(Week-ending 07/11/2020 - week 19)
Number of Employee Coronavirus Questions into HR Increases for Second Week in a Row
Employee questions into HR are on the increase again. Last week by 8.4%, from 11,781 cases to 12,768.
As expressed in previous weeks blog posts, the impact of COVID-19 for employees and HR teams is not going away anytime soon. As a result, HR need solutions to enable it to operate effectively in a continuing crisis.
We recently spoke with several of our enterprise customers (1000+ employees), and discovered that Case Management technology combined with advanced communication platforms such as an Employee Portal (sometimes referred to as an HR Portal), HR Knowledge Management and HR Reporting & Analytics applications, are helping HR teams manage in a crisis. Not only by providing the technical capabilities to help HR resolve employee questions faster, but also by enabling once office-bound staff, to easily transition to remote working - particularly by providing the right collaboration tools, such as Team Queues, multi-level case management and Automated Workflows.
Click the 5 Insights below to find out how national and global corporations are utilizing technology to effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Note: Employee cases refer to employee questions, inquiries and requests that are logged as “cases” in the Dovetail HR Case Management solution).
Insight 1 - 8.4% Increase in Number of Employee Coronavirus-related Questions into HR
Insight 2 - Increase in Employee Questions into HR at Weekend
Insight 3 - Rate of Closing Employee Coronavirus-related Questions Averages 72%
Insight 4 - Over 90% of Employee Questions into HR Created Via Email and Phone
Insight 5 - COVID-19 Case-Type Word Cloud Represents The New Reality
Insight 1 - 8.4% Increase in Number of Employee Coronavirus-related Questions into HR
The chart below tells a multi-faceted story. It is one of HR experiencing and coping with sudden and enormous increases of employee case workload (Wk 1 - Wk 14), one of hope as employee questions into HR drastically decline (Wk 14 - Wk 16), and one of the persistent ongoing effects of COVID-19 on employees, HR and their organizations. Perhaps this last story is the one that reflects the new ongoing reality.
However, we should also look at the story of success. In the chart below we see the huge quantity of employee questions (391,357), the majority of which, HR teams have closed at a rapid rate.
When we spoke with our clients, we were glad to discover that they were to able to respond immediately to the tsunami of case load caused by the pandemic, taking advantage of Dovetail's intuitive design to adapt to the new environment and communicate Coronavirus-related information to employees and manage and close cases faster.
To find out more about how Dovetail is helping HR teams manage in a crisis click here.
Insight 2 - Increase in Employee Questions into HR at the Weekend
Employee questions into HR increased again last week. This supports our belief that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees and HR teams are here to stay.
This is why now is the time for organizations to adopt technology that has been built specifically to make life easier for HR teams, and improve the employee experience. In doing so, they will not only be able to respond to the current crisis, but also to futures crises, such as a second wave of coronavirus, or even natural disasters.
Click here for a demo of the latest in HR and Employee Experience technology.
Insight 3 - Rate of Closing Employee Coronavirus-related Questions Averages 72%
The orange color in the bar chart above shows those employee cases that have not been closed on that day. It is apparent that a greater proportion of these cases were not closed last week, compared with previous weeks. We believe this is an indication of the complexity of calls that are coming into HR, which are more difficult and time consuming to resolve.
One of the greatest benefits HR teams experience from using a case management system, rather than spreadsheet trackers and shared inboxes to manage employee requests, come from its case tracking and collaboration features. These features make it easier to manage the back and forth flow of complex questions from employee to HR, until there is a resolution, and the case is closed.
Dovetail HR Case Management has these capabilities.
Insight 4 - Over 90% of Employee Questions into HR Created Via Email and Phone
HR Service Delivery is all about creating positive employee experiences by delivering high quality services to employees. One way HR can generate outstanding service, is by offering a multitude of communication channels, as employees appreciate having a choice of channels when communicating with HR.
With over 90% of employee questions into HR created via Email and Phone, it is clear that these channels are employees' preferred channels for communicating their coronavirus-related questions to HR.
We believe this is because employee questions that are related to coronavirus can be complex, requiring the employee to ask multiple questions and receive multiple answers before a resolution is found. Email and Phone are proving to be best suited for this type of communication.
Insight 5 - COVID-19 Case-Type Word Cloud Represents The New Reality
Google dictionary defines 'reality' as 'the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them'.
The Employee Case-Type Word Cloud (below) tries to capture in an image, the reality facing employees and HR teams today. It does this by counting the frequency of employee question types (cases) and then representing them in one visual picture.
Over the past 14 weeks the image has not significantly changed. It would appear the words COVID, Response, App and others, such as epidemics, disaster, and health, are words that will describe the 'state of things' for some time to come.
Note: Case Types categorize employee coronavirus questions and are used in advanced HR Reporting & Analytics to help HR understand employees' needs and behaviors better, while providing additional insight into what is happening in their organization.
Conclusion
Employee questions into HR are on the rise again with an 8.4% increase last week, compared with the previous week's total.
We are finding our customers are managing well, optimizing the features of Dovetail's applications, including HR Case Management, Employee Portal, HR Knowledge Management and HR Reporting & Analytics to respond during a crisis that has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Click here to find out more about how our technology can help you, and your HR teams, respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
To stay updated on how COVID-19 is impacting HR teams, Click here to view Dovetail’s Daily Updates for HR on the coronavirus.
