The help desk manager position at any IT organization is absolutely essential to their well functioning and productivity. This position stands at the head of all the help desk roles, ensuring team productivity and continual improvement. They are, above all, team workers, insightful advisors, and solid organizers who are able to—of course, as their name suggests, manage workgroups.
In this article we will explore the job description of a help desk manager, to see what it takes to be an optimal candidate. If you are aspiring to become manager and want to know what to focus on, or if you are looking to fill this position and want to do it as mindfully as possible, here is the key information you need.
Let's get into it!
Help desk manager responsibilities
Help desk managers are team leaders that actively tailor and update service desk initiatives so that members of the service desk staff can gel together in a more efficient and cohesive way. This includes things such as looking at metrics to benchmark staff performance, sharing and documenting said performance reviews with higherups, and being aware of the service desk operations budget in the grand scheme of things.
Then there’s the recording, tracking, and documenting of each and every move done inside of the workforce team. This basically means “Senior management wants to know what’s going on as regularly as possible” but it’ll also ensure senior managers that you are using the gathered data to course-correct when needed. Your expertise in communication is all-encompassing as you might have already noticed.
Apart from this, there’s the software and hardware installation and update side of things. Yes, there are things that some service desk managers don’t really do anymore if they have a big team to offer support, but contrary to popular belief, managers actually aid in these tasks more often than you’d think. Consequently, you’ll need to brush up on all your knowledge in terms of both hardware and software handling.
Finally, methodical troubleshooting is also something that sounds fancy but boils down to something really simple: more efficient planning. This implies knowing how to identify a problem (big or small) and have a game plan to fix it within a reasonable timeframe to maximize efficiency.
Ideal help desk manager candidate
So, let's see which skills are most important to carry out these tasks. Firstly, an effective communicator basically means that managers have to be clear in voicing suggestions and concerns with how things are going in the workspace. Nobody wants a bossy manager, but a weak one is someone who nobody in the team will take seriously. Striking that balance might be tricky but doable.
This also ties into the team player and service-oriented part, which both mean that you’ll showcase a vocation for giving the best service possible and instill the company values in your co-workers as well. Speaking of company values, being principled means, of course, that you’ll uphold said values and ethics even after clocking out.
Help Desk Manager Job Description Example
Oftentimes job descriptions can be rather obtuse or way too broad in terms of what they really need from help desk managers. So we have decided to run a little test and give you a sample of what you might encounter in job descriptions posted on the most popular sites. For those looking to fill this position, this can also guide you as to what is usually included in these types of openings.
Let's take a look:
We are looking for an effective communicator to manage a brand new team of service desk operators in our nascent company based in Scranton, Los Angeles.
A candidate who could thrive in this position must also be service-oriented, principled, and a team player.
Responsibilities include:
- Software and hardware installation, update and support.
- Carry out methodical troubleshooting and include the steps in a solutions database.
- Record, track and document the problem-solving steps taken by staff members for each request from customers.
Qualifications:
- 2+ years of experience with MS Office Tools and troubleshooting skills.
- MCSE training and designations.
- Experience with IT Service Management (ITSM) and CRM tools.
- Good use of systems lifecycle management tools and knowledge of basic scripting.
Help Desk Manager Qualifications
The side of qualifications is perhaps the most jargon-heavy side of job descriptions so keeping it nice and simple will do the trick.
Times might change but MS Office tools continue to be of great help in IT circles so knowing how to work with these tools is pretty much the standard for any IT-related job. It's important to know them inside out, since more of then than not, managers have to do some troubleshooting and support work with these.
In regards to the part that requires MCSE training, suffice it to say that managers have to do some studying to get that Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert certification. This is a wildly popular certification in the world of IT and having it in a resume is a sort of quality assurance for future employers which says “I know my stuff”.
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and it comprises everything from pieces of software, strategies, and or processes that help businesses better organize and access customer data. In times of old a simple Rolodex would have done the trick but employers nowadays are looking for Service Desk Managers who can use platforms that connect the company’s different departments, from marketing to sales to customer service teams, and organize their notes, activities, and metrics into one cohesive system.
ITSM tools are the lifeblood of an IT organization. If you're already in the field, you're likely aware of this. Knowing the way around ITSM and IT Asset Management (ITAM ) tools, as well as familiarity with ITIL guidelines, will go a long way to make an ideal candidate.
Last but not least, there are the System Lifecycle Management Tools and scripting qualifications. This means that managers need to have knowledge in how to take a project from its inception to its finalized state. Since they’ll be the one in charge of management, they’re the one who team members will refer to when a problem arises during this process so staying sharp is of the utmost importance at any stage of the system’s lifecycle. Of course, scripting is a must in any IT position nowadays so it goes without saying that scripting skills should be up to par with the standard in today’s IT labor market.
Bottom Line
When searching for a job as a service desk manager or looking to hire the best possible candidate, it’s important to consider all the position's responsibilities and which are some key skills needed to succeed.
Thus, this quick guide can support you through the job hunting process, so you can work on anything you might need to improve before applying to open positions. Or, if you are on the other side, it will surely give you some insight into what it takes to find an optimal team leader to take your help desk to success.
