Claude for people leaders: setup and reference

The surfaces and when to use each

Most people use chat for everything. The gains come from putting each job in the right place.

If you have explained something to Claude twice, it belongs in the project or a skill. If you have done a task three times, it is probably a scheduled task.

Three buckets of work

Every use of Claude falls into one of three buckets. Most people stay in the first. Time savings grow as you move right.

A good first target for each: one skill you use daily, one tool your managers use weekly, one scheduled task that saves you an hour every Monday.

Account and plan

First week setup

About four hours spread over a week gets you from blank to useful. Do it in this order. When you install skills, copy them from the Claude Skills Kit directory.

1. 1

   Day 1

   Personal settings (about 20 minutes). Write your preferences: role, company, answer length, tone, UK or US English, currency. Say what you never want, such as corporate jargon or long preambles.

2. 1

   Day 1

   Install the kit (about 10 minutes). Copy people-context-setup and company-voice from the Claude Skills Kit directory into Claude as skills. Confirm they appear in your skills list.

3. 2

   Day 2

   Build your context file (about 45 minutes). Run people-context-setup. Give it the handbook, an org chart or HRIS export and your current people priorities. Fix anything marked "(check)".

4. 2

   Day 2

   Build your voice guide (about 45 minutes). Run company-voice with 8 to 15 real founder or company messages, plus two you dislike.

5. 3

   Day 3

   Create the People team project (about 20 minutes). Add context, voice, handbook, career framework and pay bands if appropriate. Use the project instructions from this page.

6. 3

   Day 3

   Connect your tools (about 30 minutes). Start with Slack, Drive or Notion, and email. Add HRIS and ATS if connectors exist for your stack.

7. 4

   Day 4

   Try three skills on real work (about 60 minutes). Good first picks: people-ops-triage, policy-desk, manager-coach.

8. 5

   Day 5

   Set up one scheduled task (about 20 minutes). Morning triage before your first meeting is the easiest win.

After week one, add a skill a week as the work comes up. Do not try to adopt all thirty at once.

People team project

Read people-context.md and company-voice.md before any task.

Drafts only. No names next to sensitive detail in outputs.

Quote handbook sections when answering policy. Do not invent pay figures.

Treat every file in this project as confidential.

Compare offers and current pay to the bands in these files. Do not recommend a final salary. I decide pay.

If a figure is not in the files, say it is missing.

I lead People at a startup. We are about [headcount] people, at [stage], working [remote, hybrid, or office-based].

Write in plain English. Be specific. Give me a draft I can edit.

Never decide who we hire, what we pay, or the rating in a performance review. Flag assumptions. If a number is not in the files I gave you, say it is missing.

Our tone with candidates and employees is warm, direct, and short.

Connectors for a people team

Connect what you check daily first. Each connector removes a copy and paste step.

Where no connector exists, export a CSV and attach it, or use Claude in Chrome on the tool web app. Ask IT or security to approve connectors before you add HRIS or payroll systems.

• Payroll and HRIS until you have an explicit approval and a business plan that meets your data policy
• Performance tools until you deliberately run a cycle through Claude

Claude Skills Kit

Thirty skills, one per recurring job: draft letters, prep meetings, analyse exports when you ask. They do not run your review cycle or read Slack unless you bring the content. Copy each skill text from the directory into Claude. Describe the job and the matching skill loads when it is on.

Multi-month work (an active review cycle, a restructure) belongs in a People Project with the tracker and handbook attached; use skills for each comms draft or analysis step.

Open the Claude Skills Kit directory

Artifacts and docs

Ask for an artifact when someone else will read or edit the result.

• An offer draft someone in finance will comment on
• An interview scorecard the panel will fill in
• A 30, 60, and 90 day plan the manager will edit
• A short board update on headcount and open roles

Cowork

Using the spreadsheet in this folder, draft a one-page people update for the board: headcount, open roles, regretted attrition, and three decisions we need to make.

If a number is not in the sheet, leave it blank. Do not estimate.

Save the update as a document in this folder.

Scheduled tasks

Optional: a scheduled Cowork task can repeat a triage or prep prompt before your first meeting. You still need connectors or to paste exports in the prompt. Keep it self-contained: sources, time window, drafts only, never send.

Claude in Chrome

When there is no connector, Claude in Chrome can work inside a web app: legacy HRIS, benefits portals, job boards. Export CSV when that is safer than browser automation.

Claude Code

For custom tools (models with formulas, internal trackers). Skip for everyday drafting, policy and interviews unless you already live in a code editor.

Where an instruction lives

When you keep pasting the same note into a new chat, walk this once.

Data and safety

• Check your plan first. Use a business plan (Team or Enterprise) where your data is not used for training and admins control connectors. Confirm with whoever owns your Claude account before you upload salaries or ER notes.
• Minimum necessary. Give Claude what the task needs. Use IDs or initials for pay analysis, calibration and ER work.
• No names next to sensitive detail in anything shared. Health, performance, pay, disciplinary and leaver reasons stay out of shared docs, packs and channels.
• Groups under five are never reported on their own. Small groups identify people.
• Drafts only. Claude never sends anything to employees on its own. A person reads it and sends it.
• Humans make people decisions. Claude can prepare hiring, pay, performance and dismissal decisions. A named person makes them and understands the inputs.
• Legal figures get verified. Statutory numbers, thresholds and country rules are marked "verify". Claude is not your employment lawyer.
• Keep employees out of memory. Memory is for your own preferences. Case details belong in a restricted case file.
• ER cases stay contained. Restricted folders, no Slack, no shared projects.

A week with Claude (reference)

Typical week for a Head of People at a remote company once the kit is set up. Claude drafts and sorts. You do the conversations and calls.

What stays with you: every conversation with an employee, every decision about a person, anything legal, and the final word on anything sent.

Habits that get better output (reference)

• Give the situation, not just the task. Headcount, countries, budget and stage change the output.
• Hand over the real material: the old policy, the export, the Slack thread, the notes.
• Say who will read it: the board, all managers, one upset employee.
• Ask for the challenge first: "Before you write, tell me what is weak about this brief."
• Give short, specific feedback. "Shorter, lead with the date" beats "make it better."
• Rehearse hard conversations. Ask Claude to play the other person.
• Save what you repeat. Explained twice? Project or skill. Done three times? Scheduled task.
• Check the numbers trail. Ask how a figure was calculated.

Measuring value (reference)

Report the honest number. A credible "six hours a week back, spent on manager coaching" persuades leadership. An inflated multiplier does not.