Me and my shadow

Building relationships with internal and external technical support staff can be an important factor in developing an effective and successful Help Desk. Strong relationships improve the efficiency of information flow, thereby improving the quality of support provided to customers. The Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services (CITES) Help Desk at the University of Illinois started a job-shadowing program to strengthen relationships within CITES. The program pairs a Help Desk consultant with a service manager or other CITES support professionals, allowing each participant to see the daily hands on activities of the person they are shadowing. Consultants better understand the processes behind services provided by CITES, while service managers better understand the daily activities of Help Desk consultants. Based on these successes, CITES and departmental support groups such as the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) have joined together to extend the job shadowing program. This has provided valuable information regarding the strengths that each support group can bring together in addressing the technical opportunities and challenges of faculty, staff and students. In this session we talk about the importance of building relationships and how to setup a successful job-shadowing program.