# People playbook URL: /workflows/people/playbook ยท Id: `page:workflows/people/playbook` > How the People Team staffs every Role with Agents from the first minute, adds Humans only where the record shows the need, and pays them. Every [Role](/business/nouns/role) in a [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) has a [Worker](/business/nouns/worker) from its first minute, and most Workers are [Agents](/business/nouns/agent). The [People Team](/agents/people) decides who fills each Role, adds a [Human](/business/nouns/human) only where the record shows the need, and pays them. ## Every Role starts staffed [Staff roles](/workflows/processes/staffing/staff-roles) runs when a Startup is created. It reads the Roles in the Startup's [Startup Template](/business/nouns/startup-template), hires a default Agent into each, and grants each Role its [Permissions](/business/nouns/permission) and [Limits](/business/nouns/limit). Filling a Role is the grant; there is no separate membership record. The Role holds the authority, so changing its Worker changes nothing outside it. A Human who takes over the [Billing Specialist](/agents/finance/billing-specialist) Role calls the same [Verbs](/business/nouns/verb), within the same Limits, through the same [Interfaces](/business/nouns/interface). Take an autonomous Startup that sells commercial lease comparables as an API. Every Role is held by an Agent, and no Human works there. The People Team's recurring work is a monthly review of each Role's Permissions. ## Hire an agent Each Role offers three choices. Keep the default Agent, seat another Agent, including [one the founder brings](/agents/bring-your-own-agent), or seat a Human. The default Agents are Agent [Products](/business/nouns/product), hired into Roles the way any Worker is. One Agent identity holds Roles in many Startups. Each Role carries its own [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate), Permissions, and [Memory](/business/nouns/memory), so nothing it learns in one Startup reaches another. A seated Agent is a team member, wherever it came from. It acts under the Startup's Permissions, appears on its org chart, and its [Actions](/business/nouns/action) are by that Startup. An outcome ordered from another Startup under an [Agreement](/business/nouns/agreement) is different. The buyer accepts the result and never directs the Worker. Ordered work is a supplier's, not a teammate's. ## When a Startup needs a Human A Human joins for one of two reasons: the law requires a person, or the record shows a gap the Agents cannot close. The legal floor decides the first. A [Reserved Act](/business/nouns/reserved-act) needs a [Credential](/business/nouns/credential) holder, and a board vote needs directors. At a tax-preparation Startup, Agents gather documents and draft returns, but a credentialed preparer signs each one. The record decides the second. The [Recruiter](/agents/people/recruiter) reads eval pass rates, [Approvals](/business/nouns/approval) that waited on a person, and [Metrics](/business/nouns/metric) that stall. A gap past its threshold opens an [Opening](/business/nouns/opening) with a kind and a reason, so nobody writes a job description. [Recruiting](/agents/recruiting) explains how the need is computed and how [Candidates](/business/nouns/candidate) are tested. ## From Candidate to teammate A Candidate proves fit on paid real work from the Role's backlog. The incumbent Agent runs the same work in shadow, and the Role's [Evaluators](/business/nouns/evaluator) grade both blind. The result is a difference per Verb, which becomes the Human's share of the Role. The Human then joins a Role the Agent keeps running. [Joining](/agents/joining) covers the briefing and how authority is earned. [Sharing a Role](/agents/sharing-a-role) covers the split and lanes, and the chapter on [handoffs](/agents/handoffs) what crosses between Workers. The first Human changes the operating model. An [autonomous](/agents/operating-models/autonomous) Startup with a floor holder stays autonomous. A founder makes it [single-human](/agents/operating-models/single-human), and a second founder or an employee makes it [multi-human](/agents/operating-models/multi-human). ## Paying people [Pay people](/workflows/processes/payroll/pay-people) runs monthly. It totals each Human's pay for the [Period](/business/nouns/period), withholds the taxes each jurisdiction requires, pays, and files the payroll returns. Each payment posts as a [Transaction](/business/nouns/transaction). Not everyone is on payroll. [Suppliers](/business/nouns/supplier) in a Startup's human supply are paid per confirmed [Order](/business/nouns/order) by the [Treasurer](/agents/finance/treasurer). Floor holders are paid per act, and cofounders are paid in equity under their Agreement. ## Keeping Roles current Roles change as the Startup grows, and the [People Lead](/agents/people/people-lead) keeps each Role's instructions, Permissions, and Limits current. The [Security Engineer](/agents/engineering/security-engineer) removes any Permission unused for 30 days. Any widening needs a recorded [Decision](/business/nouns/decision). When a Worker leaves a Role, their Mandate ends with it, and the Role's Agent takes back the work. The record of what they did stays forever. ## Next - [People Team](/agents/people): who staffs it, what runs when, and what it measures. - [Role agents](/agents/role-agents): the default Agent in every Role. - [Legal playbook](/workflows/legal/playbook): the acts that need a Human.