Best Practices Related to Placing Cases in Suspended State

[Lisa Patten]

Hi everyone! We've been asked to find a solution to send automatic "chaser" emails to case assignees when cases are in suspended state. We're thinking that our customers are trying to find a system solution to a process related issue. It's our impression that our Shared Services Team may be placing cases in Suspended State far too frequently. I'd like to provide guidance for Standard Operating Procedures that state "these are the only times to place cases in suspended state". I'm thinking that placing cases in suspended state should be the exception and not the rule, but please let me know if anyone disagrees.

Can anyone provide me with guidance or best practices for when you would place a case in Suspended state? Thank you, in advance, for your feedback and expertise!!!

[Rob Sestito]

Hey @Lisa Patten  - 

You're absolutely right to question whether there's a single "best practice" here — in reality, there really isn't. The use of Suspended in HR Case Management varies a lot from company to company, because it’s tied directly to internal processes, SLAs, and organizational culture.

What I’ve seen across multiple implementations is this:

Suspend Should Be Intentional — Not a Default

Most organizations treat Suspended as an exception state, not a routine one.
Placing a case in Suspend should have a clear purpose tied to a known waiting period — usually something that genuinely prevents forward progress.

Examples I’ve seen include:

• Waiting on the employee for mandatory information

• Waiting on a third party (benefits provider, background check vendor, security, etc.)

• Waiting for a future date (start date, eligibility date, scheduled follow-up)

But even those should have structure behind them.

Process Drives Tooling — Not the Other Way Around

If the Shared Services team is suspending too frequently, adding chaser emails won’t fix the root issue — it will just automate reminders around a broken process.

Before building automation, it’s worth asking:

1. Why are cases being suspended so often?
2. Are agents using Suspend because they do not know the right next step?
3. Is Suspend being used as a workaround for missing workflows/unclear expectations?

Sometimes the overuse of Suspend is a good indicator that the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) need clarification.

Define Clear, Limited Use Cases

Every company I’ve worked with ends up documenting specific criteria such as:

“Cases may only be placed into Suspended when:

1. X...

2. Y...
3. Z..."

This ensures consistency, minimizes SLA impact confusion, and keeps reporting meaningful.

Example: A company I worked for previously had certain processes/requests that did take a long time to obtain the next step/complete. Therefore, they would use Suspend to pause the SLA timing while they waited.

Automations Should Support the Process, Not Replace It

If the business still wants reminder emails (“chasers”), they can absolutely be automated — but they should be tied to a well-defined Suspend policy, not used to compensate for unclear case-handling behavior.

Overall, there’s no universal best practice for Suspend. There’s only your organization’s defined use cases and the discipline around adhering to them. Suspend should be the exception, not the norm — and when it becomes the norm, that usually signals a process issue rather than a system one.

I hope this helps!

Take care,

-Rob