Open and shut cases: HR should be a strategic force, not a backlog

Resolving employees’ human resources (HR)-related queries can be costly and time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be.

Each HR professional spends 10-15 hours per week on average answering employees’ questions. This means companies are spending around $300-$450 per HR staff member weekly, not to mention the productivity lost on higher-value tasks.

For large organizations, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recommends one HR person for every 150 employees. For a company with 10,000 employees, that means 60 HR professionals—36,000 hours—and about a million dollars spent every year just answering questions.

A million dollars' worth of company growth is a better investment.

HR can use 36,000 hours for strategic initiatives such as compliance, talent development, and promoting employee well-being to improve morale, boost retention, and save the company millions in the long run.

What is HR?

Human resources (HR) supports the organization and its staff throughout the employee life cycle. This includes recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and managing end-of-career tasks. HR also enforces policies, oversees benefits administration, processes payroll, and handles employee relations.

Why ask HR questions?

Employees query HR about a wide range of topics. If you can think it, they will ask it.

 

Common employee questions

What is an HR ticket?

While employees submit IT support tickets to their company’s IT helpdesk for technology issues, they submit HR tickets for employment-related questions.

The key difference is the personalized nature of HR tickets. They address specific employee concerns and often require role-specific solutions from HR.

While IT tickets are typically called “incidents”, HR tickets are known as “cases.”

What are HR ticketing systems?

An HR ticketing system is a centralized platform that HR support teams use to manage employees’ questions. Each question is a "case."

HR experts use these systems to track, manage, resolve, and analyze cases—hence the common industry term "HR case management."

Who asks questions?

In strategic case routing, the first step is matching the questioner's position with the right responder.

• Employees: Employees ask questions about HR-related issues affecting themselves.
  • Example: Joe Schmoe wants to know how to report workplace harassment.

• Managers: Managers submit concerns about the employees they manage.
  • Example: Joe Schmoe's manager asks how to handle Joe's harassment matter.
• Field representatives: Directors, VPs, HR personnel—and such—report issues about the employees within their jurisdiction whom they do not manage directly.
  • Example: The vice-president of Joe Schmoe's department asks about the harassment policy.
  • Example: The HR manager requests the harassment procedure from corporate HR.

Who answers questions?

Role-based case management systems match users' cases with service center roles to route them to the right resources automatically.

• Service agents address employees' cases.
• Service managers handle managers' cases.
• Service field representatives manage field representatives' cases.

First contact

The top HR case management systems provide multiple ways for users to contact the service center—instead of just posting a phone number.

HR case management application

Employees with questions log into the service center portal and use a tool to submit a case form.

Position-based permissions ensure only authorized employees can access the tools for their specific job roles.

For example:

• Ask HR is visible to employees, managers, and HR.
• Ask HR for Managers and Ask HR for HR never appear in employees' view.
• Ask HR for HR never appears in managers' view.

Position-specific tools for self-service users in HR case management systems

Email channel

• Employees can send questions to the service center via email.
• HR can interact with external recruiters and job candidates.
• External parties (e.g., recruiters and job candidates) do not need access to the service center.
• HR can easily track all interactions.

Telephony

Automate call routing via telephony integrations. This system connects the company’s call center phone switch to the HR case management application to create a one-touch caller lookup process.

Users connect to the service center phone switch, which directs calls to the proper agents. Users provide their caller IDs, which agents enter into the system to retrieve their records.

Creating cases

Well-organized HR service centers provide role-specific, dynamic tools for submitting questions. The following defines ideal case creation capabilities.

Self-service

Employees complete case submission forms themselves for their questions. Role-based case creation tools are position-specific for automatic routing to the right service center roles. Only relevant staff can view sensitive queries—and their solutions—ensuring confidentiality.

• Ask HR
• Ask HR for Managers
• Ask HR for HR

Service user cases

Service users create cases on employees’ behalf. Their assigned roles and the cases they create correspond with employee’s position:

• Employees > Service agents
• Managers > Service managers
• Field representatives > Service field representatives

Employee positions and HR case management service user roles

Case submission forms

To ensure the system routes cases to the most suitable agents, case submission forms require users to select a topic, category, and subcategory, then enter a description of their issue.

For example:

• Topic > Benefits
• Category > Health
• Subcategory > Medical
• Issue > What is the PPO plan’s out-of-pocket maximum?

Quick cases

Dynamic case submission forms include an issues list which updates based on the selected topic.

When users select an issue, the category, and subcategory fields populate automatically. Users can submit cases quickly and accurately. A quick case reduces case submission time from two minutes to 15 seconds on average. This strategy ensures cases land in the right service group's queue.

Email channel

Email channels enable users to interact with agents via email without accessing the service center portal. HR teams can engage with external recruiters and candidates, track background checks, and schedule interviews, eliminating the need for costly Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). When a user sends an email to the service center, the system automatically creates a case.

Similarly, employees can complete out online forms that trigger email alerts to the system, which then generate cases.

Example: Joe Schmoe's manager uses the company's electronic reporting form to document his harassment complaint and selects "Employee Relations" in the topic menu. The HR case management system generates a case and sends it to the Employee Relations team. If Joe changes the topic to "Payroll", the case routes to the payroll experts' queue.

Telephony

The system identifies employees’ user IDs which prompts agents to create cases on employees’ behalf.

Without telephony, agents must manually validate caller identities, search for their records, and identify the right expert.

Routing cases

Thousands of questions. Hundreds of experts.

Intelligent routing ensures the right experts receive the right cases. Routing criteria should align with one or more of the following:

• Employee attributes, e.g., location, department, position.
• Agent criteria, e.g., location, HR knowledge, tier (level of expertise).
• Case types, e.g., topics, subjects, categories, and subcategories.

Triaged cases bypass standard routing for immediate responses to critical risks related to compliance, safety, and legal exposure—such as harassment complaints.

Solving cases

The best HR case management systems offer multiple options for addressing and resolving cases.

Self-service and service user cases

Employees and agents can track open cases and add notes, URLs, screenshots, and files to clarify issues and resolutions. The system records all updates directly on the case form.

Chat channel

Employees chat with agents about their cases. Agents can add an expert to the session to resolve the case quickly. The case retains copies of all chat dialogues.

Email channel

Agents and employees discuss cases via email. The case form stores copies of all messages and email attachments.

Telephony

Agents can prompt the system to display the caller’s profile and case history during calls.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

For cases involving regulatory compliance, links to relevant SOPs appear based on the case topic to ensure agents have the necessary guidelines.

Closing cases

Keeping the home stretch clear is key.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Assigning SLAs to time-sensitive cases ensures agents receive deadline alerts for when cases must be closed.

Resolution templates

For common queries, agents can select a resolution template in the close case form. The resolution field populates automatically, eliminating the need for manual text entry. The system then emails the solution to the employee.

Auto-close rules

Auto-close rules tidy analytics by removing long-abandoned cases from open case logs.

Rating cases

Feedback is invaluable.

Survey links in closed case notifications allow employees to rate the service they received. The best systems prevent agents from completing these surveys themselves.

Survey results provide managers insights into agent performance and help administrators monitor overall service center effectiveness.

Analyzing cases

Effective service centers rely on robust analytics, user-friendly dashboards, and reliable reporting to support:

• Agents tracking their caseloads, reviewing survey responses, and adhering to SLAs
• Managers addressing team-related issues
• Administrators evaluating the service center’s overall performance

Driving to Tier 1

• Tier 1: HR Case Management Agents
• Tier 2: HR SMEs
• Tier 3: “Who You Know”

HR support tiers and costs

Driving to Tier 0

Integrating the HR case management service center portal with a searchable knowledge base enables employees to find answers independently without creating cases.

Employees can either:

• Discover answers directly within the knowledgebase in the service center portal.
• Access solutions in the case form itself, where knowledgebase search results display after selecting a topic—removing the need to submit a case.

The best case is no case.

Infor HR Case Management

Infor™ HR Case Management is a secure, configurable service center application designed to help HR professionals efficiently manage, track, and respond to inquiries—bringing you closer to a Tier 1 support model.

Since launching one of the first HR-specific ticketing systems in 2007, Infor’s HR Service Delivery model has been the forefront of HR support. With over 17 years of experience, simplified implementation, and flexible configurability, Infor HR Case Management remains one of the most cost-effective HR support solutions available.

Maximum return on Investment (ROI)

Success is built into the product itself:

• Drive to Tier 1: Achieve 90%+ first call resolution
• Drive to Tier 0: Realize up to 97.2% first call resolution (see case study)

Infor™ HR Case Management: The streamlined, people-first solution for smarter HR support.