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For the last two years, the global pandemic has significantly changed how an organization functions and professional works. With people being prevented from getting out of their houses and demand for commodities dropping overnight, several organizations had to close their doors for an indefinite time. 

The organizations that survived the catastrophic pandemic had to make significant changes in their functionality. As working from physical office premises was not possible, companies across the globe adapted to operating virtually. This was made possible by the implementation of collaborative platforms. Platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, and more allowed organizations to operate remotely and help employees work from their respective houses. 

This gave rise to the new culture of remote working. As employees in IT and eCommerce were already used to working remotely, the pandemic spread the culture into several other industries around the world. 

However, the remote work culture came with challenges, especially in the HR domain. The virtual approach to work made the work of HR managers more challenging as it became difficult to keep track of employees without their physical presence. Right from onboarding remote employees to resolving their issues, HR departments in organizations often find it challenging to function in the post-pandemic work environment. 

Even as the pandemic situation is easing down and things are getting back to normal, the culture of working remotely seems to stay here for an extended period. In such a situation, the work of your HR department can be made more accessible by implementing an HR helpdesk. 

HR helpdesk allows your HR managers to streamline their processes and cater to all the needs of your employees, irrespective of their location. These software platforms help you reach out to all employees and keep track of their progress effectively. 

Before getting to the benefits of an HR helpdesk in a post-pandemic world, let us understand how your HR department should adapt itself in the aftermath of the COVID situation. 

Important HR Measures To Take In The post-pandemic World

1. Letting The Local HR Managers Take Important Decisions
   
   In the wake of the COVID situation, an organization needs to decentralize power to handle the HR department. It is always advisable for a company to let the local HR managers make crucial decisions according to the needs and preferences of the local office.
   
   From evaluating triggers to measuring the effectiveness of HR processes, an organization needs to let local HR managers be independent in making decisions that matter. It is in a company’s best interest to understand that if given a free hand, the local HR managers can incorporate ideal measures for the smooth functioning of the department in specific and the organization as a whole.
   
   
2. Undertaking Impact Analysis To Understand What Is Important
   
   It is relatively difficult for an organization to return to normalcy immediately after the COVID situation is over. Make sure your HR department undertakes a thorough impact analysis to understand which roles are the most important to sustain the smooth functioning of the company.
   
   Start by identifying the most important business functions. This helps your team focus on the employees whose contributions cannot be compromised. In most cases, activities like customer/employee support, sales, and accounting are major processes that need to be focused on during the aftermath of a global pandemic. Rushing back to normalcy would only make things worse.
   
   
3. Preparing An Extensive Post-pandemic Plan
   
   Planning is the key to getting your organization back to normal after surviving the COVID situation. To prepare an elaborate post-pandemic plan, it is advisable to answer the following HR questions:
   
   - Is it possible for your company to function with 25% (or more) absenteeism?
   
   - Are your employees trained to perform multiple duties in case of excessive absenteeism?
   
   - Is it possible for all your employees to work remotely?
   
   - What kind of infrastructure support would be required to shift from on-premise to remote working?
   
   - What kind of assurance do you need to provide your employees to make them feel safe at work?
   
   - Do you have escalation procedures in place for getting additional resources?
   
   - What is your crisis management protocol?
   
   

Once you have answered these questions, you will have a clear sense of direction and the objectives you need to attain to develop a robust post-pandemic HR plan.

Top Benefits Of An HR Helpdesk In The post-pandemic World

1. Onboarding Remote Employees
   
   One of the biggest benefits of an HR helpdesk in the aftermath of the COVID situation is that it helps you, onboard remote employees. HR managers often find it challenging to bring remote employees onboard and ensure their well-being.
   
   With a modern HR helpdesk, you can send personalized emails to your new employees on their first day, according to the user persona. These emails can be used to send a personalized welcome letter, providing the employees with their login credentials, educate them about their roles, and putting all necessary resources at their disposal.
   
   
2. Automated Resolution Of Issues
   
   A modern HR helpdesk helps you automate the support provided to your employees. Instead of approaching HR managers and support agents directly, these helpdesks let your employees interact with AI chatbots to resolve their issues.
   
   If you have added relevant resources and information to your enterprise knowledge base, the chatbots will scan when a question is asked, or your employees raise an issue. This eliminates the need to route every case to the support agents and provides personalized solutions to your employees’ issues within seconds.
   
   
3. Integration With Collaborative Platforms
   
   Modern HR helpdesks can be integrated with collaborative platforms to centralize the support provided to your employees. It allows your employees to resolve their issues while working on their respective collaborative platforms instead of logging into a different platform whenever they seek support.
   
   Integration with collaborative platforms also allows HR managers to keep track of the progress and well-being of every employee by reaching out to them on a unified platform.
   
   
4. Automating The Ticketing System
   
   Many non-technical employees find it challenging to locate the ticketing platform and use the same to get their issues resolved. A modern HR helpdesk helps you automate the ticketing system in the post-pandemic world where remote working is prevalent.
   
   The helpdesks can create and track support tickets by simply initiating a chat with virtual assistants. The platform would automatically route the case to suitable agents and return it with personalized support provided by the experts as soon as possible.
   
   
5. Getting Your Employees Trained
   
   If you are willing to get your employees trained to work better in the post-pandemic world, an HR helpdesk helps you do so with microlearning features. With microlearning, you can provide limited content to the employees daily until they are trained. As it takes not more than 10 minutes of their time every day, microlearning prevents your employees from sacrificing their work to get trained.
   
   Read More: Microlearning: The 10-minute trick for boosting any team's performance
   
   
6. Communicating Employee Benefits Effectively
   
   It often becomes difficult to communicate all the benefits offered to all the employees working remotely. An HR helpdesk helps you add all relevant data into your knowledge base and let your employees access the same by interacting with chatbots whenever they need any information about their benefits. Also, you can let your HR helpdesk notify employees when new benefits are introduced.
   
   
7. Communicating Work Policy Effectively
   
   Just like conveying employee benefits to the team, an HR helpdesk allows you to communicate the work policy to your employees. If you have a helpdesk integrated with a collaborative platform, you can send personalized notifications to each employee regarding the work policy. You can also add company literature and details about the policy in your knowledge base to easily help your employees access the same.
   
   
8. Conducting Employee Surveys
   
   An HR helpdesk allows your HR team to conduct employee surveys on a centralized platform. A single platform can send questionnaires and receive feedback to help your HR manager make essential decisions.
   
   
9. Streamlined Harassment Reporting
   
   If your employees are being subjected to any harassment while working, they can share the same anonymously through your HR helpdesk. This allows the management to address sensitive issues and take strict actions against the same at the earliest.
   
   
10. Streamlined Employee Recruitment
    
    Right from shortlisting candidates and scheduling interviews to providing personalized answers to the candidates’ questions, a single HR helpdesk allows your recruitment managers to automate several processes in the best way possible.
    
    

The Final Word 

These were some of the major benefits that can be availed of by implementing an HR helpdesk in the post-pandemic world. It is always advisable for businesses to invest in modern and AI-driven helpdesks to provide holistic support to employees working across the organization.