Key Takeaways
- HR teams are often bogged down by a predictable set of routine questions that distract from strategic initiatives.
- The 15 most common questions—like PTO balances, holiday schedules, and benefits coverage—are factual, not judgmental, and don't require human intervention.
- Shifting these high-volume inquiries to an AI-powered self-service model can recover thousands of hours of productivity each year.
- Employees get faster, more consistent answers while HR reclaims time for recruiting, employee relations, and culture work.
If you work in HR, you already know what I'm about to say.
There are certain questions you answer so often that you could do it in your sleep. You've answered them dozens of times. Hundreds, probably. You've answered them so many times that you've started wondering why this information isn't just... available somewhere.
It probably is available somewhere. In the employee handbook. On the intranet. In that SharePoint site nobody can navigate.
But it's easier for employees to ask Sarah than to find it themselves, so they ask. And you answer. Again.
Here are the questions I hear most often when I talk to HR teams about where their time goes. See how many sound familiar.
1. "How much PTO do I have left?"
This one's constant. And it's frustrating because the answer exists in your HRIS. The employee could look it up. But the system is confusing, or they don't remember how to log in, or it's just faster to message HR.
2. "How do I request time off?"
Close cousin to the above. The process exists. It's been explained. There's documentation somewhere. But every new hire needs to learn it, and plenty of tenured employees forget the details between vacations.
3. "What holidays do we have off this year?"
You've sent this list out multiple times. It's in the employee handbook. It doesn't matter. People will ask, especially around the end of the year when they're planning travel.
4. "When is open enrollment, and what do I need to do?"
You'll answer this 50 times in October and November. Sometimes the same person asks twice because they forgot what you told them the first time.
5. "What's covered by our health insurance?"
This one's tricky because the real answer is "it depends, check your plan documents." But people want a quick answer about whether their specific thing is covered, and they don't want to read a 40-page benefits guide to find out.
Sound familiar? We're only a third of the way through the list, and most HR professionals have already answered every one of these questions this month.
6. "How do I add a dependent to my insurance?"
Life events—new baby, marriage, adoption—trigger this. It's time-sensitive, the employee is stressed, and they need hand-holding through a process they've never done before.
7. "What's our parental leave policy?"
Another one that often comes during an emotional time. The answer's in the handbook, but people want reassurance and specifics. How much time? Paid or unpaid? What about bonding leave versus medical leave?
8. "How do I submit an expense report?"
Finance or HR, someone's answering this constantly. The system, the process, the approvals, and the timeline for reimbursement. Every new employee, every infrequent traveler, every time the system changes.
9. "What's the dress code?"
Surprisingly common, especially with remote and hybrid work blurring the lines. "Do I need to be camera-ready for this meeting?" "What do I wear to the client visit?" "Are jeans okay on Fridays?"
10. "How do I update my direct deposit?"
People change banks. They notice a typo. They get married and open a joint account. Each time, they need to know how to change where their money goes.
The pattern is clear: every one of these questions has a documented answer. The problem isn't missing information—it's that finding answers takes more effort than asking a person.
11. "Who do I talk to about [X]?"
Half the questions HR gets aren't really HR questions—they're routing questions. People don't know who handles what. They ask HR because HR seems like a reasonable default. You spend time figuring out who actually handles the thing and redirecting.
12. "Can you explain my pay stub?"
Deductions are confusing. Pre-tax versus post-tax. Benefits contributions. Taxes that vary by paycheck. People want to understand why the number isn't what they expected.
13. "What's the policy on working from home?"
This one exploded post-pandemic and hasn't calmed down. The rules vary, they've changed, there are exceptions, and managers interpret them differently. People want clarity on what's actually allowed.
14. "How do I report something to ethics/HR?"
Sensitive, important, and thankfully less frequent than the others. But when it comes, it requires careful attention. People need to know there's a process and that they'll be taken seriously.
15. "How does the 401(k) match work?"
Percentages, vesting schedules, contribution limits, and when matching shows up. People want to make sure they're getting the full match and understanding what they're signing up for.
The Judgment Gap
I could keep going. But here's the thing: almost none of these require human judgment. They're not complex cases that need interpretation. They're not sensitive situations that need empathy and discretion. They're factual questions with factual answers. The answer is written down somewhere. The problem is that "somewhere" isn't accessible enough.
The Cost of Repetition
Add up the time. If your HR team spends just 5 minutes on each of these questions, and each question comes in a few times a week, you're looking at hours every week spent on things that could be self-service.
That's time not spent on the work that actually needs an HR professional. Recruiting. Employee relations. Training and development. Culture initiatives. Strategic work that moves the organization forward. Instead, you're a human search engine for information that already exists. If you're looking to reduce HR ticket volume, these are the exact questions to target first.
The Solution: Make Answers Accessible
This is the problem that AI for HR solves. Not by replacing HR, but by giving employees a faster path to answers for the routine stuff.
They ask a question in plain language, they get an answer pulled from your actual policies and documents, and they see the source, so they know it's legit. An AI HR chatbot can handle all 15 of these questions without breaking a sweat. The 15 questions become self-service. HR gets their time back. Employees get faster answers. Everyone wins.
The sensitive stuff, the complex cases, the situations that actually need a human? Those still come to you. But you have time for them now because you're not explaining the PTO policy for the third time today.
JoySuite handles the routine questions so your HR team doesn't have to. Employees ask, Joy answers from your policies with citations. Your team focuses on the work that actually needs them.
