University of Iowa ITS Help Desk - Education Scheduling - Case Study

Case Study: University of Iowa ITS Help Desk in Iowa City, Iowa, United States

Business Overview

The University of Iowa was established in 1847 and The Information Technology Services Help Desk provides technical assistance to University of Iowa students, faculty, staff, alumni and guests. We serve a customer base of 50,000+ users and assists with questions about University accounts and services (password issues, configuring email accounts, etc.), as well as how to questions for common software applications like MS Word, Adobe Photoshop, etc. and general technology consultation and troubleshooting.

Scheduling Overview

We have between 45 and 50 employees: we employ 9 full-time staff and 35-40 student employees. Student employees have greatly varying schedules, around classes, other jobs, study groups, etc. Students may be available for 2 hours in the morning, then busy for 4 hours during the day, then available again for 3 hours in the evening on any given day.

Previous Scheduling Method

We gathered availability information using a home-grown web application, then used an Excel spreadsheet to build shifts using colored cells and posted it weekly to a web site.

Since ShiftPlanning

In addition, the various views allows students to see just their schedule, instead of having to sift through the entire spreadsheet to determine when they work. The views also allows supervisors to identify a specific skill set or shift type and see who is working those shifts this day/week/month. I would most definitely recommend the work schedule maker ShiftPlanning to others.

The ShiftPlanning team is extremely responsive and open to feedback. Suggestions are often implemented within weeks of being voiced. Issues are addressed in a very timely manner.

Gathering availability is now easier than ever. - Scott Leeman - University of Iowa ITS Help Desk

The employee schedule maker ShiftPlanning has made it easier for student employees to know when they need to be at work, through notifications and calendar options and for managers to see who should be where at specific times. It has also made it easier for us to track the total hours being worked each week by any given student (students are capped at 20 hours a week per University regulations).

Further

We utilize the message wall to post information about upcoming events or any issues that may be impacting our business that day. We also like that upcoming birthdays are posted on the dashboard, so no one’s birthday is ever forgotten.