Help Desks – Lack of Skilled IT Workers Causes Concern

The gulf of skilled workers in the IT sector is now so substantial that it has reached record levels and this inevitably has knock-on consequences for the functionality of help desks in various different industries throughout the UK. To find out more visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/may/18/what-thinking-call-centre-workerv

According to recent reports, there is now a chronic shortage of skilled IT workers in Great Britain and this is causing a reduction in the standard of service from help desks which are overstretched, particularly at the busier times of year. According to research findings released by the Information Technology Communication (ITC) Inquiry, the shortage of skilled IT workers to man help desks has now reached record levels are there are concerns that the lack of skilled workers in the industry is becoming endemic. The most pressing finding to emerge from the research was the fact that the number of firms who believed that they lacked the necessary IT expertise within their company had increased by a substantial 14% since the previous year. This invariably has implications upon businesses’ help desks and makes it difficult to provide a sufficiently high calibre of customer service if the employees don’t have the sufficient knowledge base to deal with their customer’s queries.

Help Desks – Overcoming Obstacles

The severe lack of skilled IT workers is an issue that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible if further problems and ramifications are to be avoided. The impact that this lack of skilled IT workers to operate help desks is having on UK businesses is vast and the findings from the ITC report indicate that the ramifications of this shortage are more profound than ever before. One of the principle findings from the report is that, due to a chronic shortage of sufficiently skilled staff to operate help desks, IT managers are often being contacted during their holidays or outside of work hours to deal with even the most trivial of IT queries. This is obviously not an effective or viable use of their time and, as such, measures need to be taken to help increase the number of skilled staff manning IT help desks.

Help Desks – Dearth of Suitable Candidates

The extent of the problem regarding the staffing of help desks is borne out by the statistic that as many as one in five IT recruitment companies were unable to find staff that had the required skill sets for their positions and help desks and various other IT roles. In relation to this, Des Lekerman of Eurodata Systems, states, “In today's fast paced business environment one of the biggest risks that a company faces is the recruitment of temporary contract IT staff. This is particularly evident during the summer months when many contract workers take holidays.”