New Performance Support Technology Gains Early Glory with UK Organisations

ContactCenterWorld.com - January 2006

You heard it here first. Performance Support is the next big learning movement in the UK training world.

Performance Support approaches learning in an entirely different way from anything we’ve seen before. It could be associated with e-learning as it is driven by technology, educates large numbers of employees, simplifies the mass training process and can reduce training budgets, but there the similarities end.

Performance Support does just what it says on the tin. It provides support to all employees to help them perform better, just at their moment of need. It’s new to the UK and is getting a lot of interest – many blue-chips are taking note and pushing it through internal purchasing processes as you read this.

So why the interest?

Employees, these days, have to know more than ever to be competent in their jobs because business processes, systems and products details change so quickly. The information employees need to do their jobs changes so rapidly that training can actually become counterproductive if the material goes out of date quickly. And the need for higher productivity leaves less time for training.

Think about your own situation, what’s the natural thing to do when you don’t know the answer to a question at work? You ask a colleague, you pick up the phone to a help desk or you spend a lot of time searching for information. You might have access to training documents or notes, but these are unlikely to give you the quick answers you want.

It won’t surprise you to know that recent data shows the average knowledge worker spends 15% of their time looking for information – and only 50% of that time do they find it. Formal training, too, is expensive, which means investment should be made wisely by focusing on things it’s really good for, say learning soft skills.

So historical – and even current - remedies to this issue are when support costs, both hidden and measurable, soar.  Performance Support then, provides employees with fast access to nuggets of information they need to do their jobs - when they need it. Information is delivered to users’ desktops, quickly and in context with their current job, enabling employees to access all need-to-know information. The process leads employees to positively choose to learn when information is delivered at their individual ‘moment of need’, whether they need product or job process information. It means, for instance, that customers phoning a contact centre believe employees can answer any query instantly, while new employees using a complex IT system can find out how to complete any job process successfully.

With Performance Support, training can start closer to the ‘go live’ date because it’s a shorter process. It also provides more context and less detail. Employees learn with each new task they perform, providing increased adoption of processes and systems.

Performance Support - a cure-all for all training issues?

Simply put, Performance Support is best used to get a quick answer to a question or to follow the steps to perform a task. It works best for operational content such as processes, procedures, business rules and product information.

For the organization as a whole, it reduces the amount of formal training needed, it improves quality and consistency of employee effectiveness, reduces costs and stems the risk of major system or change roll-outs.

Instructor-led training, on the other hand, is another piece of the training puzzle. It’s a good option when it comes to facilitating employee buy-in to change or when you need interactivity to allow employees to ask questions. Employees, too, can practice skills and fail without consequences. However, employees naturally forget a lot of what they learn in training or can fade if they don’t put it into practice quickly. It also involves considerable time commitment to attend, it is expensive to develop and needs management to deliver logistically.

E-learning is another valid part of the training puzzle. It can be good for induction processes, it’s useful when instructor-led training is not available and is particularly suitable for those who prefer independent, self-paced learning, but not those who need structure and interaction. The main issue, however, is that both of these pieces of the puzzle require a focused block of time to complete and employees don’t have time – or can’t access it - at exactly the time they need it.

Capture knowledge and pass it on

The right technology can help capture knowledge across the organization so it can be shared with others in a timely, efficient way. Performance Support technology allows people with good knowledge and experience to share it effectively – as long as approved, secure authors agree the practice is indeed in line with corporate practices. Performance Support technology also completes another part of the puzzle with an increasingly prominent issue when it comes to knowledge sharing.

People learn differently today. Because of the Internet, we like to have information at the tip of our fingers. With this in mind, organizations can generally split employees into two age groups: Generation X employees who may hold senior management positions and much of the tacit organizational knowledge, and the younger, Generation Y employees who have approached learning in a technologically advanced environment.

Performance Support technology enables Generation X employees to pass their knowledge on to each other plus the Generation Y employees so that companies keep a hold of best practice methods, and develop them more and more as time moves on. Importantly, it enables organizations to discover effective methods used by senior personnel before they retire.