How to Arrange an Effective Schedule for IT Service Desk Employees?


Managing a growing business daily can indeed become too overwhelming most of the time. As the business grows, more work needs to be done. Although we all want to keep the business moving forward, keeping up can sometimes be very exhausting especially for managers. Finding the balance to manage and run everything all at the same time is an art, and requires true discipline. Dealing with urgent and important matters must be done immediately to avoid adverse results. To do so, you need to strategize.

One system that can help you facilitate your business operation is to implement a service desk. An IT service desk can significantly help you to streamline your business processes. And it can even boost overall productivity. But if you already implemented it, you know well that leading and managing it effectively is never without its challenges. For instance, managing your service desk employee’s schedules to make sure there wont be any lull. As a service desk manager, you would want to fully utilize the potential of your service desk.

So, whether you already have an IT service desk or considering implementing one—this mini-guide is for you. Learn everything about an IT service desk, it’s key benefits for your business, and how to arrange an effective schedule to prevent your team from being overstretched.

What is an IT Service Desk?

An IT service desk is designed to be the single point of contact between end-users and the service provider (or IT organization). An IT service desk is meant to handle both incident requests (like service disruptions) and service requests (service-related tasks). For example, the service desk can report incidents such as a disruption in service quality; and create service requests such as in the process of onboarding a new employee or getting hardware like a new desktop computer.

In general, service desks implement a broader and more user-centered approach when itcomes to service delivery. Moreover, IT service desks follow the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework to administer the creation, recording, and resolving services to the end-user. ITIL, incidentally, gives the structure in delivering better services by utilizing service lifecycle:

(1) service strategy,

(2) service design,

(3) service transition,

(4) service operation and

(5) Continual Service Improvement (CSI).

Typically, a service desk should serve as the go-to place for all IT-related needs. It should be user-centric as well as business-centric, capturing the very essence of managing IT like a service or one of IT service management (ITSM) best practices.

Service Desk Vs Help Desk

Many confuse service desk and helpdesk to be the same, as evident to some interchangeably using the terms. Though both have some similarities, they are also very different. The primary distinction of these terms centers around how they are designed to function.

Help Desk

A help desk provides information or support related to a company’s products, services, or processes. It acts as a centralized resource to answer questions, do basic troubleshooting, and facilitating solutions to known problems. It’s prime focus is to give help and break-fix assistance.

Help desks aren’t necessarily IT-focused. It can also interact directly and in-person with requestors such as in a physical location, over the phone, email, or via chat. A technical support center, facilities service center, and employee’s benefits desk are common examples of a help desk.

Service Desk

A service desk can act as a help desk at times but extends beyond answering questions. IT service desks focuses more on IT services and handles a broad range of IT-related tasks. It follows a holistic approach and proactively avoids (service) incidents from happening. Service desks have an exhaustive set of functions such as:

  • managing key ITSM tasks
  •  engaging in asset management
  • Acts as the SPOC for all IT functions
  • manages entry-level ticket management service
  • ensuring compliance for SLAs

Benefits of IT Service Desk

A service desk helps in streamlining the process of your business operations. Having an IT service desk brings a plethora of benefits for your business. Some key benefits include:

  •  cost- and time-saving
  •  facilitates better collaboration and communication between IT and other departments
  •  enhance operational efficiency
  • schedule change processes
  •  improves productivity
  •  timely responsiveness and problem resolution
  • improve asset management
  •  enables valuable insights in making data-driven decisions

IT Service Desk Tools

For a better IT service desk operations, using competent software and other technology is a recommended move. For instance, you should implement a service request wordflow capabilities using your service desk software to help manage escalations. You should also provide automation capabilities, facilitate and record communications, and integrating your service desk systems into broader ITSM.

Choosing the right IT service desk software is pivotal to your business operation. Having the right tools help your IT team to work collaboratively, efficiently, and effectively. An excellent service desk software should have the following features:

  •  Ticket management
  •  SLA management
  •  Task, problem, asset, release, contract, and change management
  •  Knowledge-base and customer service portal
  •  Service catalog
  •  Dashboards
  •  Automation
  •  Analytics

Effective Schedule for IT Service Desk Employees

It is just plain impossible to have a smooth-running business and hitting every goal without proper implementation of employee’s schedules. Whether it’s for your IT service desk task or your entire workforce, executing an effective schedule is absolutely necessary. Moreover, scheduling should not solely be focusing on making sure everyone shows up at work. You also need to track their progress, analyze schedule insights, and more. This is why it’s also crucial to have a time tracker to monitor your employees.

Why is an employee time tracking important?

An employee time tracking tool or software allows you to manage your employee’s schedules effectively. It also can record more data and give more insights into what and how much time your employees are working. With an employee time tracking system, you’ll be better equipped in accomplishing your business goals.

Apart from helping you to have better scheduling, an employee time tracking system is important because:

  •  it improves accountability
  •  it promotes positive results
  •  it boosts employee’s morale
  • it is cost-saving
  •  it is time-efficient
  •  it gives reliable work data

With a time tracker, your IT service desk can accomplish more while making sure everyone is on the same page. Most time tracking software nowadays allows you to communicate and collaborate too.

Summing it up

An IT service desk is proven to be highly beneficial for businesses. A service desk helps streamline the business operation as well as offer more positive benefits overall. To better manage an IT service desk, it is crucial to know why it is designed and how it should function. This will allow a better perspective and leads to a more effective arrangement of employee’s schedules. Moreover, to have an effective schedule for the IT service desk, utilizing an employee time tracking system will help tremendously.
About the author

Meggie is a freelance writer and communication manager at AMGtimeOpens in a new tab.. Meggie is deeply convinced that marketing is a key to get success in all spheres and it’s a crucial part of our lives. Regularly, she delivers various concepts on how to market products, services, and events effectively. Meggie believes in a win-win formula and utilizes it on a daily basis in staff management.

Steve Todd

Steve Todd, founder of Open Sourced Workplace and is a recognized thought leader in workplace strategy and the future of work. With a passion for work from anywhere, Steve has successfully implemented transformative strategies that enhance productivity and employee satisfaction. Through Open Sourced Workplace, he fosters collaboration among HR, facilities management, technology, and real estate professionals, providing valuable insights and resources. As a speaker and contributor to various publications, Steve remains dedicated to staying at the forefront of workplace innovation, helping organizations thrive in today's dynamic work environment.

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