Walk me through the steps you use to address a situation where productivity is decreasing?
Information technology systems are designed to increase the productivity of business users. If productivity is decreasing, you need to recognize this and react quickly to resolve it. The interviewer will ask you this question to ensure that you understand the importance of productivity within a business organization and that you have taken steps to maintain or improve productivity in the past. When responding to the question, begin with your understanding of the importance of productivity, discuss ways to recognize decreasing productivity, and talk about the steps you take to address this. Providing an example may help illustrate how you've been successful at this in the past.
"Not only do I carefully monitor and manage the information technology environment for which I am responsible, but I also work closely with the business organization to understand the productivity the systems are providing to their users. If they feel that this productivity is decreasing, we take steps to measure this using metrics we previously agreed on. If productivity is declining, I assemble a team to investigate why this is occurring and develop solutions to address it. We are usually able to quickly identify the root cause of a decrease in productivity and to correct it using technology or by educating the users on the use of the systems we provide them."
