Last month Indiana University Human Resources rolled out askHR, a resource for current and potential IU employees to get answers to their questions about jobs at IU, health care, retirement benefits and more. Inside IU caught up with Associate Vice President of Human Resources John Whelan to learn more about the new service.
Q: What is askHR?
A: AskHR is the new, easier way for Indiana University employees to connect with Human Resources for answers to all of their HR-related questions.
Q: How do you use askHR?
A: No matter where you work at IU, one phone number or email is all you need to remember: (812) 856-1234 or askHR@iu.edu.
Whatever HR-related topic you have questions about – jobs, benefits, policies or more – one contact puts you in touch with the answers you need.
You can also use the askHR task at One.IU.
Q: What makes this an improvement over what HR offered before?
A: In addition to creating a single contact to receive all the HR-related information you need, we reorganized our office to create a Customer Care Team equipped to respond to employee questions in a more timely and consistent manner than before. Exceptional customer service has always been our goal, and the Customer Care Team has always been appreciated for their caring nature. They receive more than 2,500 inquiries by phone and over 2,500 emails each month. To ensure all employee questions are answered timely and with consistent responses, we streamlined our internal workflow, implemented software to make sure each contact receives a response and provided additional training to staff.
By streamlining our collective HR knowledge to answer employee questions through the Customer Care Team, we are also freeing up departmental HR representatives and business partners to perform their duties with fewer interruptions.
Q: What changes happened behind the scenes to make askHR a reality?
A: Our office worked with UITS to implement both Customer Interaction Center, our new phone system, and Salesforce, a system that allows us to track each employee question as a case. Both of these tools ensure that employees can reach our office and have their questions answered.
Our new customer care processes also rely on a closer collaboration between the Customer Care Team and our HR Centers of Expertise in benefits, compensation, employee relations and organizational development. If the Customer Care Team needs additional information or help to answer an employee, they can escalate the question to the HR Centers of Expertise. This helps make the right resources and answers readily available.
We’ve also been developing an internal knowledge base to help the Customer Care Team answer questions. As the needs of our employees change, we will continue to update our knowledge base and train the Customer Care Team.
Q: What can employees expect from askHR and the Customer Care Team?
A: IU employees can expect an easier way to receive timely, consistent answers they need to make the most of their IU benefits and get the assistance they need.
