We have been tracking our customers’ COVID-19 data for 7 weeks now. Each week the coronavirus-related case data (employee questions, inquiries and requests) and conversations with our customers reveals new trends, insights, and stories that enable us, and HR teams, to understand what is happening as a result of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on organizations and their employees.

As of the end of March 2020, more than 846,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in over 200 countries and territories, resulting in approximately 41,000 deaths. 

Traditionally, HR Helpdesk software was used by HR Service Advisers and their managers to track and manage employee inquiries, issues and questions coming into HR from the business. Employees would call or email HR, and the Adviser would use the HR Helpdesk software to log and track details of the employee’s inquiry. The HR Manager would then use the Reporting functionality to monitor KPIs, such as call volume, number of cases open/ closed, and call handle time. From a technical standpoint, the HR Helpdesk included a software interface (or Console) with searchable Knowledge Base, which enabled HR to search and locate answers to employee questions quickly and efficiently. In recent years, the traditional HR Helpdesk has evolved into a far more sophisticated HR Service Delivery solution. For example, HR Helpdesk software now incorporates an Employee Portal application with ‘self-serve’ functionality, making a searchable Knowledge Base available to all employees.

Do you use an HR Case Management or HR Helpdesk tool to enable HR to deliver services to your employees? Are you benefiting from the HR Service Level Agreements (SLA) functionality that these systems provide? If not, you are missing an opportunity to improve services for your employees and increase HR productivity.