“32% of respondents believe they are not suitably skilled, down from 45% in 2020, and another 29% that they are only partially skilled.”
These statistics aren’t easy reading for anyone who cares about employees, how they’re managed, and their long-term retention.
“But AI will make everyone’s lives easier”
Employed correctly, using artificial intelligence (AI) in ITSM will lead to “better, faster, cheaper” ITSM operations and outcomes, which will translate to better business operations and outcomes.
However, the impact of AI will differ from role to role. Service desk agents, for example, might find that their work becomes more challenging with the assistance of AI rather than easier.
Why? Because despite AI making some IT support work activities easier – such as ticket triage and accessing relevant knowledge in context – the use of chatbots or virtual agents takes the “easier” work from the IT service desk queue such that IT support personnel only have more challenging tasks to deal with. Yes, there will now be fewer tickets, but they will take longer to complete.
Plus, service desk agents will go from challenging task to challenging task rather than
dealing with a mix of easy and more complicated tasks.
For some employees, removing the easier and potentially monotonous tasks will improve their work lives. For others, though, the lack of occasional respite will be a contributing factor to working in IT becoming harder.
So, what can IT managers do to assess and improve their people management capabilities?
There are two great sources of guidance available to IT managers:
1. SFIA
SFIA (Skills Framework for the Information Age) describes the required “skills and competencies for the digital world” and covers role
areas, including information and communications technology.
SFIA doesn’t only apply to managers; it applies to all roles. For the IT service desk, for example, the necessary skills of a Service Desk Analyst, Service Desk Manager, and Service Desk Lead can all be found. So, a Service Desk Manager can understand what they need, plus they can align their team(s) with the skill and capability requirements for their roles.
2. The ITIL 4 Workforce and Talent Management guidance
ITIL 4 brought with it a number of changes, including people management guidance. The ITIL 4 Workforce and Talent Management practice offers a wealth of people-related best practices in one place. It doesn’t offer “all the answers,” but it does provide a lot of people management guidance for IT managers that includes:
-“Holistic organizational planning, including the organizational structure, culture, competencies, and other factors
-Managing and improving the organization’s identity and image
-Managing the organization’s workforce
-Managing the organization’s talents
-Managing and improving the employees’ journeys and experience
-Ensuring ongoing oversight of people’s roles, behaviors, and experiences in the organization.”