Role of Help Desk Techs Evolving

For some enterprises, it can be difficult to find qualified IT help desk technicians. When hiring for such a position, HR and managers should look for candidates who are both technically skilled and good with customer interaction. But what other skills should the right candidate possess?

Our IT Downloads can help you find just such a qualified worker. Download our document, “Job Description: IT Help Desk Technician.” It is a ready-to-go job description that human resources can post directly to career sites, or it can be added to or edited to fit your company’s individual needs.

The document contains a list of important technologies for which candidates should be prepared to provide support, including:

·         Printers

·         Fax machines

·         Copy machines

·         PCs

·         Macs

·         A/V equipment

·         Mobile devices

Of course, some enterprises may have specific software or hardware that is unique to their environments to include. VPNs, cloud environments and software packages differ from company to company, so to find someone skilled in troubleshooting and providing support for such an environment, be sure to include the specifications in your job listing.

One area of expertise that many companies are now scrambling to find support help for is in BYOD and mobile devices in general. Having techs on staff that can assist users with a wide range of issues via a broad spectrum of mobile devices is an invaluable asset for a company using BYOD.

According to TechRadar, several problems can arise for companies that support BYOD in the workplace. The article lists “network connectivity, bandwidth hogging, application compatibility, and inaccessibility of shared devices” as items that an internal help desk will likely encounter. Such issues can cause a glut in the number of help desk tickets, so ensuring that your company’s support staff includes members who can troubleshoot these challenges will be important as the number of employees using their own devices increases. Be sure to look for a candidate who has experience with Android, iOS and Windows devices and who can answer questions about basic, work-supported software and apps used on such devices.

Also, if your company will be supporting BYOD, it’s important to remind end users to not bog down the help desk queue with questions about non-supported apps for issues with devices at home. The IT help desk is provided for work-related challenges—only issues that affect on-the-job performance should be directed to and solved by the help desk. Tell your help desk techs to just say “no” to questions about personal-use device problems.