Send every HR question to the right team or specialist

Fields

• Subject (empty for chat messages)
• The employee's message

Questions

1. What is the employee mainly asking HR about? Choice

   Pick the topic of the main thing the employee asks HR to do. Pick Workplace concern only when a complaint about treatment or conditions at work is the main point of the message; when a complaint comes alongside another request, pick that request's topic. The complaint and speak-up questions mark those messages either way.

   • Pay and payslips Pay amounts, missing or wrong pay, overtime, deductions, tax codes and payslips.
   • Benefits Pension, health cover, company car, and benefits enrolment or changes.
   • Leave and absence Holiday, sickness absence, parental leave, compassionate leave and other time off.
   • Policies What a company policy says or allows, with no other request.
   • Letters and records Employment letters, references, contract copies and changes to personal details such as an address.
   • Joining or leaving Start dates, onboarding steps, resignations, notice periods and leaving steps.
   • Learning and development Training, courses, qualifications and development plans.
   • Workplace concern The message is mainly a complaint about how the employee is treated, or about conditions at work.
   • Recruitment and internal moves Vacancies, referrals, internal applications and transfers.
   • HR systems access Trouble signing in to or using the HR portal, payroll self-service or the time recording system.

2. Does the employee complain of harassment, bullying, discrimination, retaliation or other unfair treatment by someone at work? Yes / No

   Count it in any words, including a threat or a penalty for raising a concern, and count it when it is mentioned in passing inside another request. Do not judge whether the complaint is true or how serious it is; a person does that. Yes: The employee describes being harassed, bullied, discriminated against, threatened, penalised or treated unfairly by a person at work. No: No such complaint appears. Dissatisfaction only with a process, a system or a policy is not this.

3. Does the employee report possible wrongdoing that harms others, such as fraud, a safety breach or breaking the law? Yes / No

   Count a report about the organisation, a manager or colleagues, including one made in passing. A complaint only about how the employee themself was paid or treated is not a speak-up report; the complaint question covers that. Yes: The employee reports possible fraud, a danger to health or safety, a breach of the law, or a cover-up of any of these. No: No such report appears.

4. Does the employee write anything suggesting they may harm themselves or are in acute distress? Yes / No

   This flag puts the message in front of a trained person first; it is not an assessment. Count only what the employee writes: statements about not wanting to go on, harming themselves, not being safe, or being unable to cope right now. Do not infer from tone, spelling or the topic. Yes: The message contains such a statement. No: No such statement appears. Ordinary stress or frustration about a work problem is not this.

5. Does the person getting in touch ask to exercise a right over personal data, such as seeing, correcting or deleting it, or stopping marketing? Yes / No

   Count a request to see or get a copy of personal data, to be told what is held or who it was shared with, to delete, correct, move or restrict it, to object to a use of it, to stop marketing, to opt out of its sale or sharing, or to withdraw consent. Count it in any words, such as "everything you have on me" or "the notes about me", whether or not a law or right is named, and when it sits inside a message about something else. A request for a routine document, such as a payslip, an invoice or an employment letter, is not a data request. Read only what the person getting in touch says, not the agent. Yes: They make at least one such request about their own data or the data of someone they act for. No: They make no such request. A general question about the privacy policy is No.

6. Does the employee say they have a health condition, injury, disability or pregnancy, or are having medical treatment? Yes / No

   Count only what the employee states about themself. Do not infer a condition from tone, spelling, absence or the topic. The context says code uses this to restrict who sees the message. Yes: The employee states a health condition, injury, disability, pregnancy or medical treatment. No: No such statement appears.

7. Does the message ask, even indirectly, to send payments to a different bank account, card or payee? Yes / No

   Count "our bank details have changed", "please remit to the account below", "use the new details on the attached letter", a request to pay a different company or person, an employee asking for their pay to go to a new account, and saying the old account should no longer be used. Count account details given for payment in place of the usual ones even when the word "change" is never used. Do not count bank details printed as usual in an invoice or statement footer with no request to use them instead. Yes: The message asks, however briefly or politely, for payment to go somewhere other than before. No: The message asks for no change to where payment goes.

8. How soon does this message need a person in HR? Scale

   Judge from what the message says. Use the words it uses for time, such as "today", "this Friday" or "before the next pay run"; do not work out dates.

   • Routine Can wait for the normal queue: no pay missed, no close date, no complaint.
   • Soon Should be picked up within a day or two: pay already missed or due, a complaint about treatment at work, or a date the employee says is close.
   • Now Needs a person today: a risk to someone's safety or health, an employee in crisis, or a deadline of today or tomorrow.

9. Is there enough in the message to tell what the employee needs from HR? Yes / No

   Answer No for a message such as "can someone call me?" or "I have a problem" with nothing more. Yes: A careful reader could tell what the employee needs. No: The message is too short or vague to tell what the employee needs.

Lens columns

topic, topic_probability, conduct_complaint, conduct_complaint_probability, speak_up_report, speak_up_report_probability, wellbeing_crisis, wellbeing_crisis_probability, data_request, data_request_probability, health_disclosed, health_disclosed_probability, payment_details_change, payment_details_change_probability, urgency, urgency_average, enough_to_route, enough_to_route_probability