Effectively addressing employee needs is a defining characteristic of well-run HR teams. Thankfully, modern technology like AI-enabled chatbots can automate routine requests, provide instant responses, and even complete basic tasks. The resulting increase in service levels and decrease in help-desk-staffing costs mean that HR teams can focus on more strategic tasks while building their stature and reputation. Today, hundreds of customers are doing exactly that with Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM’s HR Help Desk.

But not every request from employees is routine. Some require careful handling and fastidious documentation. Consider FMLA requests, or investigations into allegations of harassment. Here, the objective isn’t to close as many requests as possible as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost per transaction. For these requests, HR teams must deliver a high service level to employees, ensure compliance with applicable laws, and preserve the privacy of everyone involved. 

Enter Oracle Help Desk’s new enterprise-class case management capabilities. They allow you to accelerate response and resolution times for complex requests by:

  • Maintaining precise employee records, safeguarding sensitive information, and adhering to industry regulations by leveraging Oracle HCM’s built-in data integrity
  • Preserving confidentiality through data privacy capabilities that protect sensitive information and limit its distribution
  • Increasing efficiency by involving the right personnel and tracking open items required for resolution
  • Eliminating risky, error-prone, paper-based HR case management processes
  • Delivering a better employee experience through intuitive, direct access to support for more complicated scenarios

How do I know when to use case management or service requests?

Case management and service requests have the common goal of delivering better HR services to employees. Effectively distinguishing between cases and service requests—and having the appropriate tools to support both—ensures that each employee inquiry receives the right level of attention. This enables your HR teams to streamline their work, allocate resources efficiently, and provide personalized assistance tailored to the specific needs of each request.

Consider the following questions and answers to figure out which capabilities are best suited to your use case:

 

Service requests

Case management

What types of issues are involved?

Straightforward, repetitive employee requests that can be resolved with a small number of steps.

Complex issues that are specific to each employee situation and require long, involved processes to resolve.

What’s the anticipated volume?

High: Employees may submit several service requests per year.

Low: Most employees will never need this.

What processes support resolution?

Standard processes: Service requests follow standardized workflows, enabling automated resolution or resolution with limited manual intervention.

End-to-end management: Cases often involve multiple touchpoints and stages, requiring diligent tracking, documentation, and collaboration between HR and other teams.

What are good goals for time to resolution?

Seconds (via employee self-service) or days (via HR shared service centers).

Weeks or months.

How much analysis is required?

Individual service requests are transactional and generally do not require in-depth analysis or complex decision making.

Cases often require deep analysis and provide valuable insights into recurring problems, trends, or systemic issues. Addressing underlying issues can contribute to process improvements and strategic decision-making.

What are the primary business considerations?

Minimizing cost and cycle time through employee self-service and efficient transaction processing (often via HR shared services teams). Success may depend on automated ticketing, routing, and escalation.

Thoroughness, confidentiality, policy compliance, and risk mitigation.

Who is typically involved?

Ideally no one; a knowledge base and Oracle’s AI-enabled Digital Assistant can handle most issues (HR associates provide backup).

Specialized HR professionals, managers, supervisors, and sometimes legal teams.

A new perspective

The addition of case management capabilities to Oracle Help Desk changes how Oracle HCM Cloud customers should think about HR service delivery—and about Oracle versus alternatives. It’s hard (maybe impossible) to find another HR offering that can handle every type of employee issue in a unified solution that rests on a unified data model. A few important benefits of this approach include:

  • Improved security and data privacy compared to paper, spreadsheets, or transferring data cloud-to-cloud between apps

  • Risk mitigation and documentation that employee concerns are taken seriously 

  • Cost and license savings by retiring point solutions and rationalizing the HCM application portfolio

  • The elimination of manual, disconnected processes for case management

  • A reduction in errors and information lags, since Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM uses a single record for each employee

  • Meeting employee expectations for a responsive, properly equipped HR team

  • The opportunity for unified analytics, available from Fusion HCM Analytics

  • A single UX for employee requests to HR, leading to better adoption and smoother delivery of HR services

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