Tactics to help boost the moral/productivity of a service desk

I was just wondering if anyone could share some innovative ideas for getting a service desk to perform at a high level. I had discussions with a friend about this last night and would love to see some ideas.

Award programs
Pats on the back
Educational budget
Performance awards
Succession planning input and alignment

Thanks for taking the time to read and provide information***If at all possible granular details would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments

veritas_libertas

When we say Service Desk, are we referring to Help Desk?

N2IT

Help desk (end users) not input to management. Sorry for the typo doing nine things at once.

Honestly a hybrid at this point. Access management has been integrated along with Request management

Just for the sake of making it simplistic let's go with the function.

Qord

"Thank you"'s and "good job"'s can go a long way. So can asking instead of telling.

I'd be careful with awards; Competition is good, but there is a point where you get diminishing returns on it. Quality might start going downhill in favor of quantity.

Education funding/reimbursement is great, but the time to study at work is even greater.

While not traditional, projects have the potential to be huge for morale. There is a great sense of accomplishment and pride that comes with finishing a project, and as long as it doesn't interfere with helpdesk duties, it's good.

Bad joke of the day email? I love puns, especially REALLY bad ones. A smile, groan, and a chuckle can turn someones day around in a good way.

That's all I've got off the top of my head.

veritas_libertas

ARGH, ITIL speak

I think this is a great topic. I think there is too little resources, and respect given to Help Desk teams. A good Help Desk can mean happy users, and less low priority (easy fix) work for the Desktop and Network teams. I worked on a Help Desk for about six months and it was run very well. What appreciated most though was that the IT department treated everyone respectfully. All to often this doesn't happen, and teams will act according how they are treated.

N2IT

Qord and Veritas thanks for adding value I appreciate your participation.

SteveLord

"The beatings will continue until moral improves!"

But anyway....pot luck? Who doesn't like food? We do those here once in a while.

networker050184

The best moral booster is free time off! My boss does a random 'you're doing a great job, go ahead and take off early today' when we've been doing well at work.

Iristheangel

One of my jobs has an employee of the month celebration. Whoever wins it gets a free EOM metal (think special olympics gold metal) and a free PTO day of their choosing. That kind of stuff works for most people. For me? I always liked it when a manager gives positive attention such as taking select employees out to lunch when they're doing a good job. That makes me feel more personally vested in a company than a metal but that might just be me

glenn_33

pizza party!

RomBUS

Free (if free cannot be done then a good discount) tickets to sporting events? Those are always fun

the_Grinch

Definitely order food for the team on a fairly regular basis
Happy Hours (company doesn't have to pay, but going out as a group is always fun)
Employee of the Month (give them a better parking spot if possible)
Clear path to promotions (few people get on the helpdesk to stay there, so have a clear way for them to get out)
Speak movie quotes (seem every desk I've been at, the more movie quotes the better the day)
Speak to team members about future goals (not enough places do this, might find their goal lines up with a company goal)

stlsmoore

Good FREE Food goes a looong way!

ptilsen

Award programs & Pats on the back:
Give frequent awards and employee feedback. Make everyone feel that their work is appreciated and has an impact. Find ways to objectively measure performance as much as possible, and subjectively measure the rest. Do quarterly reviews. Give out gift cards, event tickets, "free" PTO, award stickers/ribbons/etc., ties or shirts or other nonsense. Give out small "projects" that might let someone get off of phones/email and research or experience something else that can help the organization or the service desk. Recognize any kind of contributions that go outside the objective measurements.

Educational budget
Give employees certification and/or tuition reimbursement, or send them to cert/tech training. It can be small, even absurdly small, less than $1000/year. It makes employee feel rewarded for self-improvement, which gives an incentive to stay with the organization.

Performance awards
Once objective measurements are in place, create a bonus, profit sharing, or commission structure. It can either be absurdly small or be big enough to partially replace base pay. It needs to be paid out very incrementally, which means even quarterly can be too long, and annually is way too long. People feel better about their work if there is a near-future payout. Again, there can be "awards" instead of cash, but I think both combined are more effective than either alone.

For a service desk of more or less any kind, common things to track include:
End-user/customer satisfaction surveys
Tickets closed per unit of time (usually day) worked
Calls/emails/IM chats per unit of time worked
Time per ticket
Ticket re-open ratio
Billable hours/time that can be allocated to servicing users/customers and their systems
Process adherence (change management, note detail, ticket management, proper CMDB and CI use, security policy etc.)

N2IT

I really do appreciate all the responses they have been overwhelming.

I am moving back into a management strategy position in a service desk/help desk role and really want to do a really good job. I want to lead the best I can and get the most out of my employees while giving them critical skills that can help them ascend into a fruitful IT career. I'll be working directly for a manager who calls the shots, my goal is to provide them with as much support and innovation as possible.

rsutton

It sounds like we are in similar roles N2IT. I've benefited from reading "12: The Elements of Great Managing". It's based on an enormous study the Gallup Organization did on Employee Happiness and goes in to details about building team synergy, motivation and happiness.

N2IT

rsutton thanks for the heads up

I started reading Kepner Tregoe Incident and Problem Management material. It's much more detailed than ITIL and provides templates that can be used.

I plan on looking into the book you recommended.

YFZblu

1. Free training - Certification reimbursement is great. When I was in helpdesk I never cared much for the internal training, as bad as that looked.

2. If this helpdesk is anything like the one I worked in, the service desk guys/gals are low on the totem pole as far as IT is concerned. Including these people in higher-level technical meetings could help build value for the department, and give them an idea of what is going on beyond helping end users with their Outlook personal folders.

3. I second the 'good free food' notion

networker050184

YFZblu wrote: »

2. If this helpdesk is anything like the one I worked in, the service desk guys/gals are low on the totem pole as far as IT is concerned. Including these people in higher-level technical meetings could help build value for the department, and give them an idea of what is going on beyond helping end users with their Outlook personal folders.

I think this is excellent advice here. Having people feel involved and part of the bigger IT picture will definitely help them have a feeling of 'ownership' and therefore work harder on their piece of the big picture.

MiikeB

I agree good jobs etc go a long way, but also if its a high volume call center anything you can do to rotate people off the phone, even if its for like 1 hour twice a week will go a LONG way.

I was a supervisor at a high volume helpdesk and I put my team on a system where once every 2 hours they got 20 minutes off the phone to catch up on things etc. Obviously these breaks had to be staggered. I found a lot of the people were stressing about the metrics we measured (avg call time, avg handle time, after call work time, average hold time etc) that little things outside of the phone calls would build up and stress them out. This 20 minutes allowed them to get that work done, go to the restroom, grab a drink etc etc.

eten

When I worked at help desk at a large bank, we had education reimbursement up to $1500 / year. You'll be surprised; I would say 80% of the people that work there never used it. Most of them that worked there over 1-2 years were satisfied with their job and don't want to improve. It's either escape early or you'll be stuck there for 5 years before you know it.

ChooseLife

There was this awesome thread on TE several months ago about things that motivate people, and it had some creative, unusual and great ideas - like flowers / gift cards for SOs of those who had to work extra hours during emergencies...

P.S. LOL, N2IT this was your thread!

http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/75223-low-cost-ways-show-employees-theyre-highly-valued.html

NetworkingStudent

N2IT wrote: »

I was just wondering if anyone could share some innovative ideas for getting a service desk to perform at a high level. I had discussions with a friend about this last night and would love to see some ideas.

Award programs
Pats on the back
Educational budget
Performance awards
Succession planning input and alignment

Thanks for taking the time to read and provide information***If at all possible granular details would be greatly appreciated.

Hopefully this helps

Are Your Employee Engagement Efforts Driving Service Quality, Too?*|*HDIConnect

NetworkingStudent

found this too via Comptia Smart Brief

Using Games Can Help Drive Employee Engagement : Technology :: American Express OPEN Forum

and

Overlooked Ways to Motivate Employees

Roguetadhg

Showing genuine Appriciation is enough from what I've seen. What that appriciation may be - monetary, gift, something "thoughtful" that the person knows you did something out of the ordinary and thought of specifically them.

It's like showing up to the door with flowers to your significant other. Or remembering something that they wanted, and got them that.

Hypntick

ChooseLife wrote: »

There was this awesome thread on TE several months ago about things that motivate people, and it had some creative, unusual and great ideas - like flowers / gift cards for SOs of those who had to work extra hours during emergencies...

P.S. LOL, N2IT this was your thread!
http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/75223-low-cost-ways-show-employees-theyre-highly-valued.html

I like that idea of the gifts for the SOs of those of us who work long hours. I think my wife would love a nice dinner to make up for all the time she's been woken up by my phone while i'm on call.

kriscamaro68

When I was over helpdesk a few years back I brought in my PS2 and we would play a few rounds of mortal kombat after we did 10 helpdesk tickets. Kept things interesting. I would also bring in donuts or something like that every now and then.

Roguetadhg

I could see that being a great motivation lol

MeanDrunkR2D2

Stripper Saturdays were always a popular treat for those that worked over the weekends at my old job.

(yea, I wish)

SteveLord

My supervisor bought us Jimmy John's for lunch this week. A month ago, I ordered edible arrangements for our group...under an alias (my name spelled backwards, which they eventually figured out.) Keep in mind, I am the only male in the group (so the chocolate covered strawberries were a hit) and the only IT person for the office. Even I give back to people that are patient and cooperative when I take care of their IT issues. And especially those who don't talk **** behind my back.

Take care of me, I take care of you.