# Forematter for new starters

> For new starters: ask anything, see where each answer came from, get routed to the right person, and know exactly who can read what you ask.

Source: https://forematter.com/for-new-starters/
Updated: 2026-09-28

## You're not bothering anyone

That's kind of the whole point.

Forematter is a company assistant your employer can set up for the questions you'd otherwise sit on for days, because you don't want to be the person who asks too much in week one. You ask in plain English. It answers from documents the company has actually approved. And if it can't answer properly, it says so and gets your question to whoever owns that bit of the business, or to your manager. Simple, really.

## What it actually does

**You ask, it answers, and it shows its working.** Every answer comes with the source document, when that document was last updated, and who owns it. So you're never just taking its word for something: you can see how current the information is and judge for yourself.

**When it doesn't know, it doesn't guess.** If the evidence isn't good enough, it tells you so and routes the question to the right person. Their reply lands back in the same conversation, so you're not chasing it across three chat threads and an inbox.

**Your first weeks are paced, not dumped on you.** Onboarding runs as short modules built from the company's own documents: explainers, meet-the-team pieces, quick checks, policy acknowledgements and small tasks, spread across your first weeks rather than thrown at you on day one. When you acknowledge a policy, the exact wording and version you saw is recorded, which, honestly, protects you as much as anyone.

**You can pick up old conversations.** Go back and carry on where you left off. No need to re-ask something you already asked in your first week.

**There's a map of who owns what.** Who approves the expenses tool, who owns which policy, who's who on your team. Useful for the questions Forematter can't answer itself.

**You see what applies to you.** Some documents are only shown to the people they're for, by department, role, location or seniority.

## The bit people actually worry about

*Who can see what I ask?* By default, nobody else. Your conversations are private to you. A company can choose to switch on visibility for its admins and your own line manager, but only after you've been clearly told that's happening, and even then it only covers what you ask from that point on, not your history. You can also see every time someone reads one of your conversations, who it was and when. No silent reading over your shoulder.

*Can other colleagues read them?* Never. Not casually, not by accident. That one isn't adjustable.

*Does Forematter train AI models on my questions?* No. Forematter never uses company content, including what you ask, to train AI models.

*Where's the data kept?* In the UK.

## Where it's at

Forematter is built and tested, and the parts described above work as described. It's still in development and not open to companies yet, so no employer is running it for new starters today. If your future employer does set it up, this page is what you can expect.