Ask Hera
Ask Hera is the conversational side of the HR Tool's AI. You type a question in plain language and Hera answers from your real HR data — leave balances, policies, employee details — and shows you which records it used.
The split introduced in Phase 5 is worth holding onto: Hera answers questions, agents propose changes.
Asking a question
Type into the box at the bottom — its prompt reads "Ask a question, or tell it what to do…" — and send.
If you're not sure where to start, Hera offers suggested questions such as:
- How much leave do I have left?
- Show my upcoming shifts
- Show my pending approvals
- What else needs my attention today?
Reading an answer
Hera doesn't just reply in prose. Depending on the question, the answer comes back with supporting panels:
| Panel | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Sources | The records the answer was drawn from — check this before acting on an answer |
| Key points | The answer reduced to its essentials |
| Your leave balances | Live balances, when the question is about leave |
| Status | The state of the thing you asked about |
| Type, Dates, Employee | Details of the specific record, where one applies |
Sources is the panel that makes an answer verifiable. If an answer will drive a decision — approving something, telling an employee a figure — open Sources and confirm it came from the record you expect.
Conversations
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| New chat | Starts a fresh conversation |
| Recent chats | Your earlier conversations. Before you've had any it reads "Start a conversation to see history here." |
Attaching a CV
The composer accepts a file via Attach a résumé (PDF, DOC, DOCX), with Remove attachment to clear it.
Attaching a CV and asking Hera to turn it into a candidate or an employee record is still being worked on — it is not a finished feature yet. Expect uneven results until it is announced as ready, and keep creating candidates and employees the normal way in the meantime. See Candidates Management and Employee Management.
If an answer fails
Hera will occasionally return "Sorry, I was unable to get a response. Please try again." or "Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again."
Both mean the request did not complete — nothing was changed in your HR data. Send the question again.
If every AI provider behind Hera is unreachable, you'll instead see a plain notice — "⚠️ I can't reach my AI service right now, so I can't look anything up in your live HR data this turn. Please try again in a few minutes — if it keeps saying this, let your ShiftCare administrator know." — followed by pointers to where Leave Management, Performance Review, Org Chart, Contracts & Documents and Training Management live, so you're not stuck while the AI is down.
What powers it
A Powered by marker in the header shows the engine. Hovering it reads "This company has connected Hera to Xagent" — all Phase 5 AI, Hera included, runs on Xagent.
- AI Agents — the agents that propose changes, and the approval Inbox
- People — the AI-side org view
- What's New: Phase 5 — the release summary