Corona Service Desk at Computas with Jira Service Management
The COVID-19 pandemic generated an immense need for information among Norwegian businesses. Constant changes in the situation required effective communication channels to address questions, assess employee status, and coordinate work to ensure smooth operations. Custom solutions and dedicated employees helped Computas to meet this challenge.
When the COVID-19 outbreak severely impacted Norway in early March 2020, Norwegian businesses were inundated with new information and guidelines. Computas’ preparedness group quickly recognized the need to address employee inquiries and track employee status amid constant changes related to isolation, quarantine, and international travel.
“As we monitored the situation in Europe, several of our employees returned from winter vacations abroad. They contacted us with questions about how to comply with potential restrictions. In response, we acted swiftly to assess the situation”, says Kjersti Tyrholm, Senior HR Consultant at Computas and a member of the preparedness group.
Initially, a simple form was created for employees to submit the information the preparedness group needed. A dedicated email address was also set up for COVID-19 related questions. This allowed the preparedness group to quickly gather information and assess the internal situation. However, the problem was that the solution did not scale with the frequent changes that occurred.
“We had to actively monitor all reports and changes submitted by employees. The mapping process was, to put it mildly, labor-intensive. Additionally, it was a weakness that team leaders could not see information about their employees, which created additional work for the preparedness group, who had to forward relevant information and coordinate who would follow up on what”, says Tyrholm.
Employees Helped Solve the Challenge
The solution came from within. Atlassian consultants at Computas offered to set up a Jira Service Management (formerly Jira Service Desk) for the preparedness group to ensure a smooth workflow and information flow between employees, team leaders, and the preparedness group.
“We contacted the preparedness group and heard about their challenges. We used this insight as a basis to set up a tool that was easy for everyone in the organization to use”, says Eivind Fjeld, Atlassian consultant at Computas.
With skilled consultants and developers, it only took a few hours from the dialogue with the preparedness group until the solution was live and all employees were informed to use it instead of the electronic forms that were initially used.
This is how Computas used Jira Service Management During the Corona Pandemic
The idea for Fjeld and the rest of the Atlassian team was simple, set up an intuitive system where employees can enter the following:
- That you have been ordered into home isolation/quarantine by medical personnel or following instructions from the authorities
- That you have traveled abroad (work or private) after 27.02.
- That you have planned trips abroad (work or private) before 15.06.
- That you have received a summons from the Civil Defense/Home Guard
- General questions you cannot find answers to in the joint information from the emergency response group
The solution was to collect all communications in one place and provide the necessary overview to the emergency response group. In addition, the system had to be easy to change should new scenarios arise, as well as satisfy GDPR guidelines so that employees could be confident that only those who need access to their information. This is what the solution looked like:
From 4 Hours to 10 Minutes
The system granted the preparedness group full access to all cases, and they were the only ones who could handle them. In return, they could distribute work among themselves by assigning responsibility for individual cases, as well as provide the relevant team leader with necessary information about their employee.
“It didn’t take long after Jira Service Management was in place for us in the preparedness group to notice a huge difference. What we previously spent 4-5 hours on every day now took about 10 minutes”, says Kjersti Tyrholm, adding:
“The information control the preparedness group had with this tool gave us great security and made us better equipped for the period where we were gradually returning to a normal state for society”.
The solution made it easy to customize the user experience, update and add information in line with regulations from the authorities and expand with new forms for reporting information that the preparedness group needed from employees.
Something for your Business?
The COVID-19 pandemic caught most Norwegian businesses off guard. All businesses were affected, either directly or indirectly, and managing employees and internal information flow was a significant challenge for many. The solution developed by Computas, based on Atlassian Jira Service Management, is simple, scalable, and privacy-compliant, helping HR managers, preparedness teams, and/or HR departments to perform their necessary work efficiently without creating unnecessary noise for employees. Please feel free to contact us if your organization needs advice or setup of a similar solution.
Computas is an Atlassian Premium Partner and provides consulting and implementation of Atlassian solutions, such as Jira Service Management, to a wide range of customers in the public and private sectors, for various purposes. Computas itself uses Jira throughout the organization. Service desks have been set up for IT, HR, GDPR, and COVID-19 preparedness, among other things, which have helped employees and saved them a lot of time.
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