The helpdesk is the face of your company to your customer. You require a dedicated and talented staff to deliver critical services that will define your company to the customer. Typically, these folks are educated and have great problem solving skills. They want to break into the IT technical field and typically the helpdesk job is the entry level position for those new IT techs.
Thus, you end up with a number of folks, in your helpdesk, that are looking towards their next job and not the actual job they are doing now. How do you keep them motivated? How do you keep it fun? How do you keep helpdesk personnel happy to be helpdesk personnel?
The answer is to be a great leader that values the helpdesk position and truly makes it a job that is the entry level for the next great IT technicians you will have in your company.
You should be offering or cycling your helpdesk personnel through apprentice tech positions on a weekly basis. I.E. A helpdesk person would work every 3 weeks on the helpdesk and one week in an apprentice tech position. The tech position requires some thought and ideally should be part of bigger program that is structured and leading towards certification within the company as a technician.
Of course the problem comes in that you do not have an endless amount of technician positions. However, folks should understand that they are number 1 for the next position available or number 2, etc. In the meantime, as you become more and more certified within the companies program it should result in higher pay. Good, qualified, motivated helpdesk personnel are invaluable and the modestly higher wage will be extremely valuable to the company in the long run.
Another, great way to build team unity with the helpdesk is making it a fun place to work. Not an out of control place to work, but a fun place. Some easy to implement ways to make that happen is encouraging holiday themes for the workplace, recognizing birthdays with pizza and cake, develop a recognition program that rewards exceptional service to the customer, organize a Crazy Friday for the last day of month where employees dress up or down and party food is served, or, have one day a month that the manager servers lunch to everybody.
Whatever you decide to do, use the philosophy that the helpdesk are your frontline soldiers. Great generals visit their frontline troops a lot, they give them great accolades and they promote those frontline troops to higher positions because they understand the battle space. You expect great things from your frontline troops so treat them as your companies greatest asset. Your helpdesk and your company will be prosper and grow beyond your expectations.
