Help Desk - Squad Lead

Mencap is the leading voice of learning disability in the UK, supporting people with a learning disability to live the life they choose. Through our services, campaigning and community engagement, we help create a society that is inclusive, accessible and fair for everyone. We are passionate about empowering people, driving positive change and creating opportunities for both the people we support and our colleagues.
About the team
Thousands of Mencap colleagues rely on technology to support people with a learning disability. When something goes wrong, our Helpdesk is who they call.
The Helpdesk Squad is a team of Service Coordinators, Analysts, Senior Analysts and an Incident Manager, plus our Identity and Access specialist. They are the friendly, knowledgeable voice of Digital, Data & Technology (DDaT) across Mencap. We're looking for someone to lead them.
Where you'll work
You'll spend regular time in our Peterborough office (minimum Tuesdays and Wednesdays), so you can be with your team and the colleagues they support. You may sometimes travel to other Mencap locations.
About the role
This is a people leadership role. Your main job is to help your team become the best they can be, and to give them a purpose they can get behind.
You'll support, coach and develop your team. You'll back them through busy and challenging times, and you'll champion their work to the rest of Mencap. You'll build a team where people feel trusted, grow in confidence and take pride in helping colleagues.
You won't be running the queue day to day. Our Service Coordinators do that, and our Senior Analysts handle the trickiest technical issues. Your focus is on the team and the service as a whole.
What you'll do

• Lead, support and develop the Help Desk team, including their wellbeing, training and career growth
• Set clear expectations for how we treat colleagues, how we communicate and how we record our work
• Look at how the service is doing, using data and colleague feedback to see where we can improve and where people need support
• Spot recurring problems and work with engineering and delivery teams to fix them at source, so colleagues aren't hit by the same issue twice
• Make sure the team has good procedures and knowledge to work from, and is ready for new systems and changes before they go live
• Build good working relationships with engineering, application and delivery teams
• Work with the Head of Technology Operations to keep services stable and resolve issues quickly
• Use good service management practice (such as ITIL) to keep things consistent, without losing sight of the people behind every ticket

What you'll bring

• Experience leading a technology support or service desk team
• A track record of developing people, with examples of team members you've helped to grow
• A belief that good performance comes from people who feel supported and understand why their work matters
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to have honest and kind conversations
• Experience using service data to understand how things are going and improve them, not just to hit targets
• A good understanding of service management, including incident management, service requests and service levels
• The ability to explain technical issues clearly to people who aren't technical
• Experience working with other teams to solve problems and support change
• Good organisational skills and a calm approach when things are busy
• A commitment to Mencap's values and our mission to improve the lives of people with a learning disability

You don't need to tick every box. If you care about people and want to lead a team that makes a real difference, we'd love to hear from you. This role will be advertised till 15th October -Initial screening calls will take place w/c 19th October, and Interviews will take place from the 26th October.
Benefits
Here at Mencap, we offer an impressive range of benefits designed to support and reward our employees to ensure that our teams feel valued and appreciated.
Our benefits package offers 32 days of paid holiday (including bank holidays, pro rata), along with a range of perks such as discounts at leading high-street retailers, access to health cash plans, interest-free loans, and many more exciting offerings.
For more details on what we have to offer, please see the attached document outlining all the fantastic benefits available to you as a member of our team!
About Mencap Our vision is for the UK to be the best place in the world for people with a learning disability to live happy and healthy lives.
We're here to support people with a learning disability, their families and their carers. We fight for a kinder, fairer and more inclusive society for people with a learning disability to live in.
At Mencap, everyone works with people with a learning disability either providing support or advice, or alongside one another as colleagues.
Belonging at Mencap is for everyone, every day, everywhere.
Everyone is expected to treat people well and make Mencap an inclusive organisation.
Every day we grow and learn. It s okay to make mistakes but we learn from them and make changes
Everywhere people will feel respected, valued, and safe to be themselves.
We have Belonging network groups that meet online and are open to all colleagues. The groups include people who identify as Black and Asian, LGBTQIA+, disabled or with a long- term health condition, women, parents and carers, and their allies.
We want to encourage everyone to apply to work at Mencap and we offer a variety of different contract types and working patterns. We re not looking for specific experience. It is your personality and values that will make you a great colleague. We will train and develop you to succeed in the role you re applying for.

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