Build a Policy Q&A Assistant from the Handbook

Tier: Core · Hands-on time: ~35 minutes · Tools: NotebookLM, Google Docs, Claude

Every HR, ops, and office-management inbox runs on the same twenty questions, and the answers are all in a handbook nobody reads. The fix is not a chatbot that sounds confident — it's a grounded assistant that quotes the actual clause or admits the handbook is silent. NotebookLM's source-locked design does the first part; your setup and testing enforce the second.

When to use — and when not to

• The repeat-question streamleave carryover, expense limits, remote-work rules, probation terms: questions with a written answer someone must currently find by hand.
• Your own policy lookupsyou're the one answering, and you want the clause and page number in seconds instead of a ctrl-F safari across six PDFs.
• Onboarding supportnew joiners ask the most questions and know least about where answers live; a notebook shared with them absorbs the long tail.

And when not to:

• Case-specific judgment calls. "Can I take leave during my notice period given my situation?" involves discretion, precedent, and a manager's decision. The assistant serves the written rule; humans serve the exception.
• Policies in flux. Mid-rewrite is the worst time to freeze sources into a notebook — you'll confidently serve the old rule. Wait for the published version, then rebuild.
• Legal or medical questions wearing a policy costume. Anything touching disciplinary action, accommodations, or legal rights goes to HR or counsel directly. Wire that into the refusal rules below.

The recipe

1. 1.

   Assemble the authoritative source set (8 minutes). Collect the current handbook, plus the satellite policies people actually ask about: expenses, leave, travel, IT acceptable use, remote work. Current versions only — delete drafts and superseded copies from the set, because the assistant cannot know which of two conflicting PDFs is the live one. Confirm each doc has page numbers or numbered sections; citations need addresses.

2. 2.

   Build the notebook. In NotebookLM, create a notebook named for its audience and date — "HR Policy Assistant — 2026 Q3 handbook" — and upload the sources. Open with three warm-up questions you know the answers to and check the citations point where they should. Then pin the ground rules by asking them as your first saved note:

   Copy

   Ground rules for this notebook (apply to every answer):
   1. Answer ONLY from the uploaded sources. For every claim, cite
      the document and section/page.
   2. Quote the operative sentence verbatim, then explain it in
      plain language.
   3. If the sources do not answer the question, say exactly:
      "The handbook does not cover this — please contact HR." Do not
      reason from general knowledge about how companies usually work.
   4. If two sources conflict, show both clauses and say they
      conflict — do not pick one.
   5. For questions about disciplinary matters, accommodations, or
      legal rights, always refer to HR regardless of what the
      sources say.
   

3. 3.

   Red-team the refusal behaviour (10 minutes — the step that matters most). Ask five questions the handbook answers, and check each citation against the actual document. Then ask five it doesn't answer — "can I expense a gym membership?" when the policy is silent, "what's the policy on sabbaticals?" when none exists. The assistant must refuse, not improvise a plausible corporate-sounding answer. A sample of what passing looks like:

   Copy

   Q: How many days of annual leave carry over?
   A: Up to 5 days may be carried into Q1 and must be used by March
   31 — "a maximum of five (5) accrued days may be carried forward"
   (Employee Handbook, §4.3, p. 22). Carryover beyond 5 days requires
   director approval (§4.3.1).
   
   Q: What is the sabbatical policy?
   A: The handbook does not cover this — please contact HR.
   

   Any invented answer means tightening the ground-rules note and retesting. Do not share a notebook that failed a refusal test.

4. 4.

   Package the answers people will reuse. For the top ten questions, save the notebook's best cited answers into a Google Doc FAQ — question, verbatim clause, citation, plain-language note. The FAQ handles the head of the distribution instantly; the notebook handles the tail interactively.

5. 5.

   Share with a boundary statement, and set an expiry. Share the notebook (or the answers workflow) with a one-line frame: "Cited answers from the current handbook — not HR advice; exceptions and personal cases go to HR." Put a review date in your calendar for the next policy revision: a grounded assistant is only as current as its sources, and a stale one is worse than none because it's confidently wrong.

Make it yours

• NotebookLM as the defaultsource-grounding and inline citations are built in, and the free tier covers a handbook-sized source set. Its "sources only" behaviour is the feature; everything else is configuration.
• Claude with Projects for richer drafting: upload the same policy set to a Claude Project with the step-2 ground rules as project instructions. Better when answers must become something — a policy-summary email, a comparison table — but you must enforce the citation-and-refusal discipline through instructions, and spot-check harder.
• Google Docs as the distribution layer: many colleagues will never open a notebook. The cited FAQ doc, linked from your intranet page and refreshed when sources change, is how the assistant's answers reach the people who just want to search a page.

Quality check

• Five known-answer questions returned correct, verifiable citationschecked against the real page numbers.
• Five not-covered questions were refused, verbatim per the ground rules — zero improvised policy.
• Sources are current versions onlyno drafts, no superseded PDFs in the notebook.
• Escalation triggers workdisciplinary/accommodation questions route to HR even when a clause exists.
• A review date existsthe notebook dies or gets rebuilt when the handbook changes.