This article is for the HR team: it explains how to work the request queue, take a request in hand, talk with the employee or leave notes for colleagues, move the status forward and keep to the announced deadlines.
Before you start #
- Your role must hold the permission “Handle the HR request queue” at the Execute level. By default it is granted to the HR Manager and Administrator roles.
- Without it, the Team queue tab does not appear and only your own requests are visible.
The team queue #
Open HR requests › Team queue. The table shows:
| Column | Content |
|---|---|
| Urgency | “Urgent” when the employee chose, in the form, the value that makes the request urgent. |
| Request | The request type; a click opens its details. |
| Requester | The employee who submitted the request. |
| Submitted | The submission date and, if the type announces deadlines, the “First response by…” and “Resolution by…” deadlines (in red once missed), plus the “Escalated” label where relevant. |
| Status | The handling status. |
| Action | The Take button, or the label “Taken” if someone has already taken the request. |
By default, urgent requests come first, then the queue is ordered by status and date. Clicking the Urgency, Submitted or Status header sorts the queue on that column alone (a second click reverses the order): urgent requests are then no longer necessarily at the top. The queue is split into pages of 25 requests.
The buttons above the table filter by status: All, New, In progress, Waiting for your reply, Resolved, Closed.
Taking a request #
- Find the request in Team queue.
- Click Take in the Action column.
The request moves to “In progress”, you become its handler and the employee is notified. If a colleague took it just before you, the message “Someone else took this request first.” appears: a request is never taken twice.
Handling a request #
Click a request’s name to open its details. You will find the employee’s answers (Your answers), the Attachments, the Conversation and, at the top right, the status list.
Changing the status #
- At the top right of the details, open the status list.
- Choose the new status. The message “Status updated” confirms the change.
The employee is notified of every actual status change. Choose “Waiting for your reply” when you need information from them: as soon as they reply in the conversation, the request goes back to “In progress” on its own.
Writing to the employee or leaving an internal note #
- Under Conversation, type your text in the “Write a message…” field.
- For a note meant for the team only, tick Internal note (hidden from the requester): the button becomes Add internal note.
- Click Send or Add internal note.
| Message | Internal note | |
|---|---|---|
| Seen by the employee | Yes | Never |
| Who is notified | The employee when HR writes; the request’s handler (or, failing that, the team) when the employee writes | The HR team only |
| Use | Questions, answers, information | Coordination between HR staff, background, checks |
In the conversation, an internal note carries the “Internal note” label.
Drafting with the AI assistant #
If artificial intelligence is enabled for your workspace, the Draft, Rephrase, Shorten and Fix the tone buttons appear under the message field. The assistant works from the request type and content and from the words you have already written; its proposal is shown separately and Replace the text puts it in the field. Nothing is sent without you: review it, then click Send.
Adding an attachment #
Under Attachments, drop a file and click Attach. The limits are the same as for the employee: 5 files per request, 10 MB per file. The files are stored in the employee’s documents, in the “HR requests” category.
Closing a request #
Set the request to “Resolved” when it has been dealt with, or to “Closed” if it no longer applies. The employee is notified. A resolved or closed request no longer accepts messages or attachments; to reopen it, set it back to an open status with the status list.
Deadlines, reminders and escalations #
When a type announces deadlines, each request receives its due dates at submission. They are shown in the same way to the employee and to the HR team.
| Situation | What happens | Who is notified |
|---|---|---|
| First-response deadline missed, nobody has taken the request | One reminder, once only | The people in the receiving team who can handle the queue; failing that, everyone who can handle the queue |
| Resolution deadline missed, request still “New” or “In progress” | One escalation, once only; the request then carries the “Escalated” label | The target chosen in “Escalate to”; failing that, the people who configure request types; failing that, the receiving team |
- Deadlines are counted in clock hours, nights and weekends included.
- A request “Waiting for your reply” triggers neither reminder nor escalation, but its deadline keeps running: if it returns to “In progress” after the resolution deadline, the escalation follows shortly afterwards.
- A type that only announces a resolution deadline never sends a reminder; a type that only announces a first-response deadline never escalates.
- Nothing is sent to the employee about a delay.
- Within the “Escalate to” target, only people who can handle the queue are notified; if none can, the escalation moves to the next step.
Good to know #
- The Team queue tab shows requests of types whose “Handled by” setting is General queue (all HR staff). Requests of a type addressed to a group, team, department or office do not appear there: their recipients open them from the notification or e-mail received at submission.
- The Take button only exists in the queue. Choosing “In progress” in the status list changes the status without making you the handler.
- During an approval, the request stays “New” and is already in the queue; if the approver rejects it, it becomes “Closed”.
- Under Your answers, each answer is shown under the field key, that is its technical identifier.
- With the queue permission, you also see, under New request, the types reserved for HR teams: they are for requests between teams and stay invisible to employees.
- Your own requests stay in the My requests tab.
