The world of business is constantly changing, and the 21st century has accelerated those changes by orders of magnitude.
Customer service must be faster and more sophisticated than ever, and technology has risen to meet those challenges with products such as customer help desks, AI chatbots, and more.
But one crucial aspect of business that often gets overlooked when it comes to tech solutions is human resources. An HR department plays a central role in keeping employees safe and taken care of, and is vital to the ongoing success of a business or organisation.
With that in mind, it only makes sense to give your HR department the tools it needs to keep their operations streamlined and employees engaged. One such tool is HR help desk software.
What is help desk software?
First, let’s define precisely what HR help desk software is and what it does.
An HR help desk suite is intended to optimise and streamline HR processes by providing a centralised platform for common functions of an HR department: employee inquiries, requests, concerns, complaints, and more.
The goal of any good HR help desk software is to ensure nothing gets “lost in the cracks” and issues get resolved promptly and to everyone’s satisfaction.
Here are some of the more common features of HR help desk software:
Self-service portal
Self-service has become more and more of a phenomenon in recent years, from supermarket self-checkout to customer service portals.
An HR self-service portal allows employees to access appropriate resources (such as relevant information and policies) without the need to contact HR directly. This can save time, stress, and resources for everyone involved.
Centralised dashboard
One of the strongest features of any help desk software is organisation – specifically, the ability to see everything at a glance. A centralised dashboard allows users to sort, prioritise, and manage their workload.
Ticketing system
A proper ticketing system is another core feature of a help desk. It allows employees to submit inquiries, reports, requests, and more, so HR can properly track and respond to them. With a defined workflow and structure, it’s far less likely that any requests will end up lost, mismanaged, or routed to the wrong person.
Chat widgets
A chat widget can be a major convenience for employees and HR personnel alike, since it allows an individual to get real-time assistance. This chat can either be handled by a person, or — for larger organisations — an AI, without the need for a phone call or office visit.
Data metrics
Finally, one of the most useful features of any help desk software: metrics. Metrics allows your HR department to track the volume of inquiries, check response times, and catalog common employee issues or concerns.
This lets HR identify trends and strategically improve processes in the long term.
Five benefits of a help desk
Now let’s take a dive into how exactly these features can benefit your business or organisation:
Supporting onboarding processes
One of the best uses of a self-service portal is helping to guide them through the onboarding process. An HR help desk suite can inform employees about company policies, benefits, orientation materials, and anything else they need to know, without the need for time-consuming meetings.
Query resolution
Quick response time to queries or issues can be vital to employee satisfaction. Having a help desk system lets employees get automated access to information like leave balance or HR policies, while HR personnel can get automated notifications on unresolved tickets, which they can prioritise and address without further lost time.
Remote access
The business world moves faster than ever, and, thanks to the Internet, more flexible than ever. Workers can now be globally distributed while still having centralised access to information. An HR help desk lets employees and HR perform necessary tasks from anywhere – not just in the office.
Gauging employee satisfaction
One of the more useful metrics a business can track with software is employee satisfaction. With the right tools, an HR department can conduct surveys and provide channels for employees to give feedback, allowing HR to track issues and develop short- and long-term strategies for dealing with them.
Tracking HR performance
But employee data isn’t the only thing that a help desk can measure. Poor HR management can be a major blow to morale and employee experience, and the same metrics that gauge employee satisfaction can also measure HR’s performance.
Data such as response time, resolution rates, and other metrics allows HR departments to discover their problem areas and develop strategies to improve their services. Best of all, these improvements are driven by hard data, not nebulous criteria.
The more your business grows, the more sophisticated your tools will become. The right software can be the difference between a merely ok HR department, and a great one.
