Fully Managed

by Heidi Riley

Opportunities for Service Desk roles can lead to advancement

Fully Managed is a leading Managed IT Services organization with a service desk/call centre located at the Holman Building in Summerside. The company, which has eight locations across the country, supports internal employees of other businesses, and employees do not interact with the general public.

“Our name has changed a number of times, from Millenium Care to CareWorx and now to Fully Managed,” says David Hall, Director, Service Desk for Fully Managed. “We have merged with and acquired several organizations to expand our offerings and better serve our customers, but we have been owned by the same company since 2013.”

About 120 staff members work for the Summerside location. Job titles include Level 1 Service Desk Analyst, Level One Service Delivery (Internal IT), Assistant Team Leads, Team Leads, Knowledge Management Team, Junior Account Managers, and Developers/Programmers.

“At this time of COVID-19 restrictions, most of our staff, who live all over the Island, are currently working from home,” says David. “Because we operate 24/7, there are rarely more than eight people at a time in the office, which can hold close to 100 people. There is plenty of room for social distancing.”

Hiring needs

There are currently five vacancies at the Summerside location: two for the weekend team and three for the business hours teams, who work Monday to Friday on different shifts from 8 am to 8 pm, depending on call volume.

“Fully Managed has been growing so much that we have been in hiring mode for the past three years. We are so fortunate to have had a good pool of talent to draw from locally and across the Island for so long. We hope our Island residents will continue to help us grow in the future.

“Our staff turnover rate is very low – less than five percent this year. Last year was our highest turnover – about 20 percent, largely because some employees could not work from home and were not comfortable working in the office because of COVID-19.”

Opportunities for advancement

In addition to service desk delivery, Fully Managed also specializes in ServiceNow®, a software platform that tracks digital workflows and connects people, functions, and systems across an organization. Fully Managed uses this software to manage its internal functions, and it also has employees trained to develop and customize it for other businesses.

“That part of the business has grown significantly,” says David. “We have about 15 employees doing that now. Most of those specialists are hired first as Level 1 Techs and work their way towards a ServiceNow position.

“It is great to see people advance in the company. I am happy we can give them the opportunity to do that. Our Level 1 Techs are seeing a lot more advancements in their career path with us.”

Wages

New hires start at $14 per hour. Once they pass the six-month probation period, they get their first raise to $14.50.

Skills needed

“Customer service is big,” says David. “I would choose to hire someone with great customer service skills and minimal tech skills over someone with lots of tech training and poor customer service skills.

“We can train the technical skills. We have made a few hires where the resumé would tell you that the person is completely unsuitable, but they have good customer service skills and they are intelligent. They may never have been trained on technology, but you can tell they can learn.”

A complete career change

Jolene Wedge, who is the Recruiter for all eight Fully Managed offices across Canada, is an example of someone who succeeded with the company without having prior technology training.

Jolene worked as a Chef for many years. “I hurt my shoulder, and after surgery and a period of healing, I had to make the decision whether to go back to a kitchen. I missed many important days in my children’s lives because work hours in that job are just crazy. I wanted a Monday to Friday job, and a friend said I should try applying to Fully Managed.

“I had no technical background and had to ask the Team Lead how to turn on the computer! During the job interview, David told me I didn’t answer all the questions correctly, but that I was obviously intelligent and was capable of learning. The career change was worth it. I was hired as a Level 1 Analyst, and just over a year later I joined the HR team.”

Training

New hires must be willing to do their initial weeks of training in the office in person. Two to four weeks of training starts by shadowing and learning with an experienced employee. “There is lots of help in those early stages.” says David. “We find that people learn best by doing, rather than in a classroom situation.

“When someone calls in with an issue, our Service Agents are not always expected to know the answer. While on the phone with the customer, they can do a quick search of our knowledge base to solve the issue. There may be calls where they still don’t know what to do, and can ask coworkers or the Team Lead. The issues we can’t solve are passed on to a higher level of support.”

The hiring process

Open positions are advertised on Glassdoor, Monster, and Indeed. A different role is highlighted on LinkedIn every week. They also use the Job Bank, Work PEI, and Facebook job listings.

Applicants receive an email link to an online interview app called VidCruiter. The applicant reads the questions, is given a few minutes to think about each one, and answers by recorded video.

Two sample questions: What do you like to do outside of work? Would you rather do a job imperfectly and finish on time, or spend a bit longer and do it perfectly?

The technical skills test is done the same way. Applicants also do a typing test and must achieve at least 35 words per minute with 98 percent accuracy. The video interview does not have to be done all at once, and applicants are allowed 30 days to finish it.

“We are getting a lot of high-quality candidates through this hiring method,” says Jolene. “More than 550 applicants have gone through the process across the country since November 2020. We have had 41 new hires this year at Fully Managed, and 30 came through the VidCruiter process.

“Those who achieve a mark of over 70 are called for a video interview,” says Jolene. “Typically, new hires for the Summerside office will not meet a staff member in person until their first day of work, when they begin the training process. Across the country, most new hires have never met any coworkers in person. Their computer system is shipped to their door, and they are trained and work from home. It means that they can work from anywhere.”

Applicants not comfortable with this method can ask to do a more traditional application. They can also apply by email to jolene.wedge@fullymanaged.com

They will be sent a link to VidCruiter to complete the video application process.