Sam

Overview

Sam brings the elba employee experience into the communication tools your team already uses. It can invite employees to elba, guide them to pending security actions, remind them when work remains, and keep managers informed about overdue training.

Sam can communicate through:

• Email
• Slack
• Microsoft Teams
• Google Chat

Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Chat must be connected to elba before it can be used. Your organization sets a default channel, and each employee can choose their own. If elba cannot reach an employee on those channels, it uses email.

Configure communication preferences

Open Communication Preferences (Settings → Communications) in the elba admin portal and complete the following steps.

1. Choose the default channel

In the Contact step, select the Default communication channel. elba uses it for every employee who has not chosen a channel of their own.

• Choose Email to notify employees by email and direct them to the member portal.
• Choose Slack, Teams, or Google Chat to deliver the experience in that application.
• If the integration is not connected, use the prompt in elba to connect it before continuing.

Employees can choose another connected channel from the member portal, and administrators can set one for them. See Let each employee choose a channel.

2. Configure the invitation

Choose when an employee should receive their invitation after enrollment. Invitations are sent when the employee has an action available, such as a training or security issue.

You can present the invitation as coming from:

• Sam – elba
• Your organization's security sponsor

Review the message preview before continuing so that the sender and wording match the experience you want employees to receive.

3. Set the reminder cadence

Choose how often elba should remind employees who still have pending actions:

• Twice a week
• Weekly
• Every other week
• Monthly

Reminders are only sent when work remains and the employee has not acted recently. Employees who are caught up are not reminded.

When a message is about a training, it states that training's due date: the date it is due before, or was due before once the deadline has passed. This applies to a newly assigned training, to reminders in chat and by email, and to the first invitation. The date is a calendar day in your organization's time zone. The cadence above does not depend on that date.

4. Configure manager escalation

elba detects reporting relationships from your identity provider. Managers see their direct reports in the member portal. Your team → Overdue training adds a training-only list; an organization owner or administrator can explicitly extend that list and its manual reminders to each manager's indirect reports. See Follow overdue training as a manager for the setting, reporting scope and recipient review.

Manual training reminders follow the same per-person 24-hour limit as administrator reminders. The result distinguishes people queued for delivery from those skipped because of a recent request. See Send training or reminders manually.

Choose whether manager updates are sent weekly, every other week, monthly, or never. These automatic updates keep their direct-report population; enabling indirect training follow-up does not widen them or change their cadence.

5. Review and save

Check the recap, then save the configuration. The new settings apply to enrolled employees while preserving their existing history.

Let each employee choose a channel

Each employee can receive elba messages on their own channel instead of the organization default. Employees choose it in the member portal, and administrators can set it for them.

Which channel elba uses

For Sam's messages, such as invitations, reminders, assigned training, and security issues, elba tries in order:

1. The channel the employee chose, if any.
2. The organization default channel set in Communication Preferences.
3. Email, when elba cannot reach the employee on those channels, for example because they have no matching account in that app.

If your organization has not saved a default channel, employees who have not chosen their own channel receive no automated messages, and their channel shows as Default (not set up). Scheduled reminders start only after Communication Preferences are saved.

When an administrator sends a training manually, the channel selected in Send via replaces the organization default for that send. See Send training or reminders manually.

Choose a channel from the member portal

1. Open the user menu from the member portal navigation.
2. Select Communication preferences.
3. Choose Default followed by the organization channel, for example Default (Slack), to follow the organization default. Otherwise, choose Email or a connected app: Slack, Teams, or Google Chat.
4. Select Save.

Communication preferences appears when your organization has connected Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Chat. If an employee's chosen app is disconnected later, it stays visible but cannot be selected again, so they can switch to another channel.

Set channels for employees

Organization owners and administrators can review and change each person's channel in Settings → Team → Users. Use the Notification channel column for one person, the Communication preference filter to find people by channel, and Set communication channel in the bulk action bar for several people. See Manage notification channels.

What Sam can help employees complete

Depending on the modules and playbooks enabled for your organization, Sam can guide employees through:

• Invitations and onboarding to the elba member experience
• Assigned security-awareness training
• Security issues that require employee action
• Browser-extension enrollment reminders

Sam communicates when there is relevant work to complete. Enrolling an employee does not by itself create a message if no action is available.

Troubleshooting

An employee receives email instead of a chat message

Check the employee's Notification channel in Settings → Team → Users. Then check that the employee has an active account in that communication tool and that its email address matches the employee record in elba. Email is used as the fallback when elba cannot reach the employee on their own channel or on the organization default.

An employee cannot find Communication preferences

The Communication preferences item appears in the member portal only when Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Chat is connected to elba. Without a connected chat app, employees are contacted by email.

An employee receives no invitation or reminder

Confirm that:

1. The employee is enrolled in elba.
2. The employee has a pending action.
3. Communication Preferences have been saved.
4. The selected integration is connected.

A manager cannot see a direct report

Manager relationships come from your identity provider. Check the reporting relationship there, then allow the connected source to synchronize with elba.