Entering buddy or other role info through the dashboard at donut.ai is always an option for admins, but we wanted to make it easy for other members of your team to provide this information as well.
What is the Role Picker?
The Role Picker is a feature that allows any member of the team to assign a new hire's buddy, or any other role, right from Slack.
The role assigner will receive a direct message from Donut when a new hire is added to the dashboard (most often before the new hire's start date) asking them who should be their buddy. The role assigner can choose the correct team member through a drop-down menu right in the direct message.
How Can I Activate the Role Picker?
Role Picker is a template-specific setting. To activate, log into your dashboard at donut.ai.
Find the template for which you'd like to activate Role Picker, and select the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the template to access settings.
Select the "Roles" tab, and you'll see a list of different roles on your team, along with options on how to assign them, including:
Chosen on New Hires screen (default)
This is the default setting, and how you are likely assigning roles today if you're not using Role Picker.
Chosen by another role
If you select this option, Donut will direct message a role rather than the same person every time.
For example, if you tell Donut that a new hire's manager will assign their buddy, Donut will direct message the new hire's respective manager each time.
This is a good option for teams that have multiple departments or locations.
Chosen by a specific person
If you select this option, Donut will direct message the same person every time. This is a good option if there is one point person in HR or people ops that assigns buddies or other roles, regardless of the new hire's department or location.
Random person from a channel
If you'd like to assign the role randomly, Donut can take care of that for you. Just create a public channel in your Slack team, and ask Donut to choose an onboarding buddy, or any other role, like lunch buddy or pitch practice partner, from there.
Note that the channel must be public in order for Donut to be able to pull a random volunteer, though you do not have to invite everyone on your Slack team to join it.