* How one IT exec keeps his team happy, challenged and motivated to help customers
Customer satisfaction is achieved when staff members are happy with what they do. A way to keep staff happy is to keep them challenged in their jobs and to provide clearly defined career goals. Larry Pierce, manager of tier-one support at Atlantic Health System in New Jersey, last year presented his staff with the challenge of getting Microsoft certifications.
Customer satisfaction is achieved when staff members are happy with what they do. A way to keep staff happy is to keep them challenged in their jobs and to provide clearly defined career goals. Larry Pierce, manager of tier-one support at Atlantic Health System in New Jersey, last year presented his staff with the challenge of getting Microsoft certifications.
He spent the past year investing in education for his 30 person-strong frontline desktop support team, which supports users at three primary care hospitals, plus various other facilities.
Although his staff members – who on average have worked at the organization for six or seven years – are proficient in their work, Pierce said putting them through Microsoft desktop certification classes was key for employee satisfaction. Since gaining certification, the team members’ core closure rates have increased and downtime for users has been minimized, Pierce says. Also, as staffers gain certifications, the organization has adjusted their salaries to meet market rates.
“The IT senior leadership recognizes that we want to be able to retain good IT people. You do run the risk of investing thousands of dollars training people and then they take that education and go elsewhere. In three years, I have only lost one staff member who believed the grass was greener on the other side. It’s all about employee satisfaction, which ultimately leads to customer satisfaction,” he says.
The tier-one support group comprises of three levels of staff – Level III is the highest with personnel at that level being able to solve 100% of the problems they’re given. Now that certifications are mandatory for the tier-one team, Pierce is now able to specify certain certifications for each staff level positions, which provides a clear career goal for employees.
For instance, Level I staff must have the Microsoft Certified Professional certification, while a Level II personnel must have an MCP and a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician designation. Level III staffers must have the MCDST and the Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator certifications.
Pierce admits that investing in education isn’t easy for organizations because of the time and financial commitment. At different times, each of his staff members took on average 2 weeks out to attend the Training Camp’s accelerated learning program. But providing training for staff at this level is useful in other ways. Level III staffers could transition to other areas of the organization, such as server support, data security, communications and apps support, which would open up a Level III position to candidates from the Level II pool, encouraging them to train for the required certifications. Staff members are responsible for paying for the training and exams that are not required for their current positions, but Atlantic Health System reimburses those who pass their exams. “If I can fill the 115 IT seats in this organization with people who came in from my group then I’ll have done my job,” Pierce says.
The staffers also attended Atlantic Health System’s internally developed Organizational Development classes to enhance the interpersonal skills required to be successful on the front lines.
Pierce says having certified personnel is particularly useful as the healthcare organization strives to meet the guidelines of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. “Technology goes a long way to addressing the concerns of HIPAA. Certifications will absolutely help with meeting HIPAA requirements because employees would know the technology – what ticks and how it works,” he says.
I’d like to hear from you if you have a story to share about how training and certifications have helped you and your staff in your work areas. Please drop me a line at mailto:lleung@nww.com. I look forward to sharing your success stories.
