Manage HR cases and formal queries¶

HR casework coordinates a protected matter concerning a staff member. It combines responsibility, a personnel-file link, evidence, decisions and follow-up work. The protected types cover HR queries, grievances, investigations and disciplinary cases. Their configured rules differ; selecting an HR type is not just changing a label.

An HR query is a formal notice asking a named staff member for an explanation. HR prepares and issues it, the staff member responds, and an authorized HR manager records a review outcome. Employees use My HR queries for their own notices and responses.

Availability: These intended steps follow 19 inspected HR manager and employee Final Screens. Backend operations exist, but the frontend still uses sample data and substantially different support-request previews. Connected forms, permissions, saved outcomes and deployment remain unverified. The guides describe the intended formal-query experience and explain where screens and current behavior still differ.

Ordinary case response, quality and escalation records serve a different purpose. They do not submit a staff explanation to an HR query or perform this guide's HR review and linked-case escalation.

Find and create an HR case¶

1. Open Cases, then HR cases in the casework navigation.
2. Search for the case reference, title or description, and use the status filter where available. Open the matching case and confirm its reference and staff subject.
3. To begin a new matter, choose New HR case.
4. In the intended form, select Staff subject and HR case type, then enter a clear Case title and appropriate description. Review confidentiality and starting stage.
5. Select the responsible office, accountable position and owning team where required by the type. Review the due date and target resolution date.
6. Choose Create HR case, then verify the saved case and its staff/personnel-file context.

The signed-in creator becomes case owner. A staff subject, case owner, responsible office, accountable position and team have different meanings. Naming someone as the staff subject does not make them an internal case participant or give them the manager's view.

Protected case creation requires the staff and responsibility context defined by the selected type. A missing or stale staff/personnel-file projection can prevent creation. An available case form does not prove all required lookups succeeded. See Create a case for creation rules, pending dossier handling and recovery, and Configure case types for current policy.

The HR register lists cases, while query details provide the notice and response history. Some designed row summaries, such as response counts and response deadlines, are not included in the current case-list information. Open the case to verify those facts. A case due date, target resolution date and query response deadline are separate dates.

Access and everyday HR casework¶

Opening internal HR casework requires permission to read cases and the additional HR access. Restricted or Secret case visibility also depends on ownership or active participation. Being a staff party, knowing a reference or seeing a link is not an access grant. HR-specific query actions and ordinary case actions have their own permission requirements; a visible button is not the final authority.

The intended HR detail shows the case summary, stage, staff subject, responsible office, accountable position, people and protected evidence links. Use Add staff party, Link evidence or Record decision where available. The general casework and execution guides explain the underlying additions, tasks, workflows, links and closure rules.

Open Personnel file leads to a separately protected record. Case access does not grant permission to read all personnel content. A linked letter or record is supporting evidence, not proof that delivery, filing or its own approval process has completed. Saved relationship labels can lag behind the source.

Prepare a query notice¶

Create an HR query case for the correct staff member before preparing its notice. The case must remain open. A linked personnel file is required before issue.

A notice draft contains:

Each successful draft save creates a numbered notice version. The latest version becomes current. Earlier versions remain part of the manager's draft history; employees receive only the current notice version through their own-detail view.

The final design shows Save draft, a current notice and draft history. The complete editing form and its save/validation/recovery companions were not established by this inspected set. Do not interpret the read-only preview text as an editable, connected notice form. Where a connected form is available, verify the newly saved version, text and deadline before proceeding.

Issued queries cannot have their notice edited through this draft operation. Additional responses and deadline changes serve different purposes; they do not silently replace the issued notice.

Issue the notice and follow delivery¶

1. Review the current notice, named staff member and response deadline.
2. Choose Issue query.
3. In Issue this HR query?, verify the notice version, recipient and deadline, then confirm Issue query.
4. Check the saved state. The first result is Issuance pending, while correspondence prepares the notice.
5. Refresh the case to follow the confirmed correspondence reference, delivery status and notice-record link as they become available.

Issue requires a saved notice, a future response deadline, an open case and the linked staff/personnel-file context. Current type rules must permit the stage transition. Successful submission is not proof of delivery.

After the case receives the issuance confirmation, the query becomes Awaiting response. Delivery can still be queued or unsuccessful; that state does not mean the staff member has received or read the notice. A notice filename or record link may arrive separately.

The pending-state design currently shows a correspondence reference before the case contract confirms issuance. Treat that example as a design discrepancy, not a guaranteed pending-state field.

If issuance remains pending or delivery fails, check the existing case and correspondence state through support. Avoid issuing a duplicate notice merely because the page did not refresh. Withdrawal does not establish cancellation or recall of an already-dispatched notice.

Record an offline response¶

Use this action when HR receives the named staff member's response outside WorkOS.

1. Open the correct query and choose Record offline response or Record offline supplement.
2. Enter Response.
3. Supply the actual Received date and time and Response channel.
4. If this adds to an earlier response, select it in This response supplements. Otherwise leave the earlier-response association empty.
5. Choose Record response and verify the saved response, channel, received time and recorder.

The response is required and supports up to 20,000 characters. The received time cannot be in the future under the current response rules. Available channel choices are Paper letter, Email, In person and Other. The saved record distinguishes the staff member's identity from the HR officer who recorded it.

The query accepts responses while Awaiting response or Under review. A supplement must refer to a response already belonging to that query. The inspected offline-response example selects an earlier response while its background says none exists; connected selection must resolve that discrepancy.

A response adds a new entry and moves the query to Under review. It does not replace an earlier entry or itself close the case. The inspected response form and request contain text and response context, without an attachment-upload operation.

Extend the response deadline¶

1. Choose Extend deadline.
2. Enter the New deadline and a clear Reason.
3. Confirm Extend deadline, then check the updated deadline and change history.

The new deadline must be later than the existing one and in the future. The reason is required and supports up to 4,000 characters. Closed, escalated or withdrawn queries cannot be extended. Current rules also allow changing an existing deadline in Draft or Issuance pending; the corresponding screens still need verification.

A deadline change does not reopen a completed query or replace the deadline printed in a saved notice version. If a draft's deadline was extended, check that its saved notice carries the intended deadline before issuing it; otherwise the notice can retain the earlier date. A deadline change does not itself prove that a revised letter or notification was sent. Confirm any required communication through your organization's process.

Overdue means an Awaiting response query has passed its response deadline. It is separate from the case's overdue indicator. Passing the deadline does not automatically close or escalate the query, and the current response rules do not reject a response solely because the deadline passed.

Review a response and record the outcome¶

1. Open the query in Under review and read the responses, supplements and deadline history.
2. Check the supporting records and current case-type requirements.
3. Choose Review response.
4. Select the supported Review outcome and enter a required Reason.
5. Choose Record review, then verify the query state, closed source case and any linked follow-up case.

The review action supports these outcomes:

The reason supports up to 4,000 characters. Review requires a recorded response and the current type's permitted transition, closure outcome, active roles, relationship types and dossier conditions. An action hint does not prove those conditions are satisfied.

Escalation creates a new case reference and reciprocal related-case links. It carries staff/personnel-file and responsibility context, starts with the target type's defaults, and adds the owner and subject roles. It does not transfer the complete response history, every participant, task, workflow or evidence link. Use Open linked case to continue the follow-up after checking access.

The original case is closed even when its query displays Escalated. The linked case remains separate work. Do not report the investigation or disciplinary matter as finished merely because the original query has been reviewed.

Withdraw a query¶

Choose Withdraw, enter the required reason in Withdraw this HR query, then confirm Withdraw query. Verify the resulting Withdrawn query and closed case. The reason supports up to 4,000 characters.

Withdrawal is a separate action from response review. If Withdrawn appears among review choices, use the dedicated withdrawal action instead; the review action does not accept that choice. Withdrawal can occur before a response has been recorded, provided the query is not already completed and its type permits the transition.

Withdrawal keeps the saved history rather than deleting the case. It does not prove that downstream delivery was cancelled or that every outcome document has finished filing.

Understand the resulting states¶

Notice generation, delivery reporting and personnel-record capture run through separate services. Some delayed updates can leave a conflicting case stage or fail to add a record link after closure. A review or withdrawal result must not be described as proof that its final record has already been filed.

Recover from an incomplete or uncertain result¶

Managers should assess the recorded outcome, supporting evidence and outstanding linked work together. Query counts, delivery labels and closure alone do not establish the quality or fairness of a review. Business reporting should distinguish notice submission, confirmed issue, delivery, response, closure and follow-up completion.