Ask IT leadership

“ASK SLT” is now “Ask IT leadership,” and IT staff are invited to anonymously share a question, challenge, or opportunity with IT’s leadership. This change reflects the addition of IT leaders outside the central IT organization (ITLC).

Last August, we received an earnest question from the DSP community regarding hybrid work, asking the SLT to reconsider our position on DSPs working on campus full-time. Our response in the August publication stated that while work models continued to be determined by the university, the SLT would review and assess hybrid work for this community. We also committed to publicly sharing the resulting assessment’s findings by September end. DSPs and associated teams were notified of this decision on October 2. Our final response to the initial question is below.

We continue to observe a steady increase in the Yale community returning to campus post-pandemic.  As many have pointed out, members of the Yale community value trust and relationships. Our colleagues across the university’s academic, research, and clinical missions rely on our ability to deliver timely and high-quality service in person whenever possible.

As a department, ITS is committed to assessing remote and hybrid work arrangements based on competitive market requirements. The current labor market conditions do not currently support a change. We will continue to monitor this condition actively, not only for DSPs but for all IT roles. In addition, it has yet to be our practice to document whether incidents and requests performed by DSPs were accomplished remotely. We have escalated this system enhancement, and following a period of communications and training, we will soon begin to capture this data. This data can also help us assess whether there are opportunities to rethink how we organize to support remote work.

DSPs are an essential part of the service delivery experience for the Yale community. We are responsible for designing the support models that benefit the community while ensuring the processes, tools, and environment are in place to do your best daily work. We thank you for raising this concern and for sharing your insights on how we can improve the customer experience for all members of the Yale community.