This is a topic I’ve covered in some earlier article from the aspect of how we did it at my former employer. This time my idea is to cover this in a broader and more generic sense.
Living in 2020, IT is more than ever a big part and an enormous influence on your work environment and how productive you are.
IT is shifting from being a “technical” topic to be more of an HR topic, since it influences so many parts of your employment, a poor IT experience will heavily influence how happy you are with your employer. However, IT are still the ones responsible for it.
From talking with friends, peers, former co-workers, and customers there are a few things that tends to come back when it comes to IT in bigger organizations. And that is the lack of trust in that end-users knows what tools they need to perform their work and expects to get tools that support them in their daily work. There are of course exceptions to this but speaking in general terms I’m guessing that you don’t ask IT what tools you need to do your job; you ask your peers. Well unless you work in IT, then I guess you would ask IT… You get the point!
Users has diverse needs
We need to start considering our computers and mobile devices as tools, not “toys” in lack of better words.
If you think about it, if you were left one day at work without a computer and/or mobile device, would you be productive? Probably not. This means that these are crucial tools for our work since you are doing your business through them. Giving you something that is not fit for purpose would eventually be a bad investment, or not the correct tool. Still, computers and mobile devices are rarely considered business critical from an IT Service Management perspective.
If you think about it, your company spends a lot of time finding the right machinery, servers etc. for your business needs, but what about that computer you spend your day in front of doing business? Was that selected based on what your needs are or where you given the “corporate computer”?
Trying to stick to a “one size fits all” setup is deemed to fail eventually in a modern workplace. I have different needs for my computer/phone than people working as e.g. a communications professional. Also, a manager has different needs than the peers in their team.
I’m not saying that you should buy all the shiny things people points at and don’t standardize. What I’m saying is be smart in what you are buying. You have a diverse team with diverse needs, make sure you can full fill them!
For whom are IT working?
One thing that is extremely important, but sometimes forgotten, is for WHOM IT exist.
IT does not exist to provide IT with work tasks. IT exists to enable the employees of the company with tools fit for their needs to do their job in the best feasible way.
This is something we shall never forget. This is important. This is the sole purpose of an IT department. To be a support function to the core business.
At the same time, end-users need to understand that there is reason behind why things are done in a certain way. If they don’t know, it’s time to tell them!
Set goals and visions
To combat this, listen to what your end-users wants and communicate with them. Set clear roadmaps and vision for where you should be in let’s say five years. This will give you a goal to work towards and a roadmap to share.
By listening to your end-users, I’m not saying that they should dictate your every move. Be coherent in what their pain-points are and strive to minimize them. Thas how you can add real value and build trust in the organization.
I far to often hear “those people at IT have no idea what they are doing”. That shouldn’t be true. We should be the best at providing the services for OUR users. We should be the ones knowing their needs and strive to meet them.
