Help Desk Responsibilities Expand from Tactical to Strategic

Your old notions of a help desk may need to be refreshed.

In many ways, 2020 was the year that IT and the IT service desk reasserted their value to the organization and its employees. It probably wouldn’t be an understatement to say that the IT service desk has been vital to organizational resilience over the past few years. 

According to a workforce survey from CompTIA, as technology continues to evolve from backroom tactics to frontline strategy, help desk professionals are taking on new responsibilities and adding new skills.

The need for high-quality, high-availability technical support is heightened as the importance of technology in daily operations and long-term strategic planning is elevated, according to Seth Robinson, senior director for technology analysis at CompTIA.

“As organizations rely on technology to a greater degree to stay connected to their customers and keep their workforce productive, the help desk must function at a very high level and do so while tackling a wider array of support issues,” Robinson said.

Demand for tech support has increased for issues related to:

• Cybersecurity (70% of respondents)
• Securing networks (67%)
• Remote work and work from home (67%)
• Mobile device issues (60%)
• Software-as-a-service and cloud (57%)

When asked about the technology skills that are critically or very important, respondents cited the following:

• Cybersecurity (76%)
• Software (71%)
• Network support (70%)
• Operating systems (70%)
• Hardware (69%)
• Cloud/SaaS (67%)
• Mobile devices (67%)

More emphasis on customer experience

Companies are also placing a greater emphasis on having their help desk staff deliver a positive customer experience. The survey finds that 65% of companies rate customer satisfaction as the primary metric for evaluating the effectiveness of their help desk.

Analysis from Motion help desk job descriptions supports this statistic. The following are common requirements hiring managers are seeking:

• Excellent customer service skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Keen attention to detail
• Proven analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Ability to work both independently and as a team player with the ability and desire to effectively meet challenges and influence and drive consensus within the team
• Dedication to strong customer service and quality control
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills with customers, vendors, peers, and management