In the run up to the SDI Awards 2022 gala dinner and prize-giving on 22 March, we’ve been asking our finalists about their experiences, reasons for entering and hopes for the future. Here’s the story from Digital Health & Care Wales:
Finalist – Best Large Service Desk 2022
What made you decide to enter the awards?
Since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, we have lived through significant business change and new models of working both for ourselves and our customers As a Service Desk management team we had concerns about the impact of new and remote ways of working. But our staff, stepped up to the challenge and showed true commitment and resilience when it was needed most.
We entered this award to recognise all the DHCW service desk staff past and present who helped us get through the challenges of 2020/21 and helped us to become the amazing team we are today.
What part of the awards process did you enjoy the most?
We enjoyed gathering the evidence, it made us realize how far we have come as a service desk, and it was nice to share our story with other people from different organisations.
In the last 12 months, what has been the most successful initiative your team has implemented to help your business improve its performance?
Our quality Programme was implemented in September 2021, since then we have seen a 9% improvement in the quality of our calls, in addition our analysts have individual reports and feedback to help them improve and our team leaders are empowered to provide support and identify training needs much quicker.
What are your top 3 tips to make a service desk successful?
Effective communication. Listen and act on all feedback regardless of where it comes from and invest in the wellbeing of your employees. This does not always need to be a financial investment; it can be time taken to listen to concerns and help work through any issues.
What one thing do you think really makes you stand out as a service Organisation?
The main thing that stands out is the team collaboration that goes on behind the scenes. It is the job of DHCW staff to keep over 100 systems and IT services running to ensure staff across NHS Wales have the information they need to treat the patients of Wales. It is truly an inclusive, supportive, and friendly place to work, and we were proud to win the “best place to work in IT” at the British Computing Society’s UK IT Industry Awards in 2020.
How are you preparing to evolve your service desk over the next few years? Please share your most exciting plan with us!
A big focus for us will be to improve the tools we use. We are working on options to improve our ITSM tool, upgrade our Telephony Solution and implement new communication channels.
If you could choose any celebrity to work on your service desk, who would it be?
This went out to a real-life vote, and the winner is…. Mr. Tom Hardy for his.. erm.. excellent leadership skills and obvious talent in so many areas!
What does it mean to your team to be a finalist in the ‘Best Large Service Desk’ category?
It means a great deal to us; we hope we were able to demonstrate to the judges the effort that has gone into improving our service desks in Digital Health & Care Wales. We know we have not reached our destination on our improvement journey; however, we realise it is important to recognize how far we have travelled to reach where we are today. We are looking forward to meeting the other finalists and wish them good luck in the final!
What advice would you give to anyone entering the awards next year?
The preparation may take longer than you initially think, but it is totally worth investing the time.
What would you do to celebrate if your team won ‘Best Large Service Desk 2022’?
To tell our story and share our achievements at our staff conference in April. We’d also like to share our success with our stakeholders and customers. On a smaller scale and if COVID restrictions allow we would arrange a night for all our service desk staff (past & present) to celebrate.
Find out more about this year’s Awards categories and watch the highlights from the last Awards ceremony for a taster of this incredible event and what it means to our community.
SDI Awards are sponsored by:
