Coronavirus has single-handedly upended the modern workplace. At the start of the pandemic, a reportOpens a new window from Gartner revealed that 88 percent of businesses encouraged or required employees to work from home (WFH) — and since then that number has only grown. As nearly the entire workforce has shifted to remote work, several challenges around HR and IT have cropped up.
To better understand them, atSpoke analyzed, aggregated, and anonymized customer ticket data. The findingsOpens a new window provide insight into what employees have requested from companies since the pandemic, how internal support teams have been impacted, and how internal support operations have changed over time.
During this timeframe, support tickets surfaced around the following touchpoints:
- 32.7 percent were related to HR policy, including questions about how COVID-19 changes general WFH policy, payroll, recruiting, layoffs, PTO, and travel
- 26.2 percent were related to sanitary measures, company announcements, updates, and emergency email groups and teams
- 17.2 percent made up questions around what to do if exposed — or potentially exposed — to COVID-19, sick leave policy around exposure, and actual requests for COVID-19 PTO
- 15.9 percent were for IT, requesting assistance with hardware (i.e. monitors), software licenses, (i.e. Zoom and Slack), VPN access, and Wi-Fi requirements
- 7.5 percent were inquiries about company messaging surrounding COVID-19, as well as how to continue best supporting customers.
Let us take a look at the additional data and lessons companies can learn from the aforementioned to prepare for any future work shakeups.
#1 There Is No Pass Next Time.
The pandemic may have been the biggest interruption to the workplace in decades, but it certainly will not be the last. Data showed that HR tickets initially dipped in March at the beginning of the transition to working from home. There were overall fewer questions related to benefitsOpens a new window and payrollOpens a new window , as logistics related to the sudden shift to WFH, and news around the pandemic, took hold of employees’ attention.
However, by April, there was a significant spike in HR tickets around inquiries about layoffs and other business disruptions. But following this spike, the volume of HR-related requests then settled to 10-15 percent below normal, pre-COVID volume.
This pattern underscores the importance of HR teams’ ability to support employees with timely information and resources during periods of crisis. HR should always have contingency plans in place, well in advance to minimize disruption and ensure employees stay as productive as possible.
Learn More: Plan for the Future of Work During – not After – the COVID-19 Crisis
#2 You Are What You Repeatedly Do.
Traditional support desks experienced a notable 157 percent increase in support calls, primarily for repetitive tasks like basic password resets. Organizations using a service desk solution with chat and AI for auto-resolution, on the other hand, experienced just a 10 percent higher volume in support calls than pre-COVID.
These numbers demonstrate how modern service desk solutions empower employees to be significantly more self-sufficient, and save IT teams from getting bogged down by simple and repetitive requests. In advance of future business-disrupting events, IT teams should prioritize building a foundation for everyday engagement and collaboration to support a flexible remote workplace.
Learn More: Why Employee Engagement Needs a Reset in the COVID-19 Era
#3 It Is Time To Catch Up.
Modern problems require modern solutions, and organizations that leveraged technologies like Slack for chat fared far better throughout the pandemic than those who did not. Data shows employees leaned into using Slack for support 13.2 percent more during and following the shift to WFH. Subsequently, email and web tickets decreased by 14.5 percent and 20.2 percent, respectively. Companies who used Slack also stayed more efficient than organizations who did not, boasting 2x faster response times.
Automated service desk solutions also proved essential for saving time and resolving issues quickly. Despite a 10 percent increase in support tickets, companies with these solutions in place were able to reduce resolution time by 34 percent — from 6.2 hours to only 4.1.
As we close out the year and enter into 2021, it is crucial that organizations consider the lessons above as they optimize their WFH models and strategize for the future. No one can predict what events to come may impact the workplace, but companies can make sure their HR and IT teams are prepared by having systems like automated service desks in place and adopting chat solutions like Slack.