Who manages your company knowledge?
Every organization has a different approach to knowledge management and training in their company. Often, these roles are executed by different people. And these leaders work in their own realms.
The problem is there is overlap between them when it comes to teaching employees to do their jobs and actually performing their jobs. And yet, they work separately.
That’s where your Knowledge Ops Department comes in.
As we’ve worked with companies for ScreenSteps — a knowledge base software and training solution company — we recognized that companies needed someone to bridge the gap between the Training and Operations Departments.
In this article, I’ll explain why you should consider getting a person (or team) to run your knowledge operations, where that team fits in your organization, and provide a brief explanation to what the Knowledge Ops team would do.
Why your business needs knowledge ops
Traditionally organizations have at least two silos — Training and Operations. When Operations sees a problem or is getting ready to hire a new group of employees, the following scenario typically plays out:
Operations: Hey Training, we need to train a bunch of new agents.
Training: Okay. What do you want me to cover?
Operations: They need to know all about billing and collections, the CRM, and insurance.
Training: Okay. I will build out some PowerPoint slides and create an assessment.
Operations: Great!
The trainers take new hires go through several weeks of classroom training. Then the new hires enter the job and Operations oversees their work.
Operations has no expectation that the person who just left training will be able to do anything, so they have them go into shadowing right away.
After several more weeks of shadowing and nesting, eventually, hopefully, the agent can start working on their own.
Then when Operations notices that agents are making a lot of mistakes around a certain call type they call up Training again and say, "Hey Training, we need a training on subject x."
Training agrees and prepares a Lunch and Learn, but people still struggle.
Operations is frustrated because they feel like Training isn't preparing people properly.
Training is frustrated because they are doing exactly what Operations is asking them to do, but Operations never seems to be satisfied.
Enter the role of Knowledge Ops
The Knowledge Ops role bridges the divide between Operations and Training, simplifying both of their roles and improving performance across the organization.
Knowledge Ops leaders are responsible for designing digital guides that allow agents to take calls independently, without supervisor assistance. These guides are like a digital GPS, guiding agents through the complexity of the call without requiring the agent to memorize mountains of information.
Your Knowledge Ops team has to be perfectly aligned with Operations because the digital guides will be the single source of truth for how things are done.
They are tightly integrated with Training because Training will need to shift its focus from teaching agents to memorize procedures to helping them gain confidence in successfully using the digital guides.
Related: Knowledge Management vs Knowledge Ops: What is the Difference?
How things change for Trainers and Operations
Trainers will spend less time delivering training sessions. Your new hires time in training will decrease by at least half.
Operations will spend less time answering questions and fixing mistakes. Your Operations supervisors will get back at least 50% of their time.
When you have a Knowledge Ops Manager and/or team to help align your Trainers and Operations leaders, all of the metrics across the contact center will improve.
What does the Knowledge Ops role do?
Knowledge Ops is not in charge of "training" people, but they make training much simpler.
Knowledge Ops in not in charge of "supervising" people, but they make supervising simple.
Knowledge ops ensure that everyone has clear digital guidance for any task they need to perform, questions they need to answer, or problems they need to solve.
Here is an overview of their responsibilities:
- Identify what every role in the department needs to be able to do
- Design digital guides to guide them through these tasks and procedures
- Test the guides with real employees to ensure they are effective
- Update guides as needed to adapt to changes in procedures and processes
- Monitor analytics to ensure that guides are being adopted>
- Put systems in place to ensure that guides stay updated
- Train supervisors to support employees through the use of digital guides
- Support trainers in implementing the digital guides into new-hire training
They are not teachers. They are enablers. They essentially design and maintain the GPS of knowledge that helps everyone in the organization navigate tasks, procedures, and problems consistently, quickly, and correctly.
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Who should you hire for your Knowledge Ops Manager?
For a full description of the responsibilities and skills required of a Knowledge Ops Manager, view this job description.
Align your teams with a Knowledge Ops Manager
With a Knowledge Ops Manager/Team, you enable your employees to work smarter. A Knowledge Ops Manager brings your different departments together and helps them align to work towards a common goal.
Think your company would benefit from adding a Knowledge Ops Manager and/or team?
You can use this job description to outline the role in your company and hire a Knowledge Ops Manager.
If this is a new role in your company, your Knowledge Ops Manager and team may need additional training. Our ScreenSteps experts can help. We offer a variety of coaching options to help you implement a knowledge ops plan and train your knowledge ops teams.
Schedule time to talk to a ScreenSteps representative. Our experts can help you decide if knowledge ops is the right direction for your organization.
