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Deyu Hu, Associate Director of Training, Research, and Special Initiatives for IT Experience and Engagement in the Division of Information Technology at Virginia Tech describes "In keeping with the rhythms of higher education's academic year, information centers may experience surges in IT support requests."
To prepare employees for the significant workload increase during these surges, institutions can offer training to ensure that employees are prepared both technically and psychologically. Without such preparation, employees may be unable to provide satisfactory support to customers and may lack strategies to handle their stressful workloads.
As this article describes, with only limited preparation time, a training team at Virginia Tech collaborated with information center supervisors and employees to provide service rush training at the start of the 2017 school year. Post-rush survey results show that employees were highly satisfied with the training; the results also offer the training team clear avenues for making a strong program even better. Although their training was specific to fall rush, the team's experiences in launching and evaluating it can offer insights and lessons for other in-house information centers preparing for large influxes of service requests at any time.
Project Background
Virginia Tech is a public land grant university established in 1872. Each August, more than 34,000 students—including 6,800 new students—begin the school year. At that time, service requests to Virginia Tech's Division of Information Technology (DoIT) information center, known as 4Help, increase at a rate of two to three times that of other months. The requests peak during fall rush—the 12 days that begin on moving-in day and conclude at the end of the first week of classes.
4Help is led by an associate director and consists of a call center and help desk. In July 2017, two supervisors led the call center's eleven full-time employees, or agents, while another supervisor led the help desk's nineteen undergraduate student interns, or consultants. Here, I refer to the supervisors and the associate director collectively as the supervisors...
Training Design and Development
With just a month before fall rush, our training team, including the 4Help supervisors, had to determine the training format, schedule, and location; training topics and their length; attendees and presenters; and other training options.
We used two strategies to prepare for fall rush training. First, we used the existing fall rush training as a foundation, examining what it consisted of, as well as what worked and what didn't, and identifying improvements to it to provide a better training experience and achieve better training outcomes. Second, given the numerous and varied tasks involved, a collaborative approach was essential to tap into the experience and expertise of each team member.
Improving on Previous Experiences
In the past, we had offered separate fall rush trainings for agents and consultants. The full-time agents attended a full-day training camp covering service topics specific to call-related requests. In contrast, student consultants attended a two-hour in-person training session focused on topics specific to help desk. Consultants were also required to complete complementary online training on particular topics...
The Collaborative Approach
Collaboration is often used when a complex task or project requires a broad spectrum of skills from across different units to achieve optimal organizational results. Developing and delivering training is just such a task: It requires different skill sets, including both subject-matter knowledge and the ability to design and develop effective training.
In our case, 4Help supervisors are familiar with IT support topics, customer needs, fall rush requirements, individual employees' knowledge of different support topics, and many other aspects of 4Help's daily operations. However, the supervisors may or may not have experience in systematic training design and delivery. In contrast, the training team has both skills in training design and knowledge of information center operations.
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Source: EDUCAUSE Review
