According to the latest statistics, telecommuting has increased 115% in the last decade. No longer does IT Support sit a few steps away or down the hall. A Help Desk employee cannot arrive at your employees’ desks in a moment’s notice to look over their shoulders, tap away on their keyboards for a few minutes and restore their network connections or retrieve lost files. At the same time, the need for help does not diminish because your employees are working remotely; it increases.
Why has proper Help Desk support become so crucial in our remote working world? Several factors have contributed; let’s take a closer look at the benefits of help desk support.
Benefits Of Help Desk Support:
Unsecure Endpoints
Endpoints are the virtual or physical devices connected to your corporate network. Employees working remotely become more vulnerable to sophisticated cyberattacks. In the face of the pandemic many companies moved rapidly to a remote workforce without being vigilant regarding the related cybersecurity issues. Using unsecured Wi-Fi connections and failing to use secure VPN, employees open the door to hackers. Remote workers naïve about cybersecurity risks can fall for phishing scams and are likely to use their device for both work and personal email, further undermining security.
Software Issues
Newer hires working offsite may have a difficult time navigating your proprietary software or HR and communications applications. Without having the opportunity to learn from a co-worker in the next cubicle, these new team members rely on the prompt response of a knowledgeable Help Desk technician.
If your business uses desktop-based software, where the applications are housed on each individual desktop, your technicians need to access each machine to apply upgrades. Moving to web-based or cloud versions makes upgrades easier and keeps all users on the same releases. But these transitions add to your Help Desk’s workload.
Tiered vs. Full-stack
The increased workload on Help Desk support also demands greater efficiency and skill from its technicians. The traditional tiered system, where problems moved up the Help Desk chain based on the issue’s complexity, may not handle efficiently the current needs. Help Desks should consider moving to a “full-stack” approach where technicians with more sophisticated skills and problem-solving abilities can address a myriad of issues.
How skilled are the technicians on your Help Desk? How familiar is your Help Desk team with current cybersecurity issues? It may not prove cost effective for you to bring your team fully up to speed. Consider using the experts at JMA Consulting to handle your Help Desk for you; they have the expertise to efficiently and effectively support your remote workforce.