IT Help Desk Team Lead

The IT Help Desk Team Lead will also contribute to problem resolution by giving customer support to end-users and individually, or in collaboration with colleagues, addressing any and all concerns identified by clients. This role focused on managing the day-to-day operations of Help Desk staff members. The Help Desk Team Lead is responsible for maintaining an excellent team, including excelling at these core duties:

• Act as the staff supervisor for a portion of the IT Help Desk, including ensuring the IT help desk has complete, full, and adequate staffing levels for all days and shifts, guaranteeing that the IT Help Desk team triages requests to meet or surpass SLA requirements related to respond time, quality of response, and other metrics, and addressing issues that arise, including staffing considerations, filling vacation or sick leave requests, clients concerns, emergency situations, and other important topics.
• Maintain appropriate staffing levels and ensure staff perform duties as assigned and are meeting or exceeding expectations. Participate in the hiring and onboarding new staff, support with building training and education modules, conduct regular 1:1 meetings with staff, conduct performance evaluations, hold staff accountable, and as needed, work with Help Desk Director to offboard staff who do not meet performance standards.
• Support, encourage, and nurture the talent, skills, and abilities of the other IT Help Desk team members by actively lifting up positive outcomes and building a culture of positivity, enthusiasm, and comradery. Learn and grow with staff members to develop a strong team with a balanced set of shared skills, ideas, and problem-solving abilities. Apply positive and corrective accountability fairly and consistently. Advocate for process improvements, changes, and training opportunities as needed.
• In collaboration with the Help Desk Director, continually improve the quality of service delivered by the IT help desk. Take in and use client feedback through active listening and intentionally lead efforts to make process improvements, system changes, customer satisfaction improvements in order to surpass expectations of clients and identify new opportunities for proactively supporting clients with a higher quality of service.
• Ensure the flow of customer facing work on the Help Desk progresses in healthy manner through expediting urgent tickets, managing timely resolution via coaching or escalation, regular review of both team and individual workloads, and acting as overflow capacity during emergencies and periods of high demand.

Essential Functions

As a leader on the Help Desk team, the IT Help Desk Team Lead shares responsibility for the customer-facing side of Brave North Technology and should always illustrate, and lead the Help Desk team to reflect, the values of the business:

· Show Empathy

· Be Positive

· Strive for Greater Quality

· Show a Commitment to Knowledge & Learning

· Be Ethical and Fair

· Be Self Reliant First

The IT Help Desk supports internet, networking, client/desktop computers, printers, scanners, mobile devices, websites, email, and other IT-related devices and technology resources. Customer service skills are critically important for all Help Desk team members, including: emotional intelligence, patience, and compassion are critically important.

Strategy & Planning

· Work with the Help Desk Director to create and execute a clear strategy for process improvements, special projects, new procedures, and department changes that is both transparent and supports continuous quality improvement.

· Contribute to the building of strategic initiatives that can be broken down into simplistic deliverables for Help Desk staff members of all abilities to execute.

· Ensure the Help Desk team meets or surpasses the Help Desk service level agreements (SLA) and identify clear metrics, tracking, and reporting methods for staff and clients to view service details.

· Analyze performance of Help Desk activities and documented resolutions, identify problem areas, and devise and deliver solutions to enhance quality of service and to prevent future problems.

Staff Management

· Manage a portion of Help Desk staff members, continually evaluate, review, and monitor the performance of those Help Desk staff members, including evaluating quantity of work completed, checking on quality of work performed, and assessment client satisfaction.

· Manage, oversee, and adjust the IT help desk shift schedule 3+ months in advance, checking in weekly to make near-term adjustments as needed, to ensure the help desk has adequate staffing for all shifts. Manage Help Desk staff schedule that supports cross training of all roles and responsibilities and ensures quality care and ticket flow.

· Manage, review, and change the routine security and stability maintenance schedule and tasks assigned under the IT help desk to guarantee completion of all tasks as planned and scheduled. Verify the quality and completion of tasks.

· Manage a portion of the IT help desk team, including performing review of timecards, time off requests, expense management, performance reviews, performance improvement plans, onboarding, offboarding, conducting regular 1:1 meetings with direct reports, and other day-to-day supervision needs.

· Encourage, celebrate, coach, train, and support other IT help desk team members, including offering regular praise for accomplishments - small and large - and providing corrective feedback and retraining as necessary.

· Review, evaluate, respond to, and oversee client concerns. Regularly review and identify with the Help Desk Director perceived or known client dissatisfaction and bring to the attention of Brave North’s Help Desk Director. Regularly follow up on a select number of client tickets to ensure the issue was resolved to the client’s satisfaction and ask if we could have done anything differently or better.

Operational Management

· Manage the processing of incoming tickets and calls to the Help Desk through telephone, text, and e-mail to ensure courteous, timely, and effective resolution of support requests.

· Enforce request handling and escalation policies and procedures.

· Directly supervise or monitor a select number of tickets where a Help Desk staff member performs the resolution of a ticket.

· Monitor and follow-up on tickets to ensure problems have been adequately resolved.

· Track and analyze trends in Help Desk support requests and generate statistical reports.

· Assess need for any system reconfigurations (minor or significant) based on support request trends and make recommendations or directly oversee the reconfigurations.

· Identify, recommend, develop, and implement training programs to increase computer literacy and self-sufficiency.

· Oversee development and dissemination of knowledge base (KB) information, usage guides, and FAQ lists for clients and Help Desk staff members.

· Oversee the development, implementation, and administration of Help Desk staff training procedures and policies.

IT help desk functions

• Be actively engaged and fully available during IT Help Desk business hours, including ensuring no personal appointments, other work items, or other distractions interfere with response time to clients and supervision duties of team members.

• Ensure Help Desk team members are available for response as needed and requested by help desk intake staff or supervisor within 15 minutes or less.

• Ensure staff are following documentation procedures of support performed immediately or during the same shift of work, including:

• significant IT information in the client’s Halo PSA or IT Glue record

• a narrative description of work that was performed

• communication back to the client letting them know the status of the support request

• Assign team members to perform timely on-site technical support at a client’s office or site as needed and scheduled.

• Assign a team member or team members to perform routine maintenance for Co/Managed Service clients, including documenting when actions are performed and communicating with clients updates, challenges in performing maintenance, and summaries to a designated manager.

• Ensure tickets are assigned to resources with adequate skills needed to resolve them

• Perform Help Desk ticket work when customer demand exceeds available capacity

• Ensure Help Desk coverage is maintained during employee absence through re-assigning or ownership of scheduled items on the effected employees calendar

• Perform project work as assigned, including performing project tasks while not responding to immediate Help Desk calls.

• Other duties as assigned.

Required Technical Tasks

As this position serves as a leader on the IT help desk team, in addition to supervision functions, this position is expected to understand (but ) the essential functions of the IT Help Desk team members, such as the following.

• Use remote desktop connection to resolve IT issues.

• Install, troubleshoot, diagnose, and resolve problems for a wide variety of hardware and software for technological equipment such as (Windows and Mac) desktops and laptops, printers/scanners, smartphones, tablets, and A/V equipment.

• Maintain, repair, and update/upgrade computer hardware and software (and associated licensing) as needed for clients.

• Computer setups: generate custom-tailored workstation purchase recommendations for clients, perform basic OS setup and applications installation, configure security settings, and migrate user data as needed.

• Diagnose and remove virus/malware for Windows and Mac computers.

• Understand and resolve a wide range of email sending/receiving problems.

• Understand and resolve a wide variety of network connectivity issues.

• Understand and contribute to detailed technical documentation.

• Adapt to and work with unorthodox or unusual computer and networking configurations.

• Assist with IT projects that often include migration from local server to cloud-based service.

• Adaptively learn and navigate new and unfamiliar applications for which there may be little pre-existing knowledge or information.

• Think creatively and “out of the box” in order to solve unique problems that may be totally unfamiliar and have no clearly documented solution available., Much of the day-to-day work is done in an office setting, and typically a home office environment. Onsite client visits may take place indoors or outdoors, with variable terrain. Will be working with a variety of people. Must be able to transport technical equipment needed for onsite client visits to and from client sites as well as pick up technical materials for hardware equipment.

OCCASIONAL

1 to 100 reps/8 hrs

25 min-2 ½ hours

Standing, Lifting (up to 50 pounds), Bending, Kneeling, Climbing, Pushing, Pulling, Driving, Twisting, Carrying, Reaching

CONSTANT

301-500 reps/8 hrs

5+ hours

Talking/Speaking, Hearing, Seeing, Sitting, Handling, Typing

Driving

This position has been designated as Mandatory Driving: Administrative. An active driver’s license is a requirement of this position., I understand that I am to read and familiarize myself with the contents of this job description and execute the duties as described. I further understand that my employment with Brave North Technology LLC is for no definite period, and that this job description is not a contract of employment, but rather a helpful summary of my job duties. I understand that I am responsible for other duties as assigned by my supervisor or Brave North Technology management.

• Supervision experience preferred, including the recruiting, hiring, training, coaching, providing performance evaluations, and developing of multiple direct report colleagues.

• Extensive customer service experience, including addressing tense or emotionally-charged situations.

• Working knowledge and foundational understanding of platforms: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft 365, Microsoft SharePoint.

• Functional understanding and knowledge of cloud computing, including a basic understanding of cloud applications such as Google Apps, Office 365, online backup/recovery.

• An understanding of web/internet systems, including fluency with major web browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

• An understanding of other in-office technology, including basic understanding of common office tools, equipment and applications.

Position Requirements

• 4+ years working in a Managed Service Provider (or industry equivalent) help desk environment

• Required to be available to take on front desk help desk shifts temporarily, as needed.

• Must be available for on-call support during off hours (5pm - 8am) on weekdays that the Help Desk is open.

• Required to have a driver’s license and a reliable vehicle or regular access to a vehicle to be used for client onsite visits.

• Required to have a home office space that can support duties of the job and reflect positively upon the professionalism of the company. Must have a workable home office environment with ability to have private phone conversations, display confidential information on computer screen without other people being able to view information, and a secure home internet connection.

• Must be able to maintain a high degree of professionalism and keep client and staff information confidential at all times.

Other Information

• Position will receive calls, emails, and texts from a variety of clients representing many different industries and business categories. Must be able to pivot quickly between issues, questions, and conversations.
• Must have the ability to remain calm and reassuring when receiving a help desk request where the client may be stressed, frustrated, or angry. Brave North does not tolerate rude or inappropriate language, tone, and verbal abuse from employees or clients., Work Rating: Light-to-moderate Work: Exerting 16 to 50 pounds of force occasionally and/or 10 to 12 pounds of force frequently, and/or greater than negligible up to 5-6 pounds of force constantly to move objects. (Constantly: activity or condition exists 2/3 or more of the time) to move objects. Physical demand requirements are in excess of those for sedentary work. Even though the weight lifted may be only a negligible amount, a job should be rated Light Work: (1) When it requires walking or standing to a significant degree; or (2) when it requires sitting most of the time, but entails pushing and/or pulling of arm or leg controls; and/or (3) when the job requires working at a production rate pace entailing the constant pushing and/or pulling of materials even though the weight of those materials is negligible., * direct staff supervision: 2 years (Required)

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Flexible schedule
• Health savings account
• Paid time off
• Parental leave