Time management of a part-time desktop support

[encinitas]

Hello
I just hired a part time desktop person. I don't work in the office he works in, so I rarely see him. I'm wondering if anyone has a suggestion on how I can give him tasks and see his daily/weekly updates according to the project. Right now I just email him things I need him to do.
We don't use a calltracking system, only 8 people in the office. Outlook "tasks" is a bit cumbersome.

thanks in advance.

 

[SF0751]

What's wrong with asking for a weekly report on his activities?

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work."
- Thomas A. Edison

 

[dennisbbb]

You hired him, just trust him.

 

[kHz]

If his tasks are part of a project and his tasks aren't completed or are completed on time then wouldn't that be good enough?

 

[strongm]

>just trust him

Sadly, in this bottom-line driven world, there are not too many companies that take this approach

 

[LadySlinger]

Is this something new for your company? I.e. there was never a pt desktop person in that office prior?

One thing I will warn, is with you being in a different office I would give him daily/weekly tasks to do. I would be a little hesitant of letting someone new in another office. Some other boss may be trying to use them for their own demise and as a result using your budget.

That aside however, what do your other desktop support persons do? Have him start doing this stuff at his location. Are your calls coming in internally or externally? If internal, talk with the managers at that location and find out what they need on their end to develop. Start out with small projects, such as "Look into see how much this will cost us" and work your way up to having him install the stuff (over a year time).
If external calls are taken, maybe have him do follow up calls for the others that take support phone calls.

Finally ask him where he wants to go with his IT career (DB, programming,etc) and start to utilize him for those type of tasks.

 

[encinitas]

it's a new position and there's no other support positions.

i need to justify his time to the CEO. So it's not about me trusting anyone. i need a log of some sort instead of browsing through my emails back and forth to him.

thanks.

 

[srmega41]

Why did you hire him? Take a look at the actual reasons you hired this person, and use that to justify his time. If he was hired to wade through call logs, show the CEO how many he reviews in a week. If he takes calls, have him document the number of calls received.

If the hire is just to fill in when needed, you need to make sure you can show when and how he is being used.

I assume you had to get approval somewhere to hire a new person, use the reasons you presented as needing the extra help as initial justification. If you cannot do that, it may not have been a good idea to hire someone in the first place.

Scott M.

 

[BocaBurger]

You might have him create a simple time tracking DB and use it.
Case #, originator, open date & time, problem description, time spent, resolution, close date & time, total time spent.

Could even use a spreadsheet.



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[strongm]

>i need to justify his time to the CEO

We normally have to justify why we want to make a hire before we do the hire ... which means I'm in srmega41's camp on this

 

[LadySlinger]

>You might have him create a simple time tracking DB and >use it.

I had to do that at one of my old positions. Basically it was justification of why I was there. It was the first time any IT person was hired at that office.

 

[blutekhnd]

Do you have a trouble ticket system? This would not only tell you what issues the location is having, but it would track the time he spends on them and what steps he is taking to correct them. I not only have to do this, but I also have to turn in a monthly report on all of my activities to be combined into the IT department's section of the Board of Directors Report.