If you’re like most businesses, your IT department has a lot on their plate. They keep everything up and running, and in a digital landscape that can be a big burden to carry. With over 55% of startups in the world today having already adopted a digital-first strategy, this load couldn’t be more important. 

How do you make sure your IT team isn’t overworked? Aside from making sure you have enough staff to fill all of the roles, you actually need to ensure this team isn’t balancing too much at once. It’s easy to keep stacking tasks and priorities onto your team, but you don’t want to chase them away to your competition. Here are the best tips for reducing the load of the IT department. 

1. Know your needs

First, make sure you actually have the right strategy before getting started. Too many businesses fall for shiny-object-syndrome. That means they always feel the pressure to take on the latest-and-greatest tech tools, even when those tools won’t serve any purpose for them specifically. 

Knowing your needs means knowing what technology your business can actually find useful. Just because you can use it doesn’t mean you should. The best way to understand your specific needs is to talk to your staff at all levels. What tools would be beneficial to them? What can they do without? This is what’s known as an IT assessment, and it’s something you should do regularly as a digital business. 

2. Create an implementation strategy

One of the top reasons many digital businesses fail to utilize their tech tools to the fullest is because of a poor implementation strategy. Choosing the products you need is only the first step. You need a plan to help your team implement them properly. 

Don’t make the mistake of assuming your workers know how to use a new tool. They might need assistance making sure they understand it fully, and this is especially true for your IT department who will help streamline the integration. Create a plan for utilizing this new tool in key areas and follow through. 

If you’re using Salesforce, for example, Simplus is one of the top implementation leaders, and we specialize in quote-to-cash digital transformation strategies. Whatever implementation strategy you go with, having a plan will let you cut the downtime and skip to efficiency. 

3. Train your staff

When you hire new staff, how closely are you focusing on training? Sometimes the onboarding process can be extremely rushed, especially in the world of IT where you need your workers to hit the ground running. Unfortunately, you can’t afford to ignore this process. 

A study found that only 12% of employees strongly agree that their company is successful at onboarding new employees. This means most organizations aren’t doing a good enough job making sure their employees are ready to fulfill their roles. In the IT world, this could be crucial. Investing in the right training tools to ensure your new staff is ready to help others will be key. At Simplus, we offer authorized Salesforce training classes to get your entire team on board with new technology. 

4. Look for automation

If you’re not sure where to look when it comes to reducing the load of IT departments, start with automation. Automation gets a bad reputation. A lot of organizations might jump to the conclusion that it’s out to steal jobs or eliminate employees altogether. That couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Automation allows employees to simplify once time-consuming tasks. Instead of wasting their days performing duties that didn’t contribute much to the success of the organization, they can leave these time-wasters to the automated tools. Things like tech service requests, organization, and even application management can all be automated to some degree—read more about the benefits of thoughtful automation through Salesforce here. 

5. Match tasks to skills

A little bit of knowledge about your employees’ strengths and weaknesses will go a long way. Matching tasks to skills can truly help with efficiency. If you have an out-of-the-box thinker, matching them with problem-solving tasks could be the ideal fit. Similarly, detail-oriented thinkers might be better suited for those more vital tasks that take a lot of care. 

It’s easy to let your IT department run without any thought to skills, but this can be a huge asset when used properly. Finding the right person whose skills match your needs is always key, and this is where a diverse IT department comes in. Different backgrounds and skillsets will help everyone solve more problems more efficiently. 

6. Set clear goals

Finally, know your goals and make sure they’re clear. You can’t expect your employees to be efficient if they don’t even know what they’re working towards. You need a goal that’s not only clear, but also that is achievable. Keeping employees’ assignments as clear as possible will help with this. Are you using SMART goals? SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Ask yourself about each of these requirements before assigning a new goal and a task. 

Is your IT department struggling under a large load? If so, you’re not alone. However, this doesn’t need to become your new normal. Too much pressure and stress could leave your lead players not feeling valued.

Because you care about your employees, take these above tips seriously. A bit of planning will go a long way. Are you ready to make a difference and lighten the burden on your IT department? Simplus can help you get there one step at a time.