Like it or not, 2022 is off like a shot, well out of the chamber and full speed ahead! As an organization, we like to take this time to wet our finger and place it in the air to gauge the coming winds of change. We pair our earned insights with experience, expertise, and connection to the industry to determine what’s to come, i.e. what ITSM in 2022 will look like. We believe our predictions have been pretty hot based on some of our previous takes.
Like all experts in their respective areas, we like to take stock of where we are and are going with service management (and IT service management (ITSM)). Last year, 2021, was about establishing and tackling the short-term solutions implemented during the rush toward digital transformation caused by the COVID-19 strike.
In the coming year, things will change a bit. We’ll begin taking more time to think through our long-term strategy and lay the groundwork for future improvements. The pandemic has changed the service management landscape. Nevertheless, our “ITSM in 2022” agenda moves forward despite this, and here’s how.
In 2022 it's time to begin taking more time to think through our long-term strategy and lay the groundwork for future improvements, says @TOPdesk #ITSM Click To Tweet1. The hybrid workplace continues to define employee experience
Much has changed. Much is changing. Much more will change. COVID means the disruption continues. Life in the office is not going back to what was once normal. Seventy-two percent of corporate leaders plan to offer a hybrid workplace environment in the future. Likewise, corporate organizations are beginning to incorporate and test shorter weeks because they realize that well-rested and rounded people are more productive and better serve others.
Making these workplaces work requires energy and effort, but so does surviving and thriving. In some ways, we’re still trying to figure out how this works. Since 2020, offering a quality IT environment for everyone who works from home has become the new norm. As a result, employers’ expectations about work-from-home (WFH) continue to increase, especially as employees seek these benefits.
In these environments, employees require hardware and software to perform at the in-office level. Optimizing the hybrid workplace remains an important topic for many IT organizations all around the globe. That will not change in the year ahead and will drive ITSM in 2022.
Throughout 2022, the hybrid workplace will continue to define employee experience, says @TOPdesk #ITSM #hybridwork Click To Tweet2. Service management remains vitally important to organizational operations
IT departments have been tasked with a lot, a tremendous amount. Level that up as the hybrid workplace environment continues to strike hot. More collaboration between the service department and other inter-office departments is necessary.
None of these tasks should be tackled by themselves. Continued collaboration is essential. ITSM facilitates that collaboration. ITSM is the glue or the mold that puts and holds everything together. IT needs to collaborate with facilities and HR teams, for example, and other teams to ensure great employee experiences. It’s a key element for ITSM in 2022.
Organizational leaders must re-envision how team members and teams should collaborate to secure the best results – and facilitate the workplace accordingly.
Organizational leaders must re-envision how team members and teams should collaborate to secure the best results – and facilitate the workplace accordingly – @TOPdesk #ITSM Click To Tweet3. Culture matters (for ITSM in 2022)
Command-and-control leadership is diminishing. A top-down managerial approach is not fully functional right now. Collaboration is essential, which helps transform the culture of an organization. Employee empowerment is of foremost importance now that many of them work on their own and in disconnected environments. There’s no path to success in micromanaged environments. Under-the-thumb leadership doesn’t work in the hybrid work world – nothing will get done, and trust can never form.
Letting go and collaborating with team members and disconnected departments speaks to the previous point. Most importantly, it defines trust and allows for confirmation of others for greater collaboration where a culture of trust, freedom, and collaboration rises. Successful organizations will be those that enable leadership through independence and a willingness to try despite the ongoing and overwhelming changes to our working environments. If we eventually return to pre-2020 work ways, the best organizations will be better because of the above aspirations. This will strongly influence ITSM in 2022.
There’s no path to success in micromanaged environments. Under-the-thumb #leadership doesn’t work in the hybrid work world – @TOPdesk #hybridwork Click To Tweet4. “The Great Resignation” fuels team innovation
Professionals are on the move! Some seek greener pastures; others just want a different logo on their computer screens while sitting in front of their home office windows. As organizations continue adjusting to the need for additional digital transformation and the spate of job openings, innovation in collaboration is needed in spades. IT solutions and the service desk will help leaders overcome these challenges, fill holes, and bring together distance-stricken disparate teams.
Likewise, many teams are doing more with less, mainly because of the Great Resignation and stretched resources. Reinventing wheels is a luxury many organizations can’t currently afford but will be required to survive. Innovation stands still for no organization. We’ll see teams standardize how they work, process, and execute to become smarter and more productive and deliver products customers can’t live without.
Beyond more deeply rooted innovation efforts, we’ll see organizations working with out-of-the-box solutions that require less tailoring and customization. Customizing new solutions requires too many resources, too much investment, and too much firefighting by IT staff. So instead, we get the question: what process has worked for organizations like mine? Can’t we just implement that and tweak it where necessary? Yep.
In 2022 reinventing wheels is a luxury many organizations can’t currently afford but will be required to survive – @TOPdesk #ITSM Click To Tweet5. ITSM in 2022 will benefit from process hacking
In some (many) ways, 2020 continues to roll on even though we’re well into 2022. We’re still responding and adapting to the challenges we all began facing two years ago. We’re in unprecedented times to use an overly used 2020 expression, and 2022 will continue to be so.
The new year finds us laying the groundwork for a more strategic and future-proofed service desk. Organizations will spend time perfecting the hybrid workplace environment that COVID propelled while simultaneously fostering a culture based on employee trust and well-being.
We’ll be laying the groundwork for more strategic and future-proofed service desks. Organizations will spend time perfecting the hybrid workplace environment. Perhaps what I’m most excited about seeing play out in 2022 is an internal philosophy that we’ve termed “process hacking.” Process hacking is the process of finding out what works in the best, most innovative, simplest ways for your IT organization to perform instead of using overly complex practices. It’ll be an essential movement in the year ahead (and for ITSM in 2022). Possibly more so than digital transformation was throughout 2020 and 2021, and that’s saying a lot.
Process hacking will be an essential movement in the year ahead, says @TOPdesk #ITSM Click To TweetDo you want to read about ITIL or organizational change management?
Ruben Franzen
Ruben is the president of TOPdesk USA a leading global provider of innovative enterprise service management solutions.
