Help your organization adopt a people-centric mindset to IT with these four tips.
The U.S. Department of Labor has discovered careers in the IT field among the Most occupations are in demand across the country with an average growth rate of 13%.
There’s a good reason for that growth. Today, about 12 million IT professionals in the United States handle everything from managing printers and laptops to providing technical support to end users. They are also responsible for many of the core cybersecurity functions that keep modern organizations running and safe. Now, in an era of remote work and cloud-enabled technology, IT departments are driving technological innovation that makes organizations more efficient and profitable. But this view has not always been widely applied.
UNDERSTAND: The COVID-19 gender gap: Why women quit and how to get them back to work (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
The idea that IT is just a managed cost center cannot be far from the truth. Unfortunately, this outdated notion persists and it ignores the fact that IT is the beating heart of the organization, powering every other department. At all levels, IT awareness needs to be solution-oriented and a core driver of innovation.
Changing this perception can be difficult, but there are changes IT leaders can make to change the way the IT department is viewed and integrated throughout the organization. When IT is seen as a partner and a contributor to growth, the benefits can go beyond efficiency and productivity – it can enable entirely new ways of working. Here are four best practices for IT leaders who want to connect more with the rest of their organization and are true champions of innovation.
Four best practices for IT awareness
Make a good impression
The IT department is often a new employee’s first interaction with the company after the interview process and the last place when leaving. First and last impressions matter. Give IT professionals time to build connections. While the onboarding process can be done almost automatically with no human intervention, taking a few extra minutes to talk to new employees and educate them about the technology they have at their disposal want can still be a long way.
This first interaction is also an important moment to reiterate the role of IT and how they can best support end users. Making new employees aware of the types of equipment and services available will help them be more productive and provide them with a reference they can turn to when answering questions.
Focus on facilitating dialogue
IT should not be a silo. They should be seen as resources for employees, which can only be done if there is a line of communication between IT and the rest of the organization.
Setting up regular meetings with departmental leaders can help IT develop a technology strategy to help them achieve their goals. This can be as simple as reviewing and managing new software or as complex as managing and optimizing cloud resources. The point is that providing a two-way communication between IT and other business units can help IT identify problems before they become problems or gain insights into their needs. Staff.
In addition, when changes are made to tools or applications that employees use frequently, these changes cannot be made in silence. IT must create clear communication instructions – whether one-time mailings or regular correspondence like newsletters via calendar invitations to alert users when scheduled maintenance or updates are available. Not only is this a best practice, but it can also reduce the risk of IT shadows. If employees don’t understand the reasoning behind a decision, they can handle the matter themselves and use unauthorized apps. This is a real security concern that only grows as more and more employees work from outside the office.
Ensure technology makes endpoint management efficient and end users productive
Software that takes five minutes to load, laptops that can’t connect to home office devices, and frequent device failures are all problems IT can address to keep employees productive. fruit. In addition to performance issues, unmanaged devices can lead to security vulnerabilities and, in the worst cases, downtime caused by ransomware.
While we cannot ignore the importance of updating a device, it should be done in a way that minimizes the impact on the end user. The good news is that modern remote access tools have led to simpler, painless endpoint management and monitoring, allowing maintenance and patching to happen automatically behind the scenes.
Giving power back to the people
IT doesn’t have to handle every request. There are simple tasks like a dreaded password reset that don’t require the help desk to fix. Self-service IT portals allow employees to troubleshoot issues quickly, allowing IT to focus on more impactful business projects.
The concept of “self-service” has extended to many places in our daily lives, and as a result offers greater convenience and faster problem solving. No user wants to wait hours for IT to recover a file they’ve accidentally deleted, especially when restoring a file from backup is an easy task. New IT operations software increasingly includes self-service options, and with a little training, end users can easily tackle many of the basic challenges they face every day.
Promote human-centered thinking
Understanding the four best practices above will help transform your organization into a people-centric to IT mindset – a mindset focused on serving the people behind the device.
Today’s IT leaders aren’t just managing devices, they’re managing individual people and their relationship with technology. Now is the time to raise awareness about IT and make others aware of the important role IT plays in driving innovation.
Shane Stevens is the chief technology officer of NinjaOne, where he oversees the developer teams that develop Ninja’s new product lines. Shane has a rich background in research and development, bringing new software to market, and directing DevOps initiatives to improve the security and efficiency of the software development process. Shane is very familiar with and connected to the IT software ecosystem and brings the skills needed to take NinjaOne’s technology to the next level.
