HR Case and Inquiry Management
Case anatomy
An HR case is the container for a request or issue about an employee. Key fields: Opened for (the employee the case is about), Opened by (who submitted - often a manager or an agent on a phone call), assignment group and assigned agent, HR service, priority/urgency/impact, short description, and the linked HR profile. HR tasks underneath are the assignable work items that different groups (payroll, benefits, IT) complete; approvals are separate records attached to the case or task.
Lifecycle and information flow
Cases move through states such as new, work in progress, awaiting information, and closed complete/closed incomplete. Comments are employee-visible; work notes are internal - a classic question subject. Confidential or restricted cases limit visibility to a deliberately named audience rather than the whole HR group, so always ask "who should see the content?" before "who should work it?". Inquiries are the lighter-weight path: short questions that can be answered from knowledge without a full multi-task workflow, which is why case options on the HR service matter.
Service levels and routing
SLAs attach to the case and task tables, and pausing during "awaiting information" requires an explicit pause condition - a frequently tested detail. Routing usually combines an assignment group from the HR service or template with assignment rules or advanced work assignment.
Traps
Confusing opened-for with opened-by breaks reports and notifications. Closing a case while child tasks are open usually triggers validation. And a reopened case does not always restart the same SLA - check pause/reset/restart configuration.
Rule of thumb
Read every case scenario twice: once for who the subject is, once for who reported it. Notifications, surveys, and access rules follow the subject.