">Lisa Martinez</div>
    <div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280;">VP Product</div>
    <div style="font-size: 10px; color: #9ca3af;">28 reports</div>
  </div>
  <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid #e5e7eb; border-radius: 8px; padding: 12px 15px; text-align: center; width: 120px;">
    <div style="width: 40px; height: 40px; background: #6366f1; border-radius: 50%; margin: 0 auto 8px; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; color: white; font-size: 14px;">RK</div>
    <div style="font-weight: 500; font-size: 13px; color: #1a1a2e;">Robert Kim</div>
    <div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280;">VP Sales</div>
    <div style="font-size: 10px; color: #9ca3af;">35 reports</div>
  </div>
  <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid #e5e7eb; border-radius: 8px; padding: 12px 15px; text-align: center; width: 120px;">
    <div style="width: 40px; height: 40px; background: #ec4899; border-radius: 50%; margin: 0 auto 8px; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; color: white; font-size: 14px;">AP</div>
    <div style="font-weight: 500; font-size: 13px; color: #1a1a2e;">Amanda Price</div>
    <div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280;">VP People</div>
    <div style="font-size: 10px; color: #9ca3af;">12 reports</div>
  </div>
</div>

Org Chart Views

My View

  • Shows you and your reporting chain
  • Highlights your position in the organization
  • Easy to see your manager and skip-level

Full View

  • Complete company hierarchy
  • Expandable/collapsible branches
  • Filter by department or location

Tree or Columns: pick the layout from the icon switch at the top right of the header.

Org Chart Controls

  • Zoom: Mouse wheel or +/- buttons
  • Pan: Click and drag
  • Expand: Click node to see direct reports
  • Focus: Double-click to center on person
  • Search: Find anyone in the org

Departments & Teams

Where the org chart shows reporting lines, Admin > People Settings > Departments manages the org's structural units. A department is the top-level unit every employee belongs to. A team is a working group nested under a department that a person can belong to alongside others.

Allocation across teams. Because someone can sit on more than one team, each team membership carries an allocation percentage, meaning how much of that person's time the team gets. Sparko rolls this up two ways:

  • Per team. The members list with each person's allocation, and the team's total allocated FTE (the sum of allocations divided by 100).
  • Per person. Their active team memberships and a running allocation total, flagged balanced (100%), under (below 100%), or over (above 100%) so you can spot someone double-booked or with unassigned time.

The org-structure view also counts departments, teams, members, and how many people are on more than one team.

Department heads. Choose Assign head or Change head, search for a current colleague, and save. Choose Unassigned to clear the head. This records leadership without changing their department, access or team allocation.

Team leads and members. Selecting a lead records their responsibility. It does not create a membership or allocate their time. Choose Add lead as member and enter the agreed allocation to include them in the member count and FTE. New teams open automatically so you can add their members immediately. Moving or editing a person's team assignments saves all rows together; if someone else changed them, reload before saving.

Rename, merge, and delete are safe operations. Renaming a department rewrites the name everywhere it is used for scoping (PTO eligibility, timesheet config, recruiting approval routing, hiring-plan tags, saved audiences) so nothing silently breaks. Historical records signed with the old name, like past offers, keep it. Merging moves all employees and teams into the target department and then removes the source. Because every employee must belong to a department, deleting one requires you to pick a department to reassign its people and teams to first. A preview shows exactly what each action will touch before you confirm.

Managing departments needs people.departments.manage; teams and allocations need career.team.manage. Viewing the structure needs people.departments.view. Allocation details are limited to your own teams, your reports, or workspace staffing administrators.

My Team (For Managers)

Managers see a dedicated team dashboard at People > My Team.

My Team

8 Direct Reports 2 On PTO This Week 3 Pending Approvals 73% Avg OKR Progress

Team Members

SJ Sarah Johnson Senior Engineer In Office OKR: 85% MC Mike Chen Engineer II On PTO OKR: 62%

Team Management Features

Team Overview

  • See all direct reports
  • Track team OKR progress
  • View who's out of office

Quick Actions

  • Approve PTO requests
  • Schedule 1-on-1s
  • Write feedback
  • Start review

Team Health tab: a live snapshot of how your team is doing:

  • Team Engagement: the company's latest eNPS survey score
  • Avg OKR Progress: average goal progress across your reports
  • 1:1 Completion: how many of your 1:1s have been held this cycle
  • Recognition: praise your team received in the last 30 days
  • Per-report health: a row for each report showing OKR progress, last 1:1, PTO used, and retention-risk level

Team Analytics

  • Performance trends
  • Skill distribution
  • Tenure analysis

Announcements & Handbooks

Company Announcements

Open My Hub > Announcements to read company-wide news. Unread ones carry an Unread badge; open one and press Mark as read. If you can create announcements you also see Manage: create, pin or unpin, edit and delete, from the drawer or from each card.

Announcement Types:

  • General
  • Policy Update
  • Event
  • Urgent

The type tabs above the list show All plus only the types that have at least one announcement.

Features:

  • Rich text formatting
  • Attachments
  • Schedule for future

Known limitation: announcements always broadcast company-wide: there's no department or audience targeting yet, so a dept-specific policy update currently has to go to everyone.

Employee Handbooks

Open My Hub > Handbooks for company policies and procedures. Articles are grouped into To acknowledge, Acknowledged and For reference. When something needs your sign-off, a single line under the header says "n articles need your acknowledgement". Open one and press Acknowledge at the bottom; Sparko records the date and your IP address. If you can create handbooks you also see Manage: create, edit and delete articles, and open Acknowledgements to see who acknowledged each version, with a picker for earlier versions.

Handbook Features:

  • Version control
  • Acknowledgement tracking
  • Search within documents

Attaching the PDF: a handbook can carry the real document. Upload a PDF up to 25 MB when you create or edit it, and employees get a download link on the handbook. Only PDFs are accepted, and the file is checked by its actual contents rather than its name, so renaming something to .pdf won't get it through. Replace it any time by uploading another, or remove it and keep the written content.

Onboarding

Access at People > Onboarding to manage new-hire plans.

Every plan starts as a draft. The new hire never sees a draft. A plan you build by hand in the editor is released with Activate & send. A plan Sparko generates is released with Start plan once its tasks are reviewed. Until then the new hire's portal shows only their pre-start checklist.

What runs on its own after a hire

When a candidate is hired from an accepted offer, Sparko:

  1. Drafts the onboarding plan. Within a minute of the hire, Sparko AI writes 20 to 35 tasks from the role: the job title, department, level, work location, work country and the contract terms. Each task has an owner, a due date counted from the start date, and a one-line reason. Every generated plan also gets three or four tasks for the hire's job function, for example campaign tool access, the brand guidelines and a first campaign brief for marketing, or SQL and BI access, a data catalogue walkthrough and a first dashboard for a data analyst. Only engineering roles get development environment tasks. If your workspace starts plans from a template, Sparko copies the template instead. If Sparko AI is not on your plan, or this month's AI allowance is used up, the plan starts empty and HR gets a notice. Nothing fails.
  2. Sends the login invite. When both sides have signed the employment contract, the new hire gets an email to set up their Sparko login. A hire with no contract gets it a set number of days before the start date. The link works until a week after the start date. A hire who still has no invite on their start date gets one that morning, unless your workspace sends invites by hand.
  3. Requests their equipment. At the same moment, the department's default kit appears as Requested items on the Equipment page, and the person who handles equipment gets a task and an email.
  4. Shows the new hire one pre-start page. Before day one they see their first day, a checklist, their login state and their team, first through the contract link and then in Sparko once they sign in. The page stays until a week after their start date.

Accounts are not created for you. Create a Google Workspace account and Create a Slack account are tasks for IT when your workspace turns them on. Sparko does not create the accounts itself.

Reviewing and starting a generated plan

Open the plan from People > Onboarding, from the notice, or from Review plan in My Hub. A generated plan opens in review.

The page header shows the new hire, the plan's status and, under the name, the job title, start date and progress such as "3 of 20 reviewed". The task list uses the full width.

  • List shows the tasks by phase: Pre-start, Day 1, Week 1, Month 1, Month 2, Month 3. Month 2 holds the tasks due on days 31 to 60. The current phase is open. Other phases fold to one line with their task count and first due date, or "n of n done" when finished; click one to open it. Each task shows its owner, its due date and why Sparko added it.
  • Timeline shows the same tasks by date, with the contract, the invite, the equipment order and day one on the same line. Click a task to see it on the right. The Plan view switch (List and Timeline) is remembered on this device.
  • For each task, choose Keep, Edit or Remove. Edit lets you change the task, its owner and its due date. Undo puts a task back to unreviewed. A removed task stays struck through until you start the plan, so you can still bring it back.
  • Start plan stays off until every task is kept, edited or removed. The button shows how many are left. When you start the plan, removed tasks are deleted and the new hire sees the plan.
  • Regenerate replaces every task, your edits included. It uses the level and the notes on what to emphasize that the plan was first generated with, unless you change them. More > Discard plan deletes the tasks and keeps the empty draft, so you can generate again, start from a template or add tasks by hand. More > Edit template opens the template library.
  • A plan that starts empty offers Generate with AI, Start from a template and Add tasks by hand.

Plan details in the header opens a drawer with the owner and dates, the buddy (Change buddy), the review progress, and the Automation list. Keep the other {n} is here: it keeps every task you have not touched yet. The Automation list shows what already happened and what comes next: contract sealed, login invite, plan generated, details received, equipment ordered, plan started and day one. If the invite has not gone out, Send invite sends it now. For a generated plan, How it was made explains where the tasks came from.

Once a plan is active, Add tasks in the header opens the Add tasks drawer: pick a group under Add to, search the task library, filter by category and click Add on a task. Edit plan opens the plan editor.

Who owns which task

Owner Who completes it
New hire The new hire, from their pre-start page and their onboarding portal
Manager The new hire's manager, from My Hub
Buddy The buddy you pick
HR Anyone who manages onboarding plans
IT The person who handles equipment, from the Equipment page

Nobody can tick a task that belongs to someone else, apart from the people who manage onboarding plans. The new hire's portal lists only their own tasks, and their progress counts only those, so it reads "Your tasks: 0 of 16 done". The plans list counts every task on the plan ("3/19 done") and, when some of them belong to HR, IT, the manager or the buddy, adds the split underneath: "Hire 0/16 · others 3/3". The hire figure is the portal's figure. An open task past its due date shows as Overdue in the portal, on the plan page and in the plan drawer.

Opening a plan from the plans list

Click a plan in People > Onboarding to open it in a drawer on the right. The drawer shows:

  • Progress: tasks done out of the plan's total, with the hire's own share underneath.
  • Owner and dates: the manager, the start date and today's day of the plan, and the end date. Overdue names the oldest open task past its due date, with how many more are late, and Next names the next open task due today or later.
  • Buddy: the buddy's name, or Not assigned yet with suggestions to pick from. Change buddy swaps them.
  • Tasks: every task by phase (Pre-start to Month 3), with its owner and Done, Overdue, In progress or its due date.
  • Check-ins: each scheduled check-in, its date, and the new hire's rating and comment once sent.

Open plan opens the plan page. Open the hire's portal shows the portal exactly as the new hire sees it, with the same buddy the drawer names, with a Viewing as banner naming them; tasks for HR, IT, the manager and the buddy are not on it. You need the same onboarding permission the plans list asks for, and a manager sees only their own team's plans.

Picking a buddy

The plan page's Buddy section and the manager's Assign a buddy window suggest up to three colleagues. Sparko prefers someone from the same department, then the same office, who has been with the company between six months and five years and is buddy to the fewest other new hires. Each suggestion says why, for example "Same department · 2 years here · Not a buddy yet". Click a suggestion to pick them, or Pick someone else to choose anyone you are allowed to pick. A manager picks from their own team. Turn suggestions off in the onboarding settings.

Onboarding settings

Workspace settings > People > Onboarding holds what runs between a sealed contract and day one. The page shows three settings, then a list of five one-line summaries.

The three settings save with Save changes in the bar at the bottom:

  • Login invite. When the new hire gets their sign-in email: when the contract is sealed (the default), before the start date, or manually. Preview invite email shows the email with example details.
  • Onboarding plan. How each plan starts: Generate with AI from the role, Start from a template or Blank plan. Pick the Plan owner (the hiring manager or HR). Open Advanced for the plan length in days, an optional anchor template for the AI, The plan owner approves it first (generated plans stay drafts until the owner starts them) and Suggest an onboarding buddy.
  • Before and on day one. The list below.

Each line in Before and on day one shows its current setting. Click a line to open a drawer. A drawer saves only its own settings, with Save or Cancel.

  • Pre-start portal. What the new hire sees before day one: identity details, a laptop choice, a team intro and their day-one plan. The contract is always shown.
  • Equipment. One default kit per department and one for Everyone. Add kit creates one. A new hire gets their department kit plus the Everyone kit. A laptop item can offer up to four choices for the new hire to pick from. Then choose who gets equipment requests: A person, who gets a task and an email for each new hire, or A team mailbox.
  • Day one. The manager's day-one checklist (buddy, welcome message, team intro, first 1:1 and an access check), and IT tasks for Google Workspace and Slack accounts. Each IT task says "Creates a task for IT. Account creation itself is not automated yet."
  • First day details. What the new hire sees in the welcome email and the pre-start portal: start and end time, the address, a reception note, what to bring and the dress code.
  • Office addresses. Add office gives people based there an address that replaces the first day address.

Equipment

People > Equipment is the IT list for every laptop, monitor, phone, headset, access card and other item.

  • By person groups people by where they are: Starting soon (new hires starting in the next 45 days, with their requests and IT tasks), Active (everyone else holding an item) and Leaving (people with an offboarding plan whose last day is close).
  • All items is one table with tabs for Assigned, Requested, Ordered, Returned and Lost.
  • Search item, serial or person finds an item by make, model, serial number or asset tag, or a person by the start of their first or last name.
  • Click an item to open its record: the item, who has it, its onboarding plan, its notes and its history.
  • Order moves a request to Ordered. Assign records who has it from which date. Mark returned records the date and condition it came back in. Report lost closes it with a note.
  • Assign item adds an item for anyone. Leave Assigned on empty to save it as ordered.
  • When a new hire picks a laptop before day one, their pick replaces the kit laptop until IT orders it. Ordering every requested item ticks the equipment task on their onboarding plan.

Managers see their team's items on each person's profile, under Equipment. Everyone sees their own.

For managers

When someone on your team is about to start, My Hub shows a New hire item for them from 30 days before to two weeks after their start date. Open it to see:

  • Readiness: contract, login invite, laptop, accounts and plan, each with its state. Send invite and Review plan appear when they apply.
  • Your day-one checklist: buddy assigned, welcome message sent, team intro scheduled, 1:1 booked and access confirmed. Assign picks the buddy. Write saves a short welcome note, which the new hire sees on their pre-start page. Tick the others when they are done.
  • Their plan: before you start it, how many tasks fall in each phase; after, progress, anything overdue and what is next.

Approve plan starts the plan when every task is reviewed. Review plan opens the plan page when some are left. Open full plan opens it any time.

Plan features:

  • AI-amend a plan: describe a change in plain language (for example "add a security training task in week 1") and the assistant proposes the additions and edits for you to approve
  • Needs plan on the Onboarding Plans page lists everyone you can see who has no plan yet: hires who have not started, hires in their onboarding period, and active hires who joined in the last 90 days.
  • Create Plan with AI from a Needs plan row opens with that hire already picked, including a hire who has not started yet. Sparko AI drafts 20 to 35 tasks, from before day one to the last day of the plan length you choose, for you to review.
  • The Onboarding Plans list counts every plan you can see, in the header and on each tab, and shows 25 at a time with page buttons below the table. Click Tasks, In progress, Completion or Status to sort the whole list by that column.
  • If the hire's profile is missing mandatory fields, the page says so and offers Complete profile: fill the missing fields in place and the check re-runs, no detour to the employee record
  • A task library so common onboarding tasks don't need to be re-typed per plan. In the plan editor, Add tasks opens the same drawer, and the tasks land in the group you pick and save with the plan. Add task types a task of your own.
  • Suggest tasks per stage when building a plan by hand. Each stage group has a Suggest button that proposes 3 to 6 tasks for that stage, based on the new hire's role and department. Tasks already in the group are passed along so the suggestions don't repeat them. Nothing is saved until you save the plan, so drop the ones you don't want by leaving them out.
  • Plan templates: a reusable template library at Admin Settings > People > Onboarding Templates. Build a template from scratch, or import an existing plan to turn it into one. Use a template to fill a new hire's plan from their start date; if the hire already has an empty draft, the template fills it. Templates are searchable, categorised (Engineering / Sales / Leadership / Other), and each card shows its task count, group count, day span and how many times it has been used. Renaming, duplicating and deleting are on the card's kebab menu; deleting a template leaves plans already created from it alone.
  • Scheduled check-ins

IT support contact: set an email address and a chat channel in Workspace settings > General > Company Settings (IT support email and IT support channel), and new hires see a "Need help?" card on their portal with both. Leave them blank and no card appears, so nobody is pointed at a contact that doesn't exist.

Automatic on an employee's first active day:

  • Probation check-ins are scheduled automatically
  • New-hire OKRs are assigned automatically

Per-field PII permission gating: viewing date of birth, SSN, ethnicity, home address, and emergency contact are each gated by their own permission, separate from general employee-view access, so a role can see basic profile info without automatically seeing sensitive PII.

Accounts and invitations

Admin Settings → People → General → Accounts shows the account-invitation lifecycle for the whole company:

  • Staged: imported, no invitation email sent yet
  • Invited: invitation sent, activation pending
  • Activated: activation completed; locks and sign-in methods are listed separately

The Members page has All, Active, Invited, Not invited, No login and Deactivated tabs. Use Search members or Filter, then click a person's name or Manage to open their member drawer and the account actions your permissions allow.

Click Send staged invitations, then confirm Send invitations, to email staged employees a link to set their password. People already invited are skipped. Use Invite member to invite one person. Imports from guided setup or the directory never email anyone by themselves, so HR chooses when invitations go out.

People Analytics

HR professionals and executives with the required permissions can open Analytics > People for a company-wide workforce snapshot.

Available Metrics

Metric Description
Headcount Current employees and a 12-month headcount trend
Department and leadership distribution Headcount by department and reporting leader
Tenure distribution How long current employees have stayed
Location distribution Current headcount by location
Movement Hires, promotions, transfers and exits in the selected period, plus internal mobility

Turnover, DEI and Pay Equity are separate analytics pages reached from the More people analytics cards when your plan and permissions allow them. Hiring velocity belongs to Analytics > Recruiting.

Export Options

The People snapshot has no direct CSV or PDF export. On Growth and above, choose Run report to open Analytics > Builder, build and save a report, then use More > Export report to download CSV or PDF. A saved report can also be scheduled when your plan includes scheduled reporting.

Employee Insights & Career Development

The Employee Profile includes career insights that help employees understand their growth potential and opportunities.

Accessing Employee Insights

Navigate to People > Employee Directory > Click on any employee to view their profile. The insights are organized across three tabs:

1. Career Tab - Growth Opportunities

Succession Readiness

  • A full-width panel at the bottom of the Career tab
  • Readiness meter: a 0-100 score, a band (Ready now, Ready in 1–2 years, Developing, Significant gap), how many of the target role's requirements are met, and when it was last calculated
  • Requirements gap: one row per required competency and skill on the target role, showing the target level, the employee's current level, and coverage
  • Target roles: the roles this employee has been named a successor for, from Succession planning
  • The score is the share of the next role level's required competencies and skills the employee already meets. It uses no performance rating, no potential rating, and no calibration data
  • Employees at the top of their track show "No career path or target role configured yet" rather than a score

Peer skill benchmarks are not part of Sparko. Internal opportunities appear on the Career tab as a count of open roles that match your skills.

2. Compensation Tab - Salary Transparency

Salary Band Position

  • Shows where you sit within your salary band (min/max/midpoint)
  • Displays compa-ratio (your salary vs. midpoint)
  • Indicates quartile position (Q1-Q4)
  • Career path and role level context
  • Available in: Business and Custom (FEATURES_AND_PRICING row "Salary band position on the employee profile"). No band assigned means no chart.

Where succession lives

People > My Team is your day-to-day team view: Overview, Team Health, Compensation, Time Off, Reviews and 1:1 Meetings. It does not carry succession readiness.

Succession is read in two places:

  • One person: the Succession Readiness panel on their profile's Career tab. See "Succession Readiness" above for what it contains.
  • The whole company: Analytics > Succession Planning, which is the role-by-role bench view. See the Reporting & Analytics guide.

Privacy & Data Protection

  • Salary Data: Only visible to employee, manager, and HR roles
  • Succession Data: Only visible to managers and leadership
  • Skills Data: Controlled by employee privacy settings

Tier Availability

Feature Core Growth Business Custom
Internal Opportunities ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
AI Career Coach and improvement plan ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅
Succession Readiness ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅
Salary Band Position ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅

Entities

Your company can have more than one legal entity, for example one company per country. Each person belongs to one entity, or to none.

The Entity field. A person's profile shows their entity on the Employment card.

Editing employment details. Anyone who can edit employee records, such as a Super Admin or HR Admin, can press Edit on another person's Employment card and change the department, title, location and employment type, then press Save. Your own Employment card stays read-only.

Moving someone to another entity. Only group HR can do this. Open the person's profile, press Entity on the Employment card, choose the entity and press Save. Anyone else sees no Entity button, and Sparko refuses the move with "Only group HR can move someone to another entity." Leave, reviews, documents and the person's other records move with them. Payroll runs they were already paid in stay with the entity that paid them.

Directory and org chart. Whether people see colleagues in other entities depends on your company's privacy setting. Your own managers and your reports always show. When the setting hides someone in the org chart, their place in the chart stays, without their details.

People with no entity. Only group roles see people who have no entity. The Entities page shows how many there are, with the line "Only group roles see people with no entity."

New hires. A new hire joins the entity on their contract when they sign it.

Plans. Roles for one entity and the privacy setting are on Growth and above.

Hire with Sparko AI

Say who you are hiring, or press Hire with Sparko AI on an accepted offer, in Starting soon or in New contract. Sparko builds one plan for the hire and runs it to day one. On Core the button shows a Growth badge.

State once, confirm, ask only the gaps. Type everything you know in one sentence, for example "help me hire Mei Ling, she starts on the 3rd and should get the standard laptop". The plan shows what you told Sparko, what it read from the record and what it assumed. If something you said differs from the offer, the plan asks you to pick a side. It asks at most three questions, and only for what neither you nor the record said.

What the plan says. The engagement (for example "Employee of Acme Corp Singapore Pte. Ltd., working in Singapore"), the regulations to be aware of, the agreement template, pay, tax, every step and who does it. Confirm the engagement, then Accept plan. On Growth one accepted plan uses one assistant action; retries, checkpoints and changes are free.

When a plan can't start. Employing someone needs an entity in their work country in Singapore, Indonesia, the UAE, the Philippines, India and any country Sparko has no rules for. The plan says so and offers the local entity, or Add an entity.

Where Sparko stops for you. Engagement, contract send, a High risk override, a work pass, the IR35 status determination for a UK contractor, and the first payroll for a new entity and country. Pick Stop before each send to the candidate to also check before Sparko asks the new hire for their details.

Follow a hire in Sparko AI. Every hire in progress lives in Sparko AI in My Hub, under Runs. The switch at the top of Sparko AI moves between Chat and Runs. Runs lists every live hire, the ones that need you first. Pick one to see its steps, the one thing that needs you, and the activity. The My Hub item, the notification, Open run on the chat card and the hire button in Starting soon all open the hire there. A stopped step says what to do and has Try again. If the owner can no longer run hires, someone who can may Take over. Cancel hire, under More, asks for a reason and can cancel the draft contract too. If you can view hires but not chat, Sparko AI opens on Runs. On a phone, Runs shows the list first; tap a hire to open it and Back to runs to return.

Managers see "Hire in progress" with the current step in Starting soon.

Contractors and freelancers. Say "hire Daniel as a contractor, remote from London, day rate 600 pounds, he uses his own laptop", or plan from a job typed Contract. The plan asks once how they will work with you (who sets the hours, whether they work only for you, whose equipment) and shows a risk band, Low, Medium or High, with what looks like employment and how to lower it. A Medium band needs a tick that you read the risky factors; keeping a High band needs someone who can override the risk band and a reason of at least 20 characters. Change beside the band opens Keep as a contractor?, which also offers Use employee instead. The agreement fold lists its IP, moral rights, confidentiality, non-solicit and data protection clauses for the work country, the Pay fold says how invoices are paid and who bears exchange and bank costs, and the Tax fold says who pays and who withholds. In the UAE a contractor needs their own freelance permit; when they hold one, They hold a freelance permit lets the plan continue. Where interns can't be contractors, Hire as an intern employee switches the plan.

What a contractor hire does. Sparko records them as a contractor with the Contractor role, drafts and sends the services agreement, and asks them for their business name, tax id and invoice email. For a UK contractor the run stops for you at IR35 status determination: give them the statement, then mark it given. With Books, the contractor becomes a vendor payee (Professional services) in the contracting entity's ledger, once per contractor; without Books the step says to pay invoices outside Sparko. Their hire onboarding plan is replaced by a short Contractor access plan (accounts and access, confidentiality, project kickoff), or by your contractor plan template when one is set. They get equipment only when the plan says you provide it. Freelancers get no Sparko login, onboarding plan or invite unless the plan says they need one. Nobody but an employee gets a work pass step.

Worker types. Every person is an employee, a contractor or a freelancer. Contractors and freelancers get the Contractor role: their own profile, documents, onboarding tasks, equipment, learning and explicitly agreed time-away requests and balances. Employee leave policies do not enroll them automatically. Payroll, employee timesheets, salary records, merit cycles, reviews, probation, surveys, learning rules and employee statutory reports remain separate from contractor eligibility. A survey audience or a learning rule on a department, a role or everyone takes contractors only when Include contractors is ticked; a rule on one person always applies.

People marked Contract before. People settings shows a one-time card, "12 people are marked Contract. Are they employees or contractors?", to anyone who can manage contractors. Each person starts as Employee; nothing changes until you pick per person and Save. Employees stay on payroll; a person you mark contractor or freelancer gets the Contractor role and comes off leave, payroll and reviews. Someone whose hire plan is still in progress is left to the plan.

Services agreement. A contract typed Contractor or Freelance is drafted as a services agreement, composed for the work country. It covers the services, independence, fees and invoicing, taxes, IP assignment, moral rights, confidentiality, non-solicit and data protection, and for the United Kingdom a status determination statement (IR35). Contractor details a person enters in the candidate portal keep their tax id as its last four characters when shown back.

Drafting defaults. In Admin → People → Contract templates, choose Drafting defaults to save separate employee and contractor policies. Workspace template managers set company defaults; an entity manager can override only their permitted entities. Defaults cover new-work ownership, prior approval or prohibition of incorporated pre-existing IP, preferred licences and the initial notice period. An entity override replaces the company choices for that category; turn the override off to inherit them again. Notice defaults replace Sparko's initial fallback, while local checks still apply. Saving defaults does not change existing agreements.

Recommended agreement. Adapt agreement shows a source recommendation with reasons and any conflicts, based on the entity, work country, worker category and confirmed answers. This recommendation uses no AI generation. An unknown template policy needs review; it is not treated as an approved match. Previously approved wording can be reused only when its conditions and fingerprint still match. If no suitable agreement exists, draft a new one. Confirm the actual IP material, working arrangement and location for each engagement, then review and approve the proposed document before sending.

Common Questions

How do I update my profile?

Click your avatar > My Profile > Edit. Save when done.

How do I find someone in the org?

Use the global search (Ctrl/Cmd + K) or browse the Employee Directory.

Can I see my reporting chain?

Yes! Go to Org Chart > My View to see your place in the organization.

How do I export my data (GDPR)?

Go to Profile > Data Export to download all your personal data.

Related Features

Still need help? Reach us at [email protected].

← Back to Help Center