The University of Nevada, Reno College of Business is home to a new IGT Help Desk. In operation since September 2013, the call center, located in the Ansari Business Building on campus, allows IGT to hire part-time University interns to staff a central help desk 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in support of the Global IGT Enterprise, which provides technical support service to IGT employees. Students working in the call center have drastically improved the company's previous call center's abandon rate and time-to-answer rate.

"University students have allowed us to provide a better service to our customers who call from around the world," Don Hopkins, IGT vice president of global IT and procurement, said. "Since the program began, IGT has seen abandon rates on calls of less than one percent, when they were higher than five percent in some cases and two percent is the industry-wide standard. Additionally, students at the help desk take an average of 15 seconds to answer the phones, when it previously took 35 seconds prior to moving to the University."  

Students who work for the IGT Help Desk are paid a competitive hourly wage and they qualify for IGT's full benefit package, including health insurance, tuition reimbursement, 401K, paid time off and more.  

"The call center further allows the College of Business to serve as a vital career-creating and workforce-enhancing asset for Nevada's growing knowledge-based economy," Greg Mosier, dean of the College of Business, said. "I am pleased to continue our strong community partnership with IGT and appreciate that they continue to leverage the knowledge, resources and talent at the University, blurring the lines between campus and the community."

IGT's goal is to work with the students it hires by establishing roles for the help desk's top performers within the company. IGT has had more than 20 employees start in the help desk position and be upwardly promoted. The goal is for student graduates to be offered possible full-time positions in a variety of business units based on the students' areas of interest.  

"Being a proud northern Nevada citizen, IGT considers it a top priority to retain talent in the area," Hopkins said. "Being a global company with the best manufacturing out of Reno, with this new Help Desk, IGT now provides student interns with the opportunity to work with various cultures around the world without leaving their campus."

IGT Help Desk internship opportunities are currently available. To apply, students are encouraged to contact the IGT recruiter directly at sean.elkins@igt.com. The program is open to all students.