4 Obstacles Keeping You from the Help Desk Talent You Need

Here’s some good news: 46% of companies expect their IT budgets to increase in 2016 – opening the door for new solutions, new tools, and likely, some new challenges for the Help Desk. It’s a maze-shows-challenge-or-complexity_MyhDTQv_positive when IT has the resources to make potentially long-awaited upgrades. However, changes often mean more work for the Help Desk as users struggle to navigate unfamiliar technologies and new technologies are integrated with existing tools.

Increased Help Desk activity can be handled in essentially one of two ways: lean more heavily on current team members or increase the size of the team. That first option can put team members on a surefire path to burnout. One report had IT pros averaging 52-hour-workweeks. In the same report, many others said highs of 60 hour weeks are their norm.

Increasing the size of the Help Desk team makes sense, however 68% of companies say they expect filling open tech positions to be either challenging or very challenging. What’s the root cause of that frustration? Here are four frequently-encountered challenges:

  • Challenge #1: Finding the right mix of tech skills. Working on the Help Desk requires skillsets which cover multiple IT disciplines. When a call comes in, a staffer needs to be able to recognize the problem quickly and either solve it or know where to escalate it.
  • Challenge #2: Narrowing down your options. Open positions have a way of attracting mountains of résumés. Not all of those who apply are cut out for the position, however. Sifting through them takes time and resources. Even after promising candidates have been identified, there’s still the interview process.
  • Challenge #3: Addressing availability concerns. Even the best workers aren’t available 24/7. In addition to normal, expected time off, there’s always the chance for unplanned absences due to sickness or transportation issues. Planned or unplanned, time off ends with IT once again being shorthanded. During the hiring process, IT may feel pressure to bring on additional or temporary staffers to cover for these eventualities.
  • Challenge #4: Balancing tech-savvy and people-friendly. When it comes to succeeding on the Help Desk, technical skills are always a top consideration. A trait that can be overlooked? People skills. Truly standout candidates must display both elite tech know-how and customer service skills.

Cure Help Desk hiring headaches

One way to bypass those hiring challenges? Managed Help Desk from Arraya Solutions. This service links existing Help Desk teams with our award-winning Managed Services team. Our team expands upon onsite IT teams, adding the experience, skillsets, or simply the extra hands those teams need to better serve end users.

In terms of the challenges listed above:

  • Tech skills: Our Managed Services team is well-versed in supporting diverse technological environments thanks to our relationships with multiple industry-leaders
  • Availability: Arraya has structured our team so that it will be ready to provide support 24/7, 365 days a year
  • Customer service: We believe every customer deserves to receive a superhero level of service and that has become a prerequisite of our own hiring/training processes

As for hiring, the responsibility for maintaining a high-quality Help Desk falls on Arraya. This covers everything from identifying the best candidates, hiring them, and training them on what they need to do to succeed. With these HR and training responsibilities shifted elsewhere, IT is able to focus on IT.

Want to learn more about Managed Help Desk? Reach out to us today to schedule your free Help Desk Discovery Workshop. This half-day, onsite workshop enables organizations to tap into Arraya’s knowledge and experience in order to develop an actionable and effective Help Desk management strategy.

Our Discovery Workshop also includes a discussion on an organization’s Help Desk goals. Once the destination has been determined, the Arraya team will break down valuable support metrics which can help customers hit their goals.

After you sign up, be sure to follow Arraya on Twitter @ArrayaSolutions. There you’ll find updates on all of our latest blogs, events and special offers.

 

Arraya Insights