6 ways to turn your IT help desk into a strategic asset

4. Treat the help desk as talent incubator

Nearly every company has open reqs for IT positions because the IT talent shortage remains. Consequently, CIOs have had to figure out new ways to “grow” talent, such as hiring raw and inexperienced individuals from the outside.

Community colleges and universities teach students how to code and work with IT systems, but they can’t teach students the particulars of your own IT environment. A great place to break in new talent is to start them at the help desk. They’ll acquire a working knowledge of users, IT staff, and company systems. Coupled with a strong upskilling program, the IT help desk can be transformed into a strategic talent pipeline for serving business needs right.

5. Start IT’s self-service strategy here

Users want to be able to self-schedule IT service, and to have access to relevant information through a user-friendly online portal that enables them to immediately resolve many of their own issues. This is why an effective user self-service portal should be a help desk initiative that is on every CIO’s list. The help desk should be the strategic lead for this project, since it is IT’s primary service point for end users.