The document outlines the evolution of the Northcoast HDI IT Service Desk at Steris Corporation from a chaos-filled environment with low-skilled, part-time workers to a structured and efficient service team. The current staffing model includes ten full-time employees, a tiered staffing structure, improved pay, and a focus on quality and skill development, resulting in a majority of incidents resolved at the service desk. The transformation involved training, revised hiring practices, and the implementation of various improvement tools and employee engagement initiatives.

1. NorthCoast HDI
IT Service Desk
STERIS Corporation
Presented by:
Sheri Wright
Technical IT Service Desk Manager
September 18, 2014
HDI North Coast Chapter

2. NorthCoast HDI
STERIS Office Locations

3. NorthCoast HDI
IN THE BEGINNING…
Prior Staffing Model
• Hired college temporaries beginning an IT major
• Never worked in a “corporate environment”
• Green skill set – we were willing to start from scratch
• 15 part-time employees, paid at lowest wage possible
 Some life guards made more money
• Answered phones – soft skills needed help
• Performed basic troubleshooting
 Remote office connectivity – tried to email a customer who had no connectivity
to corporate email
 Customer BioMetrix issue – customer referred to the BioMetrix “hamster” device
as his mouse, Help Desk Tech asked if his mouse had balls
• High transfer rate of Incident tickets to 2nd Level Support
• Lead position for 1 or 2 individuals who shined
• Had to be promoted outside the Service Desk for career opportunity
• Considered a “Help Desk”

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PAST ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

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RESULT…
CHAOS!
• No set schedules – changed often
• Problems with coverage for lunches and
breaks
• Limited soft skills
• Limited technical skills
• Behavioral issues for corporate America
• Dress code issues
• Team dysfunction
• You get what you pay for!!!

6. NorthCoast HDI
WHERE WE ARE TODAY…
Current Staffing Model
• 10 full-time employees
• A “Service Desk” rather than Help Desk
• Tiered staffing structure
 Technician -> Specialist -> Analyst -> Lead -> Manager
 Improved pay by 50% for non-exempt positions
 Career path within the Service Desk
• Set Schedules with appropriate coverage for high call volumes, breaks and lunches
• On-call rotation for 7x24x365 for critical customer support
• Intermediate to advanced troubleshooting skill set
• Solid soft skills set
• Majority of Incidents resolved at the Service Desk, low rate escalated to 2nd Level
• Provision 90% of account access
• Actively involved in project activities across IT groups
• Considered the Face of IT

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TODAY’S ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

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HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Hard Work & Perseverance
• Over a 2+ year period, invited other IT groups to perform training on how our
customers used our business applications
• Built SME (Subject Matter Experts) at the Service Desk for key business applications
• In-sourced low-level work to the Service Desk that performed by developers and
analysts
• Using KPIs justified the need for permanent full-time employees
• Began focusing on “quality of work” rather that “first call closed”
• Developed a tiered support level for career path within the Service Desk
• Phased in full-time employees by skill set starting with the Analysts
• Empowered agents with more privileges for provisioning and troubleshooting
• Required training for communication (written, verbal, phone and in-person)
• Shadowed other IT groups
• Started “green light thinking” sessions for process improvements

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HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Revamped New Hire On-boarding
• Stronger requirements to join STERIS
 Prior experience with IT support
 Associate or Bachelors degree – or about to achieve
 Proficient with soft skills
• Increased pay for positions
• Formalized a weekly training agenda - currently a 10 week process
• Begin training away from the Service Desk – uninterrupted
• Prioritized the order of the business applications
• Changed from answering phones after the first week to after the second week
• Phased introduction to additional responsibilities as development progresses
 Answering Live Chats
 Refreshing computers
 Repairing walk-up break/fix
 Wireless support
• No hesitation to revoke responsibilities when needed
• Shadowing with the desktop support
• Perform post training evaluation
 Screen calls
 Review Tickets
 Retrain on weaknesses

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TOOLS USED
• Lean Six Sigma – Green Belt Certifications
 5 individuals trained and certified
 4 projects completed - improvement return 40% - 100%
• Used the DMAIC method
• Sales Connection (SC) – reduce ticket escalation to 2nd Level Support
 Performed training on the SC application with the Service Desk
 2nd Level Support created troubleshooting KBs
 2nd Level Support created required troubleshooting questions
 Identified SMEs for Sales Connection at the Service Desk

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TOOLS USED
• ITIL Training
• 5 individuals trained, 3 foundation certifications
• Goal to train entire team
• Lean IT – Kaizen events
 Termination Process Improvements
 Computer Moves
• Kaizen Event #5 – Termination Process
 Performed off-site 3 day event – no computers or phones allowed
 Mapped the current process
 Identified value and non-value added processes
 Mapped a future state process
 Developed standard work
 Perform weekly update meetings
 Separation tickets now created via workflow
 7 applications now auto term

12. NorthCoast HDI
TOOLS USED
• SQDC Board –daily process management tool to quickly provide a visual
assessment of how a process is operating
 Participation of Manager and Lead at main board
 Service Desk board being developed now – 60% complete

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Employee Engagement
Motivational Activities
• Constant coaching
 One-on-one meetings
 Team meetings
 Cross team meetings
 Reinforce that we learn from our mistakes
• Stipend for on-call phone rotation
• Team Activities
 Positive listing of attributes – produced be surveying peers
 Random pot luck activities – pancake breakfast, ice cream social, taco Friday
 Celebrate birthday months
• STAR Award for special thanks and recognition
• Open door policy, including personal issues as needed
• Ability to work remotely – this is limited
• No idea is a bad idea policy
• Celebrate Customer Service Week in October
• Christmas Luncheon with secret Santa

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IT Service Desk Work Area

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Questions…