workshop -
18 Training... A Key to Better Help Desk Consultants
Anna
Maria Perez, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Andrea Moore, University of Maryland Baltimore County
The quality of student consultants and their
development through training and education are major factors in determining
long-term effectiveness of university Help Desk. To hire and retain good
student consultants, it is good policy to invest in the development of their
skills, so they can increase their productivity and obtain real-world work
experience as IT Professionals.
We would like to share with our colleagues the evolution
of our consultant training procedures from “train yourselves” to a formal,
systematic training program:
* First day of work orientation: Introducing each new
consultant to the department as a whole, each department and an overview of how
the Help Desk and its consultants fit.
* One-on-one training on specific applications.
* Self-Paced learning (Handbooks at each station with
flow charts and step by step instructions on how to handle specific situations,
Web resources (on-line documentation on supported software packages, University
Policies and Procedures, and CD-ROM-based containing tutorials).
* One-Day Training sessions which include:
Guest speakers on specific topics (i.e. Customer
Service, Handling Difficult Customers, Troubleshooting)
Role Playing scenarios of common service issues and
areas of confusion
Rotational Cross-Training among various teams, part of
on-going training for all consultants.
Lab training, for the experienced consultants.
After their training sessions, consultants are given
an online test. The results help us
determine if each trainee has learned the required knowledge to become an
effective help desk consultant, or if they require additional training and
reinforcement of the skills. This is an
ongoing process, which helps us maximize training and meet the training goals
for each consultant.
Our 90-minute presentation will showcase the techniques that we have used, the lessons we have learned, and the future plans for our consultant-training program. We will also demonstrate the various training tools we have employed, such as flowcharts, training programs, video clips, and online documentation.