September, it’s the month known for ‘back to school’ and this year it will look slightly different. Not only will the kids be heading back into the classroom, but many organisations are capitalising on this tradition to welcome their staff back to the workplace.

Some will be reluctant, others excited, and many won’t have sat at their office desks since March 2020, the very first ‘lockdown’ – Collins Dictionary’s word of the year.

We’ve heard time and again what impact the last year has had on businesses, staff wellbeing, education, and what the future of work will look like – and rightly so! But we’ve yet to truly examine the effects on the helpdesk.

From their perspective, the word of 2020 was: technology. How they enabled remote working with tech, troubleshooting problems from home, and keeping a workforce online. Let’s delve into the experience of the helpdesk and what a return to the office means for them.

Rescuers in the remote working rush

The reality for many organisations when the call to work from home arrived was that they just weren’t prepared. Not because the business couldn’t run with staff at home, but their technology just wasn’t set up for it.

You can’t just unplug a desktop and take it home, because who’s going to help you set it up when you get there? How can you work remotely when the network isn’t configured for that? What are staff going to do when they can’t communicate with one another?

In the early remote working days, the helpdesk became the rescuers. Perhaps they were sourcing more laptops and imaging them as quickly as possible, preparing systems to ensure safety and security, implementing new software to enable communication and collaboration, or helping staff to correctly set up their remote office. No matter what it was, IT well and truly came to our rescue.

Newfound respect for the helpdesk

Having resolved the initial problems that arose with the rush, we noticed newfound respect for the helpdesk. They’ve been the department shoved into the corner of the office for years, but organisations had their eyes opened to just how important the IT team is for their business – finally!

And you might be thinking, how can you possibly measure this?

Well, typically, organisations invest where they see the importance. And 63% of business leaders said their investment focuses now lie in technology and infrastructure.

Faced with the reality of a disruption to business as usual, relying on the specialists to get the tech prepared for remote working, and ultimately managing to keep an organisation running, it’s easy to understand why.

Experiencing ‘the new normal’

It’s been described as ‘the new normal’: our lives defined by their remoteness. And yes, being the rescuers and respected has been a positive for the helpdesk. But this experience also brought its challenges.

Fixing many issues remote was no different, users were still able to log service tickets, use the knowledge base to troubleshoot their own problems, and seek out help for more complex questions. However, there were some occasions when this way of working just wasn’t feasible.

When it comes to a hardware malfunction, staff don’t have the knowledge, experience, or equipment to fix it themselves. Preparing, ordering, and delivering new technology is a logistical nightmare away from the office. And what happens when a server malfunctions and you’re 30 minutes drive away?

Therefore, many helpdesk teams embraced hybrid working before it became popular. With some staff at home and others in the office, both remote-friendly tasks and those requiring the office were able to be completed.

Helping a hybrid workforce

On the topic of hybrid, while this became the norm for some helpdesk teams, other departments may be embarking on this way of working for the first time in the coming weeks.

So, as the school and office doors re-open, what impact will the hybrid or full return of the workforce mean for our trusty helpdesk?

The move to remote working instilled some good habits into our user base that the helpdesk would more than prefer to keep but doing so may be a battle. For example, uptake in self-service portal (SSP) usage rather than calling/visiting the helpdesk.

We saw staff working outside of normal office hours, in which case, they’d have to log a ticket on the self-service portal for the helpdesk to pick up when online. Will the return to the office spell a resurgence of the typical 9-5 and more calls/visits to the service desk? It remains to be seen. Additionally, the lack of a work phone for some made them more reluctant to call the service desk and more likely to use self-help – winner! But with a telephone accessible on their desk, will this habit continue?

Of course, it will make some things easier. With staff in the office, a hardware malfunction is no longer a disaster. We can fix it immediately rather than planning a date/time to meet in the workplace.

But tracking assets could become a trickier task. Hybrid working will bring a lot of moving parts to organisations: some people in the office, some at home, some travelling, and some visiting clients. Keeping track of who has what and where they are is going to take some planning.

However, these positives and negatives both provide more opportunity for the helpdesk to show its worth. We’ll be the ones facilitating an office return: getting staff back set up at their desks, allowing the business to answer logistical problems like booking desks through the SSP, and providing innovative solutions for a new way of working.

A defining experience

Ultimately, remote working brought challenges for the service desk. Initially, they faced organisational panic as businesses rushed to be operationally sound from home. Then, they reaped the rewards of their hard work through newfound respect and understanding of their importance.

Since then, it’s been business as usual for the helpdesk: fixing problems from home where possible and the office when necessary.

It remains to be seen how the way we work will change as some return to the office and some stay at home. But if we take anything away from this experience it’s that the helpdesk can take on any challenge that comes its way.