Help desk employees commonly leave their positions due to lack of self-worth, feeling isolated, poor training, high stress, and better opportunities elsewhere. The industry standard annual turnover rate for help desk workers is 30-40%. Programs that can help retain help desk staff include implementing contracts for training costs, job rotation, flexible shift scheduling, assigning administrative duties, allowing breaks, workplace visits, and continuous learning opportunities. While retention programs may be effective to some degree, the high baseline turnover rate of 30-40% suggests they have limited impact, though more staff may be retained internally even if they move to different roles.

1. Help Desk Employee Retention

2. Common reasons Help Desk employees leave their positions Lack of self worth Participation in help desk events Playing a part in the development of the help desk Total size of the help desk system (Larger can be more rigid and impersonal environments) Employees being isolated, being surrounded by lots of people they don’t know Poor or no training Good managers – professional leaders, flexible, understanding, and down to earth, not micro managed High stress – not enough or effective stress relief assistance/advice Better opportunities inside or outside an organization Repetitive work and/or low pay

3. Annual turnover rate for help desk workers Currently the industry standard is 30-40% turnover

4. Programs to help retain help desk workers Contracts- Say for instance the company is investing $10K in training an employee and if they should leave position before 2 years, they have to pay back a portion of the training. Job Rotation- Phone work, service calls, documentation, special projects, computer upgrades, etc. Shift Scheduling- Make it flexible for staff. For instance when a lunch break is scheduled. Best if the schedule isn’t repetitive. Administrative Duties- Assign some admin duties if possible. For instance, answering emails or voice mails to help break up their day. Phone Time- Allow for frequent small breaks to get up and stretch or walk around. Visit other areas of the operation- If possible allow staff to see other areas and meet some of the people they are talking to on the phone so they can help build more personal relationships. Continuous learning opportunities.

5. Worker benefits to encourage employee retention Compensation is important- salary Additional benefits help: tuition reimbursement; paid training opportunities; vacation/sick days/pto; performance spiffs.

6. Are retention programs effective? Yes and no. With the current turnover rate for help desk being between 30-40% which is higher than most positions I would lean more towards no. I understand that high turnover can be expensive for a company but if staff is moving to different positions within a company this should be considered when analyzing the turnover rate. For instance, within a company, of the 30-40% turnover rates for help desk staff how many are still with the company but just in different roles. However, with the institution of these key programs it could only help in increasing retention and possible decreasing it.