How do you reduce the huge losses in productivity caused by interruptive questions?
Anthony Lye, CEO, ePeople

One of the biggest culprits for productivity loss is interruptive questions. When a support analyst doesn't know the answer, they try the knowledge base. If the knowledge base fails to address the issue, they turn to email blasts, instant message interruptions or disturbing colleagues in adjacent cubes.

It's a scenario that's repeated in every organization. The interruptions are costly, both in unfulfilled customer expectations and productivity losses. According to a July 2003 study conducted by San Francisco research firm Collaborative Strategies, more than one-third of the workweek is spent answering interruptive questions leaving managers and team members to spend only 68% of the week performing their primary job.

All too often, the people interrupted for assistance are selected not because they are the best resource, but because they are people the support analyst knows or are located in close proximity. And when people who are not the most appropriate resources are interrupted to answer a question, it translates directly into hard dollars, especially if they are a more expensive resource.

Even when a domain expert is correctly identified, their day still might be riddled with interruptions because they now become the defacto person for a specific type of issue. Overtime, others in the organization develop some level of expertise in that domain area, but they might not be as known as the designated expert. Therefore, they're not called upon for assistance. Companies would benefit from a system that identifies the people that possess certain knowledge, as well as provides insight into their availability and workload.

Effective knowledge sharing is another tool that can significantly reduce interruptions. Knowledge bases are important and answer many basic questions. But these systems are limited to only the content that has formally documented, a process that makes it difficult to keep up with many of today's fast changing business environments. According to the Collaborative Strategies survey, 54% of the questions in the workplace have not been answered before or documented in a knowledge base.

Informal knowledge sharing - such as email strings and conversations - that take place during the resolution process contain a wealth of valuable knowledge that is not found in the more formal knowledge bases. But this ad hoc process doesn't capture this tacit knowledge which can prove invaluable in helping other resolve similar problems.

A system that captures those out-of-band nuggets of knowledge and makes it immediately reusable is key to reducing disruptive questions. By sharing this knowledge effectively, support analysts can resolve more questions without requiring assistance.

Reducing the volume of interruptive questions requires understanding who knows what within the organization and more effective information sharing. As companies continue to strive to increase productivity without adding new resources, the demand for expertise management technologies that facilitate issue resolution and knowledge capture increases.

With these tools, companies will reduce resolution times, improve productivity and offer their customers higher quality answers.

About the Author:
Anthony Lye, President and Chief Executive Officer, ePeople
Anthony Lye, is president and CEO of ePeople, a leading provider of
knowledge and expertise management solutions for resolving business-critical
situations throughout the enterprise. Prior to joining, ePeople, Lye was
vice president of marketing for Categoric Software Corporation, where he
successfully launched the company in the United States and Europe.
Previously, he was the senior director of strategic accounts for Remedy
(RMDY), managing Remedy's global indirect partners and major accounts
business. Lye also held senior marketing positions with Tivoli Systems (IBM)
and was a management consultant at Andersen Consulting in the Financial
Services Business Unit. Lye received his bachelor's and master's degrees inengineering from the University of Bath in England.