What IT Service Desk Managers Need to Know About Employee Experience?

IT Service Management (ITSM) is currently one of the most talked about topics. Ongoing organizational success is key to the evolution of experience management, especially in the IT sector. While experience management is an ever-evolving and time-consuming process, improving the experience of IT service desk managers is just as important as ensuring customer experience.

What is employee experience, and why is it important? ​

 For employee experience, the "what" depends upon your organization and its representatives. Broadly, employee experience is the way employees internalize and comprehend the interactions they have during the tenure at their organizations. The contexts in which these interactions occur also add to employee experience.

According to Forrester Research, employee experience is one of the most important factors in enhancing employees' progress. Employee Experience enhances efficiency regularly, which leads to organizational benefits as well. Generally, most managers put the employee experience in the last place and do not give any importance to it. 

Why is employee experiences over looked?

Employee experiences are often overlooked in organizations despite the fact that the quality of employee experience can have a significant impact on job satisfaction, morale, and overall productivity. 

Frequently this happens because employers either underestimate or do not recognize all of the factors that make up an effective, meaningful employee experience such as opportunities for professional growth and development, recognition, real autonomy in decision-making and ownership over processes. 

Without considering these key factors of employee experience, companies may be missing out on unlocking the potential of their team and creating a workplace culture that fosters strong connections with their employees. 

Moreover, when employee experiences are not thoughtfully considered it can ultimately lead to higher turnover rates and disengaged employees. 

As companies become increasingly aware of how important offering meaningful employee experiences is for both their employees and the company's bottom line, employers must not overlook what goes into delivering exceptional candidate and employee experiences. 

Here are ten employee experience tips that are often overlooked:

1. Clearly communicate the organization's mission, values, and goals to employees.
2. Provide opportunities for professional development and career advancement.
3. Foster a positive and supportive work environment.
4. Encourage open and transparent communication between management and employees.
5. Show appreciation and recognition for the work of employees.
6. Support work-life balance and encourage employees to take time off when needed.
7. Offer flexible work arrangements, such as the option to work remotely.
8. Provide employees with the resources and support they need to do their jobs effectively.
9. Address conflicts and issues in a timely and constructive manner.
10. Encourage employee input and ideas and make an effort to incorporate them into the organization's processes and policies.

Specific Challenges faced by IT support employees 

IT support is a difficult job. It requires employees to be knowledgeable, level-headed and be able to troubleshoot complex problems often under tight deadlines. 

Patience is also an important trait for IT personnel because those expecting assistance may not be well-versed in technical matters and could become frustrated or angry if the person providing help is not prepared. 

As the technology industry evolves rapidly, IT support engineers have to stay current with emerging hardware and software trends in order to effectively provide solutions. Keeping up with this constant learning curve can easily become overwhelming and make it difficult for many IT personnel to remain productive. Balancing customer demands while keeping a calm demeanor also is a challenge that IT support engineers face on a daily basis.

There are several challenges that an IT professional faces, some of which are listed below:  

1. High-ticket volume ​

With the involvement and relevance of IT in every domain since its inception, there is an increasing dependence on it for resolving all sorts of issues. With more businesses going online or using more internet facilities to expand their businesses, there is more significance in IT. As a result, there has been an increased volume of tickets, especially in the online mode. Therefore, handling such a volume of tickets is a daunting task.  

2. High user expectations ​

Businesses are competing with each other to attract customers. In order to fetch the top spot in the market, most companies raise the bar with their customer support and after-sales services, where IT service employees have the most significant role to play. 

The user's expectations are at a higher level as far as the resolution of the tickets is concerned. With an already high volume of tickets, the employees sometimes need help to meet the customers' expectations. 

As a result, the rating may be affected since there has been a delay in providing the solution. 

T support employees may face high levels of stress and pressure due to the nature of their work, which often involves handling complex technical issues and meeting tight deadlines.

3. Lack of resources and communication​

It is considered the prime reason for the IT support teams' failure worldwide. With lack of information and knowledge about resolving multiple issues, IT support teams will significantly cause business failure. 

Having a well-researched, easily accessible knowledge base, tools to automate tedious processes, and a healthy work environment are some ways a company can boost employee experience. 

A feeling of isolation from their coworkers due to the nature of their work, which may involve spending long periods of time working independently.

IT support employees may feel as though they do not receive adequate communication or support from management.

Failing to maintain it, the company will face some severe consequences as returning customers are the biggest asset to a company.

4 Ways to improve the employee experience ​

 Improving the employee experience has countless benefits. Besides the obvious benefit of happier, more engaged employees, businesses may also enjoy increased productivity and better customer service. 

Employees that feel their jobs are satisfying and worthwhile tend to be more focused on their work, while enjoying a sense of purpose; this can lead to them being more creative, taking initiative and delivering superior results. 

Additionally, employees who feel appreciated and supported tend to provide higher quality customer service as well as a better customer experience, which often translates into greater customer loyalty.

All of these elements that result from an improved employee experience can have a positive impact on business growth over time.

Here are a few ways to improve the employee experience.

1. Adopting an omnichannel support strategy ​

Being Omnichannel enables companies to have the most efficient methods to deal with customers, especially when there are multiple channels. It will be of great help when the employees can access the log books for managing various incidents and allows them to self-check the status of multiple requests.

IT companies and IT management service desk areas have long seen self-service innovation as an approach to easing the heat off exhausted IT support capabilities, decreasing expenses, and accelerating both resolving queries and arranging new IT services.

As of late, knowledge management software is seen as a tool that empowers an call center agent in further developing employee experience, regardless of where they work. This isn't simply because of the possibility to accelerate the delivery of IT support, but more readily matching the omnichannel services and backing experiences that meet the clients anywhere.

2. Using a knowledge base

One of the surest ways of making employees more confident is by furnishing them with an internal knowledge base to find answers to issues themselves. Besides, it allows your teams to impart data to first-line officials at their service desks. 

The primary variable of labor force enablement is a continuous 'flow' during the average business day. The more calls that can be resolved by self-service will lead to fewer disturbances to your workflow and will ensure you can handle more clients gradually. 

With lesser number of dealing of your support staff with the other teams will ensure that your focus on more important tasks like developing new products.

3. Clear and transparent feedback process ​ 

Sharing your input reports with your employees shows your association you value criticism and that you are aware of your areas of progress. In addition, have a balance of criticism and reward for your employees to ensure they are at a healthy competition within their team. 

This makes an individual substantially more mindful of the services offered in varied situations and becomes tilted to utilize your services.

4. Developing soft skills ​ 

Soft skills are specialized abilities that assist you with effectively interacting with others. These interactive abilities are becoming more significant for IT divisions as their jobs have become more transformed into overseeing and managing individuals and consumer satisfaction. 

For example, colleagues ought to have the option to encourage associates about which applications best assist their work and create consciousness of safety arrangements and management in a receptive way. 

Every one of delicate abilities assumes a significant part in the conveyance of good help - in contrast to, say, while you're keeping a server ready to go.

Wrapping up 

After considering all the aspects of employee experience in an organization, new hurdles come into the picture with changing times and technology. However, with proper analysis and technological expertise, anyone can overcome the shortcomings and gradually excel. 

Employee experience depends on focusing on the subjects mentioned above, making your company a great success, and making yours a harmonious brand with positive employee experience.