New York University Steinhardt Information
Technology Group’s New Methodologies for
Developing Student Worker Skillsets
by
Lendyll Capitulo
NYU Steinhardt
Structure of the Presentation
• Introduction
– Information about me, the team, the school and the
University
– Jump into how Steinhardt Technology Services thinks about
Student Technicians
• The “Problem”
• The Steinhardt Technology Services Solution
– Improving the skillset of our student technicians to fill in our
operational gaps.
Information about NYU Steinhardt
• New York University of Steinhardt School Culture,
Education and Human Development
– 11 Academic Departments
– 17 Research Centers and Institutes
• Demograpics
– 290 Full Time Faculty
– 5,952 Students
– Approximately 275 Staff
Information about the Steinhardt
Technology Services
• Steinhardt Technology Services is a distributed
technology resources that assists the Steinhardt
Community with all their technology needs
• The team is comprised of two smaller teams
– Academic Technology Team
• 4 full time staff
• 3 part time student workers
– Information Technology Team
• 2 full time staff
• 5 part time student workers
Who I Am
• I am an Information Technology Manager at NYU
Steinhardt
• Particularly I Have Several Roles at NYU Steinhardt
– I manage the Steinhardt Technology Services Helpdesk
– I train all information technology employees
– I develop internal business systems for the Helpdesk
Zendesk
• Zendesk is a ticket tracking system than manages
client agent interactions
• Steinhardt Technology Services uses Zendesk to
track all service tickets
• Zendesk provides the data that we use to make
business decisions
Student Technicians
• Two types of student technicians
– Core Student Technicians – Student technicians that have
had at least 6 months worth of development and training.
– Non-Core Student Technician – Typically new student
technicians that we’re developing
• This distinction will be more important later on in our
conversation
Metrics
• Time to first response
– Defined as time for an agent to make a first comment/first
interaction with a client with an issue
– We view this as a measure of how responsive we are to our
end users
• Time to first resolution
– Defined as time for an agent to solve a ticket
– We view this as measure of how quickly and efficiently we
solve an issue
The Problem: Perfect Storm of Financial
Limitations and New Initiatives
• Limited financial resources
– A budget crunch at Steinhardt leads to a temporary hiring
freeze
– IT Team Loses Two Positions
– One person moves over to head the Academic Technology Team
– Another team member finds another position at a different
organization
• The Dean of Steinhardt and Provost of NYU also
wanted to move forward with new Academic
Technology Initiatives
The Steinhardt Technology Services
Soluation
• Have Student Technicians fill in the the operational
gaps that occur with limited resources.
• Well not so fast. Student technicians, while cost
effective, come with a unique set of managerial
challenges that need to be overcome if they the
students are to fill those operational gaps.
Three Primary Challenges to Developing
Student Technicians
• Limited Skillset
– Several key competencies need to be developed before
students technicians can be successful in the field
• Organizational Buy-In Issues
– Student technicians do not have the same ties to an
organization that full time employees
• Work/School Balance
– Most student technicians balance student workload with their
professional workload
Three Strategies to Address Three
Challenges
• Student Focused Development Plans
• Modular Trainings
• Goal Setting
Student Focused Development Plans
• What are student development plans
– Steinhardt IT Student Technicians Roles Matrix
• Why we have student development plans
– So we want to build our core compentencies for our student
technicians so they have tools they need to succeed in the
field
• How we do student development plans at Steinhardt
Technology Services
– Constant Check-Ins
– Mentoring
Role
Definition
What We’re Looking For
You are the first point of the
contact between the SIT Group
and the Steinhardt Community.
•Effective Communication: You should be able to effectively communicate
with both technical team members and non-technical community
members.
•Positive Attitude: You should approach problems with a positive attitude
that engages and empowers members of the Steinhardt
Community. Remember, you are the face of Steinhardt IT.
Maintaining proper phone etiquette.
Keeping all correspondence with community members prompt and
professional regardless of the means (phone, ticket, email or in person)
Using appropriate Macros
You are our first line of defense
when resolving short term issues.
•Basic Troubleshooting Skills: You should be able resolve tickets using your
knowledge, the Steinhardt IT Knowledge Base and other internet resources.
•Triage Skills: You need to “triage” the unassigned ticket queue by deciding
what can be done by a student technician and what needs to the escalated
to a full time staff member.
Resolving tickets using the Zendesk Ticket Resolution System
Thoroughly documenting observations, assessment and attempts on ticket
Use the Zendesk Help Center to access Technical Knowledge Base Articles
Troubleshooting issues remotely using the Teamviewer Remote Support
Software.
Tag Tickets Appropriately using ticket tagging guidelines
Operational Agent
You are responsible for facilitating
the behind the scenes work that
keeps the SIT Group running.
•Self-Motivated: We expect that you can schedule to complete your
assigned operational tasks regularly and independently.
•Attention to Detail: When performing operational tasks, you need to be
able to spot and communicate when something is out of the ordinary so
that the potential issue can be addressed quickly before it becomes a
bigger issue.
Performing operational tasks such as: maintaining our inventory, updating
classroom computers, asset managing old computers
Innovator
You contribute to the academic
technology conversation by
making recommendations that
help us carry out our mission
statement.
•Critical Thinking Skills: Most projects/tasks do not have typical
solutions. Our student technicians need the ability to critically assess a
problem and provide a solution.
•Leadership: Before assigning more complex tasks, we want to ensure that
our student technicians are able to take full responsibility and ownership
over the tasks assigned.
Taking on individual projects
Tracking projects via Basecamp Project Management System
Recommending upgrades to our internal business systems such as KACE
Customer Service
Representative
Level I IT Support
Agent
Example of Tasks
Mentoring
• Between check-ins with full time staff members, new
student technicians also meet regularly with core
student technicians.
• These meetings offer a different perspective of
working at Steinhardt Technology Services than
chatting with a full time member
Constant Check Ins
• One-on-one meetings with student technicians during
the onboarding process
– Meetings at Day 1, 2 Week, 6 Week, 3 Month and 6 Months
• Bi-Weekly Student Staff Meeting
– Operational objectives for the next two weeks
– Reviewing data from Zendesk
– Three Questions Round Table
• What’s hot?
• What’s not?
• What do you need?
Modular Training
• What are modular training
• Why we have modular trainings
• How we do give modular trainings at Steinhardt
Technology Services
– Technical Training and Documentation
– Culture Training and Documentation
• Examples
– Examples from Steinhardt IT Standard Operating Procedure
Technical Training and Documentation
• Steinhardt Technology Services Uses Technical
Training and Documentation increase the skillset of
student workers.
• Technical training can be given by full time staff or
core student technician
Time Deadline
(Urgency)
Working Hours Lost
(Impact)
Example Issues
VIPs
Low
Normal
High
Urgent
No Hard Deadline
Less than 1 week
Less than 3 days
Less than 1 day
Less than 1 (end user
ends up doing other
work)
Up to 7 hours
7 to 35 (hours calculated
cumulatively across
multiple persons)
Greater than 35 hours
Browser Issues
Software Installations
Single Computer Crash
Administrative System
Crash
Server Crash
All VIPs get an automatically +1 increase in priority (Low priority becomes normal, Normal becomes High, High
becomes Urgent)
Culture Training and Documentation
• Steinhardt Technology Services uses Cultural
Training and Documentation to instill the shared
values of the organization within the Student
Technicians
• Culture training require the whole team to be present
and are lead by a full time staff member.
The following are pillars of internal communication at Steinhardt IT. These pillars were derived from a seminar held with the entire
IT team in the summer of 2014. Notice the phrasing of the expectation and how it incorporates what the team as a whole does.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Respect: Regardless of the circumstances, the major underlying expectation in all interaction is the mutual respect between
both parties. This respect takes many different forms.
Respecting for the Person: While everyone might not have the same job title, all team members have the ability to
meaningfully contribute towards the mission of the group. All team members should respect everyone’s role towards working
towards the mission statement. At Steinhardt IT, we recognize the importance of every member of the team and every
member from the student technicians to the executive director deserves the same amount of respect.
Respecting Time: Everyone on the team is busy with their individual tasks and projects. When assigning tasks it is important
that a balance between what needs to be done and what has already been assigned should always be taken into account. At
Steinhardt IT, we do not micromanage each of our team members. We trust that when a team member agrees to a
task, they will complete the task or ask for further assistance if necessary.
Respecting Abilities: Everyone on the team plays an important role and has unique abilities at Steinhardt IT. When we
combine our roles and abilities, we are able to achieve much more than what we would be able to do if we all work alone. At
Steinhardt IT, we want to create an atmosphere in which individual abilities are celebrated in context of what each
member’s ability is able to contribute to the Steinhardt IT Mission.
Be Present: When communicating with each other, it is important that team members give each other their full and undivided
attention. Communicating is not just listening; it is also engaging, connecting, and empowering. For this reason, we use the
phrase “Be Present” or “Being Present” to represent the idea of engaged communication. At Steinhardt IT, we strive to
actively and critically engage each other as we communicate with each other. We strive to “Be Present” during a
conversation.
Accountability: There are times when we come together to work on a ticket, problem, or project and we all have assigned
tasks. During these times, team members should hold each other accountable by engaging a conversation that follows up on
the task. At Steinhardt IT, we believe that accountability does not just come from top down, but instead is a shared
value. As such, we strive to hold each other accountable to the high standards that we hold for ourselves.
Goal Setting
• What is goal setting
• Why we do goal setting with our student technicians
• How we do goal setting at Steinhardt Technology
Services
• Examples of Student Goals
SMART and CLEAR Goals
• Steinahrdt Technology Services uses the CLEAR
goal setting model.
– CLEAR is an acronym for Collaborative, Limited, Emotional,
Appreciable, Refinable
• We use CLEAR because of the collaborative and
emotional elements. At Steinhardt Technology
Services we want to invest in each other goals.
Examples of CLEAR Goals
• Learn how to prioritize and manage my time.
• Raise GPA by 0.4 points
• Build a habit of keeping track of the type of work done
at the end of the day, in order to reflect on any new
skills acquired.
Conclusion Part I
• Let’s return to answering the question. Does
implementing these strategies help student
technicians fill the operational gaps?
• Well let’s look at the data
Time to First Resolution
Conclusion Part II
• So we have a couple of trends on the graph.
– September 2014-There is a steep uptick in resolution time
followed by a sharp decrease in October. This one
employee left Steinhardt Technology Services
– May 2015-Several of our core student technicians have
graduated and we were training new core student
technicians.
• So in conclusion, Steinhardt Technology Services
was able to use student workers to fulfill some of the
operational gaps left by limited finacial resources and
new Academic Technology initiatives.
Future Challenges
• Replacing student technicians, particularly core
student technicians is slightly more difficult.
• Hiring student techncians to full time position is
another new frontier. The transition from casual
employee to full time employee is one that requires
skillful navigation.
Questions
• Feel free to contact me at lendyll.capitulo@nyu.edu
for any follow up questions.
• Just want to give a shout out to my student
technicians and my supervisor Ben for allowing me to
try something new.