The best way to start digital transformation is to create a knowledge base
Creating Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are one of the oldest tasks for developers constructing a website. For HR professionals building a knowledge base, FAQs should be cut out.
It’s time to stop making assumptions about questions employees might ask and instead pay attention to the questions they are already asking and focusing your efforts here. I call this Actually Asked Questions (AAQs).
When implementing a knowledge base within your organisation, a catalogue of information which can be a employee’s first port-of-call before contacting the HR department, AAQs are the best way to lead your organisation to a new era, with a truly personalised, predictive and seamless system.
In Australia and New Zealand, digital transformation like this is critically important. A recent survey found Australian and New Zealander CHROs to be lagging behind their global counterparts. For example, 16% of local HR leaders say they haven’t implemented technology to improve HR outcomes, whereas in Japan, only 2% aren’t using technology for HR.
Moreover, less than half (47%) of HR leaders in Australia and New Zealand say that the HR function is a driver of digital transformation at their company, significantly lower than regional competitors such as Singapore (64%) and Japan (65%).
Around the world HR is seen as a strategic business function, with 78% of global CHRO’s believing HR strategy is an important differentiator for the company, yet in ANZ this falls to just 51%.
Because of this, Australian and New Zealand companies are struggling to retain talent, with only half of HR leaders (51%) saying they are successful at doing so, despite 82% saying it is a top strategic priority for the business. Digital experiences outside of work have made life simpler, easier and more convenient. Today’s top talent is demanding the same at work.
The best way to start digital transformation is to create a knowledge base. But, where do you start acquiring all of the information that is relevant to creating this base?
To begin, the HR department in your organisation should log all inbound questions from employees, whether these be by phone, email, or in conversation. The next step is to input these into a database so you can start analysing what it is employees need to know and what the most frequent questions actually asked are.
Identify the top 20 or 30 questions being asked to begin building your knowledge base. If you have answers to these AAQs, this will immediately become an important asset for your employees and improve their experience.
When it comes to creating search functionality within your knowledge base, ensure it is kept simple to improve your employee’s experience. Google become one of the biggest companies in the world with the simplest of search engines – take note.
What’s more, you need to ensure that the search results are also kept simple. Use conversational language that doesn’t require a lot of effort for your employees to read and understand.
While building the AAQs is a timely process, the up-front work pays off if the knowledge base is constructed right. This entails curating existing content, rather than just transferring it over from another database. Once you’ve listened to your employees, you’ll know exactly what they need and so you can edit existing content into something digestible and useful. Once you have established your knowledge base, make sure that it keeps growing by asking employees more questions. You’ll be able to create more AAQs that are coming from a place of authenticity.
To handle the creation of a knowledge base and to ensure it works, appoint a knowledge base manager. This ensures there is somebody to keep a close eye on the questions being asked, which searches provide the right results and more.
When it comes to introducing your knowledge base to employees, you may find they still contact the HR department as a first port of call for enquiries. You can simply respond to employee requests pointing them in the direction of the knowledge base and highlighting that you found the answer there, educating them to check the knowledge base first in future.
Ensure that the knowledge base is kept in an easily accessible place, such as your website/portal to ensure the habit of going there first for questions is easy. You should also include an option to submit a new inquiry. The knowledge manager can then respond with an answer to the inquiry and take steps behind the scenes to add the answer to the knowledge base.
This is where the project comes full circle, using real-life transactions to build and adapt your knowledge base and enhance the employee experience. With that, you are on your way to a new era of serving employees through digital transformation.
By Mark Souter, HR Product Sales and Strategy Lead, ServiceNow
