If your HR and People Ops teams are taking questions from employees via email, over the phone, over messaging applications, or at the water cooler, it might be time to consider a more centralized and standardized solution like an employee helpdesk.
In this blog post, we’ll share everything you need to know about employee helpdesk software, including why they’re beneficial for HR and People Ops teams and a must-have for companies.
Build better HR workflows with theDefinitive Guide to HR Workflow ManagementDownload nowWhat is an employee helpdesk?The term ‘employee helpdesk‘ (also known as an HR helpdesk) refers to ticket or request management software that centralizes employee questions or requests, streamlines responses or resolutions, and adds a layer of visibility between request and resolution.
An employee helpdesk provides employees with a clear, standardized, and accessible way to submit questions or requests about payroll, benefits, timekeeping, leaves of absence, or any other HR-related issue.
For HR and People Ops teams, an internal helpdesk organizes those questions or requests and automates manual and time-consuming administrative work. This ensures all tickets are directed to the appropriate team and resolved in a timely, accurate, and transparent manner, so leaders have insight into the productivity and efficiency of HR processes.
What are the essential components of an employee helpdesk?To create an employee helpdesk that operates like a well-oiled machine, look for a software solution that:
Offers single sign on for employee convenienceAutomates ticket assignment, ensuring tickets are directed to the team or team member who can resolve themGives employees more than one way to submit a ticket (chat, email, portal) to meet their needsoffer 24/7 accessibilityInclude an internal knowledge base that offers employees quick access to commonly requested documents, policies, and formsGive managers, HR business partners, and People Ops teams the option to open a ticket on behalf of someone elseTracks metrics — like first contact resolution, days to resolution, and volume by topic or assignment group — to gain valuable insights into process challenges and improvement opportunitiesAutomatically notifies employees when their ticket has been updated or closedWhat are the advantages of having an employee helpdesk?The key benefit of having an internal helpdesk is the ability to automate ticket creation and management. This offers a myriad of benefits for employers, HR and People Ops teams, and employees. For example, employee helpdesk software:
Prevents employee requests from being forgotten or ignoredGives the requestor insight into progress on their ticket as it moves through stages of resolutionAllows for communication between HR business partners and employees who may work at different times of dayAllows businesses to track trends, like a rise in PTO accrual issues or timekeeping errors, and respond accordinglyLeads to better, more strategic data-driven policy and process decisionsImproves overall employee satisfaction by streamlining access to the help they needWhat kinds of processes can be managed with a helpdesk?Practically every type of HR process can benefit from an employee helpdesk. That’s because helpdesk software reduces time to resolution, eliminates redundancies, and helps teams avoid errors. Some of the most common HR processes that teams manage with internal helpdesk software include:
Request managementPTO and sick leaveBenefitsPerformance managementEquipment requestsOnboardingOffboardingHow to set up an employee helpdeskWhether you’re feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of setting up an internal helpdesk for the first time or just looking for a framework to inspire your own, check out this step-by-step guide to get started.
Step 1: Decide which requests you will acceptEmployee helpdesks are meant to help organize and help HR teams manage requests. But that can quickly become unmanageable if the internal helpdesk isn’t designed with parameters that define the scope of requests and guide employees.
For example, if the helpdesk inquiries will go to your HR team, perhaps you will accept tickets about payroll or timekeeping errors, but you won’t accept requests about HRIS access or equipment purchases. Those types of requests might be better suited for IT or procurement teams and should go through a different process.
Step 2: Choose the right toolOnce you have a better understanding of how you’ll use your helpdesk, you can begin exploring tools to build and automate your helpdesk. Things to consider include capabilities, customer reviews, cost, and customization.
Step 3: Create your formsThen, you’ll create your request intake forms. Identify what information you’ll need, at a minimum, for each type of request you’ll accept. For example, you might develop a form specific to employee education or development requests about your Learning Management System (LMS) with fields like “Course Name” and “Issue.”
Step 4: Establish a priority system for the ticketsNext, decide how tickets will be assigned a priority level as they come in. Will tickets that are related to payroll take priority over tickets that aren’t? When you use an automated system, you can assign priority based on ticket type and in some cases, even keywords.
Step 5: Define KPIs to track key resultsFinally, define the metrics that are important to your team to measure productivity, alignment with overall business goals, and helpdesk process performance. For example, tickets submitted without a defined ticket type, average request closure time, employee satisfaction with request resolution, and more.
Measuring or tracking performance metrics can be manual and tedious work. But with helpdesk software and built-in dashboard that can track visualize key metrics and generate process reports, easily access the metrics that are most meaningful to you.
Tips to improve your employee helpdeskOnce your employee helpdesk is up and running, it’s important to consider how to continuously improve the solution to best meet the needs of your employees and requesters.
Create an automated self-service portalSome requests may not require human intervention to be resolved. With a self-service portal, make it easier for employees to find the answers to their questions easily and without delay. Take that one step further with automation to reduce the number of cases that need to be worked by a member of your team.
Self-service automation not only redirects employees to the information, teams, or processes that they actually need. It also improves the accuracy of ticket assignment by automating the request intake and assessment process.
Build an internal knowledge baseA centralized internal knowledge base gives your employees access to policies, procedures, and other company or employee information.
Collect and implement employee feedbackCompanies seek customer feedback to learn how to improve their products or services and build better customer experiences. The same applies to HR and People Ops teams.
Whether it’s a feedback survey after every interaction or request resolution or a quarterly check-ins, giving employees an opportunity to share feedback leads to a better understanding of recent experiences and internal helpdesk successes and pain points.
Easily collect employee feedback with our free templateI want the template5 reasons why employee helpdesks are a must-haveAs more companies continue to adopt remote-first or hybrid work models, the need for employee helpdesk software has evolved from a nice-to-have to must-have. The efficiencies in communication and collaboration it offers across the organization is necessary to keeping employees informed and HR and People Ops teams productive. Here’s how:
1. Reduces SLAshelpdesk software helps you resolve requests faster because it prevents issues like missing information or gaps in communication. helpdesk software also allows HR teams to set deadlines and categorize requests based on priority so that urgent requests are handled first.
2. Centralizes requestshelpdesk software centralizes requests in a single place. This makes it easier to see, organize, prioritize, and delegate requests and tasks.
3. Improves employee experiencesBy allowing employees to track the status of their request or automating notifications that provide clear updates on the status of their requests, employees are more likely to be satisfied with the overall experience.
4. Automates and standardizes manual, time-consuming processesThis ensures all employees have a consistent and predictable experience. It also means HR and People Ops teams are bogged down with manual or time-consuming administrative tasks, like chasing down missing information or alerting requesters.
5. Provides data-driven insightsGain visibility into the productivity of your HR department, as well as the most common issues impacting employee engagement, productivity, and retention.
Create a human-centered HR helpdesk with PipefyAutomate and streamline employee requests without losing the personal touch that your employees have to come to expect. Reduce time to resolution, improve employee experiences, and reduce manual work for HR and People Ops teams with a single tool.
Learn more aboutPipefy for HR