How it works · People
What employees and managers do for themselves, and what stays with HR.
The employee portal and the concierge. What employees do themselves, from time off and payslips to their own details, what managers do for their team, and what stays with HR in the console.
The stages, and who acts at each
Every employee has a portal at your organisation's own andteam address, built for phones first, and a concierge beside every page of it. Employees see their own record and act on it: they book time off, read payslips, update their details, work on their goals and courses, and ask HR for help. Managers act for their team from the same place. HR works in the console, and the portal never shows anyone more than their role allows.
Every day
- Step 1 of 10.andteamLeads Home with the one moment that matters today, and lists what needs the personQuiet days show no celebrations
- Step 2 of 10.EmployeeWorks through their inbox, one line per task
Doing it themselves
- Step 3 of 10.EmployeeRequests time off, or asks the concierge to
- Step 4 of 10.ManagerApproves it from the inboxOr a delegate does, while the manager is away
- Step 5 of 10.EmployeeUpdates their own details, field by fieldFields owned by a connected HRIS are read-only
- Step 6 of 10.andteamRecords the change, and emails the person when a sensitive detail changes
- Step 7 of 10.EmployeeReads payslips, documents, goals and courses
Asking for help
- Step 8 of 10.EmployeeAsks the concierge a question
- Step 9 of 10.andteamAnswers from your own policies, citing the page
- Step 10 of 10.HRPicks up anything the concierge cannot close, as a help case
Roles and permissions
- Employees see only their own record: their details, time off, pay and payslips, documents, goals and reviews, courses and help cases. Nothing in the address bar opens anyone else’s.
- Managers get a Team area once they have a direct report. They see their team, a team calendar, their team’s goals and reviews, and approvals in their inbox. They never see a report’s pay, bank details, identity or employment equity data on those pages.
- Delegates act for a manager while they are away, between the dates the manager sets. Approvals show “on behalf of”, and a delegate never acts on their own record.
- HR works in the console. Managers and employees never open it.
Rules and settings
- Which details an employee can edit is your choice, field by field. Everything else is edited by HR. Fields supplied by a connected HRIS are read-only in andteam and corrected at the source.
- Sensitive details are protected after the change too. When an existing value such as a bank account changes, the change is recorded and the employee is told by email, to their personal address first, so a change they did not make is caught.
- Open roles show internal vacancies in the employee’s organisation. Applying does not tell their manager.
- Modules decide what appears. A module your organisation does not take is hidden from the portal, not greyed out.
- The concierge is off until you switch it on. You can switch off individual skills or whole areas, name it, and set its greeting.
What andteam does, and what people decide
andteam decides what Home shows: one moment when there is one, such as a first day, payday, an anniversary or a released increase, and the person’s tasks one line each. Moments carry no figures: payday says the payslip is here, not the amount. For anyone on bereavement leave, under notice or on an improvement plan, Home is quiet, with no celebrations or team news. When andteam cannot tell, it keeps the day quiet.
People decide everything else. Employees choose what to request and what to change. Managers approve or decline. HR decides what employees may edit and what the concierge may do.
Where AI helps. The concierge answers questions from your own policies and does what the person could do themselves, such as booking leave, posting a goal update or asking for a proof-of-employment letter. Every action is shown first as a card built by andteam, and only Confirm carries it out. The AI never sees ID numbers, bank or tax details, employment equity data, addresses, health information or pay figures. A message about health, a grievance or harassment gets a fixed reply and goes to HR in confidence, never to the reporting line.
Notifications and reminders
- A daily digest lists what needs the person’s attention, and is sent only on a day when something new has arrived. A single item comes as a single notice.
- Approvers are reminded as their deadlines near, and overdue approvals escalate.
- There is no notification bell to clear: the inbox is the list.
South African specifics
The concierge runs on Claude on Google Vertex AI, which may process a question outside South Africa. Switching it on is your organisation’s decision under POPIA section 72, and andteam records who accepted the cross-border position and when. On WhatsApp the concierge carries no health details, ID, bank or tax details, and no pay figures unless you switch them on. Employees can ask for a copy of everything held about them, or for a correction, and the request goes to your Information Officer.
For developers
The portal and the concierge have no public API of their own. The employee record they show is in the API: see List employees, Get one employee and Employee events.
Step-by-step help for every screen is in the andteam help centre, inside the product.