HR help desk: Streamline employee support with AI

Your HR department handles a wide range of tasks, from bringing new employees on board to addressing benefits inquiries and handling leave and tool requests. They also strive to boost employee engagement and enhance the employee experience (EX).

In today's fast-paced environment, HR teams are under growing pressure to assist business expansion with limited resources. By utilizing advanced help desk software combined with AI and automation, you can provide excellent employee service efficiently while keeping costs down.

Explore our guide to discover how AI-driven HR help desk software optimizes internal support processes, offering secure tools for streamlined HR operations.

• What is an HR help desk?
• Why businesses need HR help desks
• Core features of an HR help desk
• Benefits of help desk software

• 3 HR help desk use cases
• How to choose the right HR help desk software
• Frequently asked questions
• Try an HR help desk for free

An HR help desk is a solution that allows HR teams to enhance employee service delivery, streamline HR processes, and boost team productivity. HR help desk software enables HR teams to manage and resolve employee inquiries securely and efficiently by integrating advanced automation and AI, employee self-service capabilities, and ticketing systems. This comprehensive approach ensures a seamless and effective HR support experience.

Just as you use help desk tools to deliver great support to your customers—resulting in increased customer satisfaction, retention, and service efficiency—you can also leverage them to support your employees effectively.

A standardized system for handling employee requests can bolster your broader employee service efforts. HR help desks boost employee productivity by giving workers quick access to support through AI-powered self-service and 24/7 support from interactive bots. Additionally, AI helps HR teams keep sensitive information safe while maintaining service quality at scale.

Here are some of the top features to look for when choosing HR help desk software.

AI agents: The next generation of HR bots

According to the Zendesk Employee Experience Trends Report 2024, 81 percent of EX leaders believe AI boosts organizational efficiency. Just as AI and ticketing automation enhance customer service, these essential help desk features can significantly improve employee service.

Zendesk AI agents, advanced AI-powered chatbots, autonomously resolve employee service requests. They seamlessly integrate with your HR systems to deliver personalized responses to complex inquiries. Pre-trained on HR ticket data and intents, our AI agents understand the nuances of employee requests immediately, requiring no technical expertise for implementation. Additionally, HR teams can easily deploy an AI agent in minutes by connecting it to their knowledge base.

Designed to work alongside your HR team, AI agents free up staff to focus on strategic initiatives and can escalate issues to a human when necessary.

LATAM Airlines, the leading airline in Latin America, leveraged Zendesk to support its HR team in uniting its globally distributed workforce of 30,000 employees. This enabled the company to achieve a 90 percent employee satisfaction rate and 80 percent AI agent accuracy, resulting in more efficient employee service.

Workflow automation

Help desk automation can further enhance service efficiency by optimizing HR workflows. AI can classify incoming requests and intelligently route tickets to the appropriate HR representative or team based on urgency, language, intent, and sentiment. Additionally, AI can suggest pre-written responses, known as macros, to ensure fast and accurate support.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit dedicated to preserving constitutional rights in the United States, implemented Zendesk to elevate its employee service operations. By leveraging macros, triggers, and automations to improve internal workflows, the ACLU achieved a 90.5 percent employee satisfaction score (ESAT)—a 10 percent increase.

HR ticketing system

HR ticketing systems streamline case management for HR teams by consolidating all employee inquiries from various channels—including email, Microsoft Teams, Slack, web, and mobile—into a single workspace. This integration boosts productivity by giving HR specialists essential context, such as an employee's job title, location, manager, and past support issues. With this comprehensive view, HR teams can deliver effective support on any channel, enhancing the service experience for employees and ensuring efficiency during critical moments.

Additionally, HR ticketing systems can generate alerts for new or sensitive employee requests, automatically tag issues for streamlined tracking, and facilitate seamless collaboration among internal support teams.

AI-powered HR ticketing systems further boost productivity by providing HR teams with full context on every issue as soon as they receive a ticket, including a summary of the request with the employee’s sentiment and intent. AI also helps ensure accurate responses to employee issues by suggesting replies and surfacing similar tickets and relevant help center articles for easy reference.

Knowledge bases and employee portals

Staffing limitations are a common barrier for HR organizations aiming to improve employee service efficiency. Adding self-service capabilities can significantly extend the ability of a lean team to assist employees.

HR staff can leverage generative AI to build an internal knowledge base quickly. These AI writing tools can expand a few bullet points into comprehensive articles and adjust the tone to match your brand voice. Additionally, AI can flag content gaps in the help center based on support data and identify outdated articles.

For example, MYOB, an Australian business management solution provider, built a comprehensive self-help library to help its internal support team scale. It uses Zendesk and APIs to automate content-quality workflows. If an article receives a thumbs-down, a ticket is automatically created in Zendesk to notify the responsible stakeholder, who can then address the issue. This approach led to a 77 percent reduction in ticket backlog and cut employee onboarding time by two-thirds.

Knowledge base content can reside within an employee portal, where employees can also check the status of their support requests at any time. When employees submit a request via the self-service portal, automation can surface relevant help center articles to provide immediate answers, helping to reduce ticket volume for the HR team.

Reporting and analytics

HR help desks should equip HR leaders with robust reporting and analytics capabilities to facilitate informed decision-making and continuous optimization of employee service operations.

Zendesk offers AI-powered reporting tools that help measure:

• Trends in employee intent: Track key help desk metrics to identify and better understand the most common employee requests, enabling proactive issue resolution.
• Quality assurance: AI-driven QA monitors 100 percent of employee interactions, both AI and human-led, in real time. It assesses employee satisfaction, identifies performance gaps in internal service teams, and flags upset employees.
• Automation opportunities: AI suggests which types of employee requests are best suited for automation, allowing for more efficient allocation of HR resources.
• Macro suggestions for admins: AI provides suggested macros based on common employee intentions, speeding up response times and enhancing service efficiency.

One Medical, a membership-based primary care practice, uses Zendesk to benefit from cutting-edge technology with a human-centric approach. The HR support team tracks the top tags or issues to ensure problems don’t persist. It also uses ticket field forms tied to macros, helping managers monitor frequently asked support-related questions.

Enterprise-grade security

HR teams handle highly sensitive data, which may include everything from Social Security numbers and health insurance information to performance reviews and disciplinary records. Therefore, you should implement safeguards to make sure data doesn’t get compromised.

A data breach could have severe legal and financial repercussions for the company and damage employee trust. Features like access controls, data encryption, and secure storage help ensure that only authorized personnel can view this sensitive information.

For additional security and privacy, Zendesk has advanced capabilities for data redaction, deletion, and more. This way, compliance is never an afterthought, and Zendesk protects sensitive information from parties that aren’t authorized to see it.

HR help desk software offers numerous benefits, from enhancing employee satisfaction to increasing productivity. Here are a few key advantages of HR ticketing tools.

Enhances scalability and lowers costs while maintaining service quality

An HR help desk equipped with AI and automation helps maintain top-notch HR service as your company grows. By streamlining operations with AI-powered reporting that offers actionable insights, HR leaders can identify areas for improvement and make adjustments on the fly. This proactive approach ensures consistent service quality at scale, preventing issues before they impact employees.

Help desks also empower teams to deliver exceptional service efficiently. Features like automatic issue classification ensure every query reaches the appropriate specialist, while single-platform case management keeps everything organized. AI-powered tools further elevate service by suggesting optimal responses and automating workflows for common requests. As a result, you free your HR team to address complex issues and provide personalized support while reducing the costs associated with manual HR processes.

Boosts team productivity

HR help desk and service desk software can significantly enhance productivity through AI and automation. Advanced AI-powered chatbots, like Zendesk AI agents, can respond to employee requests 24/7, allowing HR staff to focus on more strategic activities. AI can also intelligently route employee requests to the appropriate team, saving HR personnel from the manual task of ticket tagging and routing.

Collaboration features enable seamless communication among HR team members, allowing them to accomplish more in less time. Additionally, AI-powered knowledge bases empower employees to self-serve, which helps HR teams provide effective service to a larger employee base.

Keeps employee data safe

Data security is paramount for any organization, and employees need to trust that their employer is safeguarding their personal information. However, nearly 40 percent of businesses surveyed in the Zendesk EX Trends Report 2024 reported challenges in protecting sensitive information in remote work environments. This underscores the importance of a secure HR help desk in maintaining data integrity.

Help desks can enhance security by managing permissions for multiple departments with separate ticket access controls. They also incorporate two-factor authentication for HR specialists and employees and use advanced encryption keys to keep data securely locked. This combination of features ensures sensitive information remains protected.

Improves employee satisfaction

Satisfied employees are loyal, but only one or two slipups can chip away at that satisfaction. According to a study by MyPerfectResume, 67 percent of employees find it difficult to get a prompt answer from HR—a major source of frustration when awaiting important information or responses.

Say an employee submits a harassment complaint about a coworker. They patiently wait for several days without a response. When they follow up with HR via email, they discover that their complaint got lost in the shuffle of other requests. HR eventually addresses the issue, but by then, the employee has endured unnecessary stress and their morale has suffered due to the delay.

HR help desk software helps teams boost employee satisfaction by making it easy for people to get the help they need quickly. With an omnichannel solution that meets employees where they are—whether through Slack, Microsoft Teams, or other preferred channels—everyone can receive assistance swiftly and conveniently.

Provides actionable insights

HR help desk software with robust QA features transforms employee feedback into a catalyst for continuous improvement. While employee surveys offer valuable insights, they may be constrained by the issues employees see the most. HR help desks provide a broader picture by collecting data on all interactions, including those where employees might not think to raise concerns.

This rich data enables HR leaders to identify trends and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as resolution times and ticket volume. It also allows them to pinpoint areas where processes may be slowing down or where specific topics are causing confusion. With these insights, HR leaders can take decisive action to streamline workflows, enhance knowledge base articles, or provide targeted training for the HR team. This data-driven approach creates a positive cycle where improved service leads to higher employee satisfaction, clearer feedback, and continuous opportunities for enhancement.

HR service desks have multiple applications within a company. Here are several ways companies use help desks to streamline HR workflows and improve the employee experience.

Standardize management of leave and life events

When someone requests employee leave or reports a significant life event, such as childbirth or a death in the family, standardized workflows in the HR service desk guide the HR representative through the necessary procedures, ensuring no critical steps are missed.

The system also displays important employee information, including tenure, department, and previous leave history. This enables the HR representative to make informed decisions and provide personalized assistance, ensuring the employee's needs are met efficiently and accurately.

Overall, HR help desks enhance employee service during critical moments by providing a seamless and straightforward process for employees.

Streamline onboarding and offboarding

When a new hire joins your company, HR teams can leverage help desk tools to create standardized onboarding workflows, assigning tasks to specific team members so new employees promptly receive all necessary credentials, equipment, and paperwork. Additionally, the enhanced process visibility provided by HR help desk software allows hiring managers to monitor the status of new hires, facilitating better planning and resource allocation.

Similarly, during offboarding, the software automates the process by guiding HR agents through all the necessary steps. This can help in various situations, such as an internal help desk assisting with communication about scheduling an exit interview. It can also aid with knowledge transfer, ensuring the departing employee transfers their knowledge and responsibilities to their successors or colleagues via a knowledge base. HR can also use the help desk to coordinate with IT to disable accounts and retrieve company devices.

Measurement and reporting tools embedded within help desk software allow HR managers to quickly identify gaps and inefficiencies in the employee onboarding and offboarding processes, enabling them to make data-driven improvements.

Reduce costs with AI and self-service

According to a Deloitte study, many workers encounter challenges accessing necessary resources through their current business systems. HR help desks address this issue by granting employees access and cutting costs through streamlined case management powered by AI and automation. For instance, implementing standardized self-service with advanced chatbots empowers employees to resolve issues autonomously and efficiently, eliminating the need for additional HR service staff.

HR teams can also integrate tickets into a centralized workspace, including employees' most frequently used applications. AI gives agents full context when they receive a ticket, allowing them to deliver personalized service immediately. This same workspace uses embedded AI to improve the insights available to specialists, surfacing similar tickets and relevant macros to facilitate the faster resolution of inquiries.

This approach reduces operational expenses while improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of HR operations. As a result, it allows for better resource allocation and enhances employee satisfaction.

When choosing HR help desk software, features aren't the only criteria to consider. Here are a few essential capabilities to evaluate and product differentiators to look for beyond the features.

Evaluate AI capabilities

To offer your employees the smoothest HR experiences possible, capitalize on a help desk that incorporates cutting-edge generative AI into every aspect of the software. AI and automations help optimize internal operations, and HR service leaders are increasing the adoption of AI-driven tools to realize these gains.

With Zendesk, AI is infused across the entire experience, significantly enhancing HR’s ability to deliver accurate and up-to-date information. Zendesk provides AI and automation capabilities from day one—no ramp-up period required. It also comes pre-trained on HR intent models, eliminating lengthy implementation times and enabling faster, more precise employee service.

Look for integration with your other support systems

Customer and employee service are intertwined, not separate. With a “total experience” (TX) strategy, companies can integrate service delivery internally for employees and externally for customers. According to Gartner, total service strategies help companies outperform competitors by 25 percent in satisfaction metrics for employees and customers.

TX strategies don’t just unify services but also decrease the total cost of ownership for companies. Zendesk consolidates service, workforce management, and AI vendors into one easy-to-use tool that’s quick to implement, so you realize its value faster while lowering costs over time.

Consider its ease of use

An intuitive design with a user-friendly interface and simple navigation is crucial. Too many help desks are built for technical teams or require extensive onboarding and training for HR professionals. Even with that training, they’re complex and difficult to manage.

Zendesk is designed specifically for service workflows, making it easy for HR teams and employees alike to use and benefit from. Employees can effortlessly search for and access knowledge base articles and track the status of their HR inquiries, like requests for paid time off. Empowering employees to take ownership of their HR needs will reduce the burden on HR teams.

Search for a flexible and scalable system

As your company evolves, the HR help desk should scale alongside you to accommodate new needs. However, many employee service solutions are complex and difficult to use, requiring HR leaders to depend on IT support for even minor changes.

Zendesk offers a flexible, scalable solution that adapts to evolving requirements while effectively supporting businesses during periods of growth. No-code configuration tools ensure your team gets up and running quickly. Additionally, the flexibility of over 1,500 third-party integrations in the Zendesk Marketplace enables you to customize and extend the system for any function without hiring a developer.

Prioritize a low total cost of ownership

Opting for a free help desk ticketing system might initially seem cost-effective, but you could incur unexpected expenses over time. When evaluating the cost of a help desk tool, it's critical to identify any hidden fees—such as add-ons, extensive coding requirements, or scalability limitations—that could result in high switching costs as your business grows.

Choosing a scalable product that doesn't require a dedicated technical team for setup and maintenance, like Zendesk, can be a more cost-effective solution in the long run. This approach helps you avoid hidden fees and ensures smooth scaling as your organization expands, ultimately saving you money and resources.