Service Desk Shift Lead

HCL Technologies Philippines Inc; San Juan; On-site; PHP 600,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

HCL Technologies Philippines Inc is seeking an experienced Service Desk Shift Lead to manage day-to-day Service Desk operations across a large retail environment. You will oversee real-time queue management, escalation handling, and SLA performance while coordinating workforce across onshore, offshore, and nearshore teams.

The role requires hands-on experience supporting retail supermarkets, distribution centres, and store technology during peak trading periods.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3–5 years as a Service Desk Shift Lead or equivalent.
• Experience managing Service Desk operations in a large enterprise.
• Strong ITIL/ITSM knowledge.
• Experience with SLA, KPI, queue, incident and escalation metrics.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills.
• Experience using ServiceNow or similar ITSM.

Responsibilities

• Own real-time operational performance across all support channels and queues.
• Lead Service Desk Analysts across multiple locations; coach and develop team.
• Monitor key metrics: ASA, abandonment rate, First Contact Resolution, SLA, CSAT.
• Act as primary escalation point for complex incidents and drive timely resolution.
• Coordinate with retail store operations, distribution centres, and corporate users.

Skills

ITIL/ITSM

ServiceNow

SLA Management

Team Leadership

Retail Support

Education

Tools

ServiceNow

Job description

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Service Desk Shift Lead to manage day-to-day Service Desk operations supporting a large-scale retail environment. The role is responsible for real-time queue management, team leadership, escalation handling, SLA performance, workforce coordination, and continuous service improvement across onshore, offshore, and nearshore teams.

This position requires hands-on experience supporting retail Supermarkets, distribution centres, supply chain operations, store technology, and business-critical trading periods.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership and People Management

• Lead, mentor, coach, and manage Service Desk Analysts across multiple locations.
• Drive a high-performance culture through coaching, feedback, and accountability.
• Support performance reviews, career development planning, recruitment, onboarding, and capability uplift.
• Work with HR and leadership on employee engagement, performance management, and team effectiveness.

Operations and Service Delivery

• Own real-time operational performance across all support channels, queues, and supported business areas.
• Ensure consistent achievement of key service metrics including ASA, abandonment rate, First Contact Resolution, SLA compliance, and CSAT.
• Monitor service queues and proactively manage workload distribution to maintain service stability.
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex, critical, or high-impact incidents.
• Drive timely incident resolution, root cause follow-up, and corrective action tracking.

Retail and Store Support Operations

• Provide operational leadership for support across retail Supermarkets, support centres, distribution centres, warehouses, and corporate users.
• Support business-critical retail technology including POS systems, EFTPOS/payment platforms, store devices, handheld scanners, store infrastructure, inventory applications, and supply chain systems.
• Ensure operational readiness during peak trading periods, promotional events, stocktakes, seasonal sales, and public holidays.
• Coordinate rapid response and restoration activities for incidents impacting store trading, customer transactions, or critical retail operations.
• Understand the business impact of technology outages in a retail store environment and prioritize accordingly.

Workforce Planning and Scheduling

• Forecast call volumes, ticket demand, and staffing requirements to support effective coverage.
• Develop and maintain shift rosters and support coverage models.
• Adjust staffing levels for demand fluctuations, leave coverage, training, transitions, and peak periods.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to align capacity with business priorities and trading requirements.

Training, Quality Assurance and Knowledge Management

• Lead onboarding, cross-skilling, and ongoing capability development for Service Desk teams.
• Drive knowledge sharing and maintain documentation standards across SOPs, work instructions, runbooks, and knowledge articles.
• Oversee quality assurance activities including ticket reviews, call quality monitoring, process compliance, and performance scorecards.
• Identify training gaps and coordinate remediation sessions to improve service quality and consistency.

Change, Transition and Continuous Improvement

• Support onboarding of new services, support functions, teams, and transition activities.
• Coordinate knowledge transfer, operational readiness checks, and go-live support planning.
• Drive continual service improvement using operational metrics, trend analysis, and customer feedback.
• Support business continuity planning, operational resilience, and critical retail event readiness.

Governance, Reporting and Service Management

• Ensure strong ServiceNow governance including ticket quality, categorization accuracy, priority accuracy, backlog ageing, reassignment reduction, and data integrity.
• Produce operational reporting, dashboards, and service performance insights for leadership and customer stakeholders.
• Monitor repeat contacts, reopens, customer effort, resolution quality, and other customer experience indicators beyond headline SLAs.
• Support supplier performance management, contractual obligations, corrective action plans, and measurable continual improvement.

Stakeholder and Customer Engagement

• Build effective relationships with business stakeholders, customer representatives, and internal leadership teams.
• Align Service Desk operations with customer priorities, operational risk, and retail business needs.
• Deliver clear service updates, service review inputs, and performance insights.
• Manage escalations professionally and drive customer satisfaction and service quality outcomes.

Mandatory Skills and Experience

Service Desk Leadership

• Minimum 3-5 years of experience as a Service Desk Shift Lead, Team Lead, Service Desk Supervisor, or equivalent role.
• Proven experience managing Service Desk operations in a large enterprise environment.
• Strong understanding of ITIL and IT Service Management principles.
• Experience managing SLA, KPI, queue, incident, escalation, and operational performance metrics.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, analytical, and leadership skills.
• Experience using ServiceNow or a similar ITSM platform.

Retail and Store Support Experience - Mandatory

• Previous experience supporting a retail, grocery, FMCG, or multi-store business environment.
• Demonstrated understanding of retail store operations and trading-critical support requirements.
• Experience supporting POS systems, payment/EFTPOS platforms, store infrastructure, retail applications, distribution centre operations, and supply chain systems.
• Experience planning and managing support coverage for peak trading periods, promotional events, stocktakes, seasonal demand, and public holiday trading.
• Ability to prioritize and manage incidents impacting store operations, customer transactions, and trading continuity.

Technical and Operational Skills

• Strong workforce planning, shift scheduling, and real-time queue management capability.
• Experience managing distributed teams across onshore, offshore, and nearshore locations.
• Strong reporting and data-driven decision-making skills.
• Understanding of quality assurance, knowledge management, and continuous improvement practices.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure during critical incidents and high-volume support periods.

Preferred Qualifications

• ITIL Foundation certification or higher.
• Experience supporting large retail organizations with multiple store locations.
• Experience with workforce management and contact centre operations.
• Vendor, supplier, and outsourced service provider management experience.